NEWS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

DISCUSS the following topic.

Fee hike for uni students

Students hoping to go to university will soon face an expected hike in fees, with the Abbott government’s deregulating tertiary education fees from January 2016. The government will allow universities to determine how much they charge students for courses and also will reduce the amount of money it pays universities for each course by an average of 20%.

The new free market will see a student having to pay tens of thousands of dollars more for degrees, with the vice-chancellor of one of Australia’s leading universities warning that course fees will soar by at least 30%.

Graduates from July next year also will be forced to pay back their HECS or HELP debt earlier. Repayments will also kick

in earlier.