Fee-paying student numbers soar in Australia

The number of Victorians paying for university qualifications has soared, with more than half the students starting law degrees at Melbourne University this year enrolling to pay full fees, The Age reports.

Fee-paying students also filled 48 percent of first-year places in optometry and 37 percent in dentistry this year.

The university has experienced an overall 38 percent jump in domestic fee-paying commencing students. This group will make up eight percent of total first-year undergraduate enrolments.

Monash University has experienced a 12 percent increase over last year.

Under the Howard Government's higher education changes, the maximum quota of fee-paying students has risen from 25 to 35 percent of total enrolments in any course.

Universities can enrol higher percentages of fee-paying students in individual years, provided the 35 percent is not exceeded across an entire course.

Private tertiary education providers, too, have reported a surge in enrolments as students embrace the loans scheme for full-fee degrees, an article in The Australian reports.

About 27 private higher education providers have been approved to use the government's FEE-HELP scheme and up to 87 percent of students in first-year degrees have expressed interest in the loans option.

The Council of Private Higher Education said the figures suggested that the introduction of FEE-HELP had coincided with enrolment increases of 11.5 percent on average.

The Age story is at this web page.

The Australian story is at this web page.