Australia's HECS Policy: Fewer Social, but more Political Barriers

Abstract

This paper is one of a series that has empirically tested the proposition that whilst the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) was implemented with the intention of improving access to university education for all Australians, it has had unexpected and unwanted consequences for governance more generally, particularly of the tax system. We use data from the “Graduates’ Hopes, Visions and Actions Survey” based on a sample of 447 Australian graduates who recently completed their tertiary education. Findings suggest that while HECS policy appears to have met its objective of enabling less privileged groups to obtain a university degree, it has also given rise to resistance to the policy, to paying back the loan and tax evasion. This research demonstrates the dangers of implementing higher education policy in a way that dissociates the economic aspects of policy from the social and community attitudes in which it is inevitably embedded.