Loan Scheme 'discriminatory'

The Age

Monday October 23, 2006

Adam Morton

Academic says students are at a disadvantage. By Adam Morton.

A DISCRIMINATORY Federal Government student loan scheme is in breach of global trade commitments and stopping Australians from studying overseas, a Melbourne academic has told an international education conference.

RMIT Globalism Institute senior research fellow Christopher Ziguras said Australia was discriminating against overseas universities and breaching a binding World Trade Organisation commitment by not offering students who wanted to study abroad the same loans available to those who stayed at home.

Australians studying overseas are ineligible for the FEE-HELP loan scheme, which offers students in a full-fee place up to $100,000, depending on the course. Dr Ziguras said it was "only a matter of time" before this was challenged by a foreign government.

"Making FEE-HELP available for study at Australian universities (only) is clearly discriminatory and is most likely in breach of Australia's undertakings," he told the Australian International Education Conference in Perth.

While the Government had backed mobility programs helping Australian students spend a semester abroad, cost remained one of the main obstacles to locals earning overseas qualifications, he said.

According to a recent OECD report, Australia has the highest proportion of overseas university students in the world but the movement is largely one-way. Less than 1 per cent of Australian tertiary students take degrees abroad.

Dr Ziguras said extending the FEE-HELP scheme to those enrolled with foreign institutions through distance education or in person would help counter this.

"If the Australian Government is serious about supporting the international mobility of Australian students and introducing more competition into the Australian higher education system, here is the perfect opportunity," he said.

Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has said she planned to improve loans and income support so more university students could take exchange programs.

Under a system introduced last year, Australians who study part of their degree overseas can borrow up to $10,000 over two semesters.

Ms Bishop has denied Australia was in breach of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) education guidelines, adopted by WTO members in 2001, that state there is no obligation to take measures outside its territory.

"Australia's WTO obligations in . . . education services abroad do not extend to schemes of benefit to Australian students such as FEE-HELP," she said.

Ms Bishop said the Government supported greater liberalisation of trade in education but the first priority was to ensure eligible Australian students had access to Commonwealth-supported, or HECS, places at a local university.

Adam Morton is The Age's higher education reporter.

© 2006 The Age

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