06-28-2012, 08:27 AM
The risk of providers hiking up their rates is reduced by making all universities public, or rather, allowing private universities but not subsidising those fees at all.
There are only 2 private universities in Australia and both are rather... well, let's just say that intellectual ability is not necessarily the main prerequisite for entry. Entry into public universities is based on high school academic results only -- none of this "you must have a zillion extracurricular activities to get in here" nonsense -- for school leavers, and an equivalency scale for mature-age students. Additionally, vocational training is public and apprenticeships/ traineeships are subsidised by the government. Universities generally make their money from full-fee-paying overseas students -- in recent years there has been quite an overhaul of that system as well, to ensure that the never-proven-always-suspected practice of devaluing results by going easy on the marking for lucrative international students is wiped out. One day, that might even happen.
There are only 2 private universities in Australia and both are rather... well, let's just say that intellectual ability is not necessarily the main prerequisite for entry. Entry into public universities is based on high school academic results only -- none of this "you must have a zillion extracurricular activities to get in here" nonsense -- for school leavers, and an equivalency scale for mature-age students. Additionally, vocational training is public and apprenticeships/ traineeships are subsidised by the government. Universities generally make their money from full-fee-paying overseas students -- in recent years there has been quite an overhaul of that system as well, to ensure that the never-proven-always-suspected practice of devaluing results by going easy on the marking for lucrative international students is wiped out. One day, that might even happen.
It could be worse