Following scandal after scandal, and a $6 billion Budget blow-out over four years, the Turnbull Government will introduce a new student loans scheme that will impose stricter eligibility criteria for courses, while student loans will be capped. From The Australian:
Under the new scheme, loan limits will be set, only courses that align with industry needs will be eligible, existing providers will need to prove their bona fides, and barriers to new providers will be set much higher.
The scheme will grant TAFEs automatic entry into the scheme but will force all private colleges to apply under the new conditions “to weed out unscrupulous providers who have plagued the VET FEE-HELP scheme”…
The VET FEE-HELP scheme was set up by Labor in 2012 and was initially open only to private colleges and TAFEs that had established pathways into university courses [but then was extended] to all private providers and all courses…
“Student numbers jumped by almost 400 per cent, fees more than doubled and loans increased by 792 per cent,” Senator Birmingham said.
If legislation passes the Senate, the new VET Student Loans program will start on January 1. The 144,000 students with existing VET FEE-HELP loans will be grandfathered to the end of 2017.
More from Triple J’s Hack:
Private colleges will no longer be able to use brokers or cold-callers to try and recruit new students…
[Providers] will need to prove they have a clean track record and high course completion rate, and that they have a good relationship with industry and employers.
And if they do the wrong thing, the new rules will make it easier for the Government to cancel their payments and revoke their approval…
The amount of the loan will be tiered – $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 – and will depend on the course itself.
Only courses that fill skills shortages will be eligible for loans, and the loan cap can be reviewed at any time.
Great to see. The private VET sector has been riddled with rorting and waste, has produced poor educational outcomes, and has blown a huge hole in the Budget. Reform cannot come soon enough.
