Search Results

Since the late 1980s student charges have helped finance higher education. While what universities can charge domestic undergraduate students at public universities is capped, one in every three students enrols in courses where fees are uncapped. This report examines the dynamics of deregulated university markets. It focuses on the undergraduate international and the postgraduate student markets. Together they enrolled more than 400,000 students in 2014.

The report is structured as follows. Chapter 2 looks at the undergraduate international student market at universities. It suggests that universities take a commercial view of the international student market, and set fees in-line with their international competitors. Chapter 3 investigates the postgraduate student market. Nearly 60 per cent of domestic students pay fees, while the rest are Commonwealth-supported. For domestic students, universities do not always take a commercial approach. In some fields, such as nursing, it is not unusual for universities to receive less from a fee-paying student than a Commonwealth supported place. When international and domestic fee-paying students are enrolled in the same course, domestic students never pay more than international students. Chapter 4 reports on the revenue that deregulated markets provide Australian universities. In 2013, universities received nearly $6 billion from fee-paying students - triple the revenue in 2000 in real terms. As a share of total university revenue, fee income has also grown. In 2013, one in every five dollars earned by public universities came from fee-paying students.

Excerpts from publication. Show less