HECS Fees

I witnessed 150 students lining up for the television cameras, waiting for the signal to go, then marching in front of the eager media today - protesting against HECS fee rises. I must comment that there was no violence and for Uni student protestors they looked quite 'normal' (what's going on with today's youth?).

Update: The police just showed up. I've never seen them at a Uni before today. Coincidence.... I have no idea?

Will the HECS rises go ahead? Assuredly. I can't see much coming out of their action. The Uni's are cash starved and this is one of the few ways they can try to claw back some ground on their international competition.

The other less reported issue is that of allowing full-fee paying domestic students. While Australian Uni's have been allowed to offer these places for several years now, they can now increase the number of these places offered. Not every university accepts these on equity grounds. For those that do not (or those that would argue should not), the Treasurer Peter Costello pointed out, overseas students are allowed to pay full fees to get into an Australian University, but Australian's who have the money to are not?

"What about discrimination against rich people? We have Australian's out there with lots of money who want to give it to us and we won't allow them to. It's not like these guys are the Russian mafia." (Unamed Academic)