Before the Australian legislators abolished university studies in 1973, students in Australia have long benefited from low tuition and large state subsidies. By early 1980, however, universities are facing growing budget problems and an apparent lack of capacity, as the demand for higher education has increased. Policy, recognizing the growing budget deficit, as well as hard-hitting recession, do not dare to increase funding for higher education. The debate over how best to fund the Australian higher education finally came to a head in the late 1980s, after the publication of the report of the Committee on Financing Higher Education (commonly known as the report Wran). Although Wran Committee considered a number of possible funding schemes, finally proposed a radical system in which students will pay for the training is financed through income contingent loans to the government. Report Wran was of special interest to the Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke. Government's financial situation seemed to require funding of education to be reviewed, but there was no consensus on how best to do this. Can the Prime Minister to persuade his Australian Labor Party to abandon free education plank in your platform? And even if he could, he could not be sure that the strategy Wran committee was correct and that its recommendations are workable? Will following the American model of complete training for higher education and government-guaranteed student loans make more sense? These are just a few of the questions that the Prime Minister has faced as it is considering new approaches to the financing of higher education in Australia. "Hide
by David Moss, Stephanie Lowe Source: Harvard Business School 29 pages. Publication Date: December 07, 2010. Prod. #: 711047-PDF-ENG