History

In 1940, the Curtin Labor Government decided to increase the size of the universities to conduct more civil and military research. In order to do this, it dramatically increased the number of scholarships it offered to enter university and it allowed women to win these scholarships (they were previously exclusive to men). The Menzies Liberal Government also supported and extended the ability of ordinary Australians to attend university.

In the 1960s, the Federal Government encouraged and funded the states to establish new universities to cater for increasing demand. These universities were to be built in outlying suburbs and offer special research scholarships to encourage students to undertake postgraduate research studies. Many of the universities that were established under this scheme are members of Innovative Research Universities Australia.

In 1967, the Menzies government established the College of Advanced Education sector, by defining a category of non-University tertiary institutions that were to receive some federal funding. They were easier to access and cheaper to attend than Universities, while delivering many University-equivalent Batchelor awards.

During the early 1970s, there was a significant push to reform tertiary education in Australia to make it more accessible to working and middle class Australians and the Whitlam Labor Government abolished university fees in 1973. This decision did not greatly change the socio-economic backgrounds of students attending universities because only 20 to 25 percent of students paid fees as most had Commonwealth scholarships. Another reason for the lack of change was because low high school retention rates had resulted in many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds not completing secondary education and therefore never having the opportunity to choose to attend university.

In 1989, the Hawke Labor Government instituted a programme in the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 called "Higher Education Contributions Scheme" or HECS. It was developed by economist and lecturer at the Australian National University, Bruce Chapman and championed by Education Minister John Dawkins (see Dawkins Revolution). When introduced it was a fee charged to all university students of $1,800, but this fee could be deferred and repaid through the tax system when the student's income reached a certain level.

At the same time, the Colleges of Advanced Education entered the University sector by various means.

The new Howard Coalition Government in 1996 made significant changes to the HECS. It created a three-tier fee system with the courses that the government considered to have most likelihood of generating higher income for students in the future (eg. Law and Medicine) being the most expensive and those least likely to generate higher income (eg. Nursing and Arts) being the least expensive. The government also increased HECS charges by an average of 40 percent and permitted universities to charge full up-front fees to students who missed out on a HECS place at university in return for entry into a course.