INTHEBLACK June 2026 - Magazine - Page 36
F E AT U R E
“The most important point about HECS-HELP is that
if you do not have the money and you have got a debt,
you do not have to pay. That is extremely important.”
BRUCE CHAPMAN AO, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
by discipline, and almost three million
Australians collectively owe around
A$81 billion.
For many graduates, this has changed
how the debt actually feels. Instead of being
a distant obligation that quietly gets taken
off tax returns, HECS-HELP debt is now
something professionals actively think about
when they are making big decisions, whether
that is applying for a mortgage, starting a family
or changing jobs. What used to be framed as
a deferred cost has become something that
directly shapes financial choices.
Mark Chapman FCPA, director of tax
communications at H&R Block, says
HECS-HELP debts should be considered
as part of an overall financial picture.
“For professional advisers, this means
considering how repayment thresholds
interact with income growth, how lenders
treat HECS-HELP obligations when
assessing borrowing capacity and whether
voluntary repayments make sense relative
to other financial priorities.”
RISING COSTS
At first, HECS-HELP fees increased
steadily but not alarmingly. That changed
in 2020 with the introduction of the
Job-ready Graduates Package, a sweeping
reform that more than doubled fees for
36 INTHEBLACK June 2026
many humanities subjects, while the cost
for STEM, nursing, education and health
courses were reduced.
“Previously, the system broadly aligned
costs with expected earnings: degrees that
typically led to high-income careers, such
as medicine, dentistry and law, carried
higher student contributions, while
lower-paying fields were more affordable,”
says Bruce Chapman.
“Under the new structure, humanities
students, who are statistically among the
lowest-paid graduates and disproportionately
female, now face some of the highest annual
charges. In some cases, their fees exceed those
of students training for far higher-paying
professions, including medical specialists.”
The result is a system that is difficult to
justify on equity grounds. “Students with the
least financial return are being asked to take on
the most debt,” he says. “It is really very unfair.”
While steps have been taken to address
rising costs, including a 20 per cent reduction
in student debt in 2025, Bruce Chapman
argues that a blanket cut was not the most
effective way to fix the flaws.
“I think the 20 per cent reduction was an
acknowledgement that the pricing is wrong,”
he argues. “But I do not think blanket debt
forgiveness was the best solution. The better
approach would have been to reset course
AVERAGE GRADUATION DEBT
TOTAL AMOUNT OWED
A$27,600
A$81 billion
(as of 2025)
(by almost 3 million Australians)
