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Abstract

What comports a quality education? Is it just the first rate grades one gets on paper upon graduating, or is it more holistic? Is a university education worth getting at any price, even if it means the student will have loans to pay for years to come? With these questions in mind, the paper will try to weigh the pros and cons and determine whether it is better to pursue an undergraduate degree in The United States or look for greener pastures abroad, specifically Australia.

Introduction

There are stringent guidelines in place today for young people who want to get an opening in the highly competitive job market. The first of these qualifications is having a sound educational background, preferably up to university level. However, though education from elementary to high school level in the United States and Australia is largely subsidized by the government and is thus affordable, college is another kettle of fish.

First impression given in numbers

By 2002, Australia had forty five major public institutions of higher learning and a further eighty five private ones which catered to the needs of the 750,000 plus students. 75% of these students were undergraduates and 21% were doing their postgraduate studies (Breen, 2002).

Australia also caters to international students who by 2002 made up 14% of the student population in Australian universities. Majority of these students come from the Asian countries Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Indonesia (Breen, 2002).

Breen (2002) notes that there has been a decline in student/ faculty ratio that might compromise the quality of education in Australian universities from 1/12 in 1980 to 1/19 in 2000.

Equity and access policies: Financial assistance; Grants, scholarships and interest rates on student loans

Clearing high school does not automatically mean that a student gets into an institution of higher learning. There are the two fundamental questions: will I get an opening at a university and if I do, will I be able to afford going there? These are questions that students in both Australia and the US ask themselves year in year out.

In his paper Fairness, Fees and Equity in Higher Education, Professor Glyn Davis, the Vice chancellor of the University of Melbourne tackles the Australian aspect of this question. Professor Davis points out that the question asked by aspiring students cover issues relating to the number of places available at Australian universities, subsidies made in tuition, price control and student income support.

In both countries, students have to pay for higher education. However, as noted by Davis (2007), there was a brief period between 1979 and 1988 when university education in Australia was free. According to Davis (2007), the OECD rankings named Australia as being one of the most expensive places to pursue a university education. However, it is still not as expensive as the U.S, where the average tuition fees paid by students in 2006 stood at 6,988 Australian dollars, and tuition fees in Australia stood at 6,030 Australian dollars (Davis, 2007). Davis also notes that Australia introduced a funding scheme for its students in 1989; the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) was a way of ensuring that students failed to get a university education just because they could not afford it.

After the research done by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne in 2007 in regards to students falling in the low socio-economic standing (SES) and the limitations that they face in pursuing a higher education, it was determined that there was a distinct relation between the two. (Universities Australia Equity and Participation Action Plan (UAEPAP), 2007). Their percentages show a minimal number of SES proceeding to institutions of higher learning with only 9% of the 12.8% who make urban SES attending universities and 5.9% of rural SES out of the 10.6 proceeding to universities. The research showed that the chances are three times greater for a student coming from high SES to go to university as compared to someone from a low SES background (UAEPAP, 2007).

To promote equity, the Australian government worked on policies that would favor lower SES. One of the outcomes was the formulation of the HECS mentioned by Professor Davis.

Funding for Australian university students comes from different sources, the bulk, and 61% being done by the Australian government, HECS subsidies covering 2.9% (Commonwealth of Australia, 1999)

An issue that Australian universities has had to contend with is the rapid growth in the number of students who want to join, especially after the world war tow and another leap once the HECS subsidization was introduced. Since HECS subsidization is enabled by the taxation of average citizens, the argument is that there is no need for someone who will not benefit from a university education to pay for it. That is how the Australian government formulated higher taxation for graduates, who say are in a better position to earn more than their high school level counterparts. The rate of taxation is refined to the type of employment of the graduate and the sex since there are some occupations where one earns more money and men are generally paid higher wages than women (Commonwealth of Australia, 1999).