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Higher education financing and policy

Industry Commission submission

This submission was released on 6 August 1997.

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  • Contents

Preliminaries
Copyright, Contents, Foreword, Abbreviations, Glossary. Main findings

Key messages
1   The higher education sector - a snapshot
2   What role for governments?
3   Recent reform initiatives
4   The need for further reform
5   The level and form of the public contribution for teaching
6   Administratively-based reforms
7   Market-based reforms
8   Concluding comments

Appendix 1   An overview of the higher education sector
A1.1   The broad structure of the sector
A1.2   Funding of the sector
A1.3   Participation in higher education
A1.4   International comparisons

Appendix 2   Current funding and charging arrangements
A2.1   The Unified National System: a framework for reform
A2.2   User charges for higher education - HECS
A2.3   Higher education fees
A2.4   Other higher education programs
A2.5   Student assistance schemes

Appendix 3   Rationales for government involvement
A3.1   Efficiency rationales
A3.2   Equity rationales
A3.3   Performance monitoring and accountability

Appendix 4   Private rates of return to higher education
A4.1   A framework for examining the costs and benefits of higher education
A4.2   Data sources
A4.3   The impact of different fee structures on the private rate of return to higher education
A4.4   Summary

Appendix 5   Improving the existing charge regime
A5.1   Improving the HECS charge regime
A5.2   Improving other aspects of the design of HECS
A5.3   Improving institutional fee regulations

Appendix 6   Performance-based funding - some key issues
A6.1   Benefits from performance-based funding
A6.2   Performance measurement and monitoring
A6.3   Some additional design issues
A6.4   Principles and observations

Appendix 7   Competitive tendering - some key issues
A7.1   Developing a tender process
A7.2   Managing service providers
A7.3   Barriers to the application of competitive tendering
A7.4   Some broad principles

Appendix 8   Demand-based funding - some key issues
A8.1   Key elements of a demand-based funding model
A8.2   Potential implications of a demand-based approach
A8.3   Promoting competitive outcomes in higher education
A8.4 Approaches to equity and research funding

References

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