Most Tasmanian vocational students using government loans are enrolled interstate

MORE than 80 per cent of Tasmanian vocational education students using Government loans to pay for their course costs are enrolled at a campus interstate, new figures show.

Education Minister Senator Simon Birmingham at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: KYM SMITH

MORE than 80 per cent of Tasmanian vocational education students using Government loans to pay for their course costs are enrolled at a campus interstate, new figures show.

The Federal Government’s Education and Training Department will today release its VET FEE-HELP report.

The report also shows since the introduction of the VET FEE-HELP loan scheme in 2009 – under which some private providers charged inflated fees and recruited students who were not able to complete their courses – enrolments increased from 5300 to 321,000 last year.

Of students using the loan scheme, which the Federal Government is planning to replace with a new scheme, about a fifth said their reason for study was for “personal interest” or “self-development”.

According to the report:

PRIVATE colleges were charging students up to five times the tuition fees they would have to pay to complete the same qualification at a government institution.

STUDENTS from smaller states and territories were less likely to enrol in courses provided in their home state.

MANAGEMENT and commerce courses were the most common among loan scheme students, with 147,000 enrolments nationwide last year, 86 per cent in private providers.

SOCIETY and culture courses were the next most popular, with 63,000 enrolments (78 per cent delivered by private providers), followed by health courses which had 29,000 enrolments last year, with 58 per cent in private providers.

THE number of female loan scheme students was about twice that of male students.

COMPARING costs of study loads equivalent to full time, males on average paid $1900 more in course fees than females, indigenous students paid $4100 more than non-indigenous students, those in the oldest age group paid $300 more than those in the youngest group, and students who were not employed paid $3300 more than employed students.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has announced a new VET Student Loans program, which he said would help stop rorting and restore credibility to the sector.

The new scheme, which he hoped would start by next year, would place tighter controls on who could apply for loans and would only include courses considered likely to lead to job opportunities.

Originally published as Most Tasmanian vocational students using government loans are enrolled interstate