Government financial support for students — the case for radical reform

The Australian Government spends a great deal of money assisting tertiary students with living expenses through two programs, Youth Allowance and Austudy, both administered through Centrelink. These schemes are meant to help students from less affluent backgrounds acquire tertiary qualifications. However, their effectiveness in meeting this goal has not been evaluated for many years. The nature of the student population has changed and the schemes now often have perverse and unfair effects. They are also inadequate. They run efficiently, but to what end? On the eve of the implementation of the Nelson report, we need evaluation and reform of student income support urgently. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s