Given the level of opportunism occurring in the Australian Vocational Education & Training higher education sector since deregulation (uncapping places & fees), recent articles:

• ‘Reforming vocational education: it’s time to end the exploitation of vulnerable people’
• ‘$1.2bn VET FEE-HELP loans ‘may not be repaid’’

I think it is worth reblogging my Senate submission (Feb 2015) suggesting a new incentive compatible model for a deregulated higher education market where education providers have ‘skin in the game’.  This Senate submission provided a solution to what I saw as a fundamental misunderstanding of the risks associated with deregulating higher education within the current policy framework, published as an opinion piece in The Australian (Oct 2014):

• ‘Deregulation of university fees will leave the disadvantaged at greater debt risk’

This was followed up by an article calling for universities to have more ‘skin in the game’ (Mar 2015):

• ‘Call for unis to carry HECS loans risk’

I presented this model at the ANU Forum on Higher Education Financing, Friday 13th August 2015, on the topic ‘Should universities have skin in the game?’.

This model can be applied to any type of higher education provider where students have access to government administered income-contingent loans. Whether providers be universities, vocational, professional bodies or dedicated postgraduate institutions.  This model can even be applied to specific types of courses which are regulated separately, such as proposed Australian university flagship courses.

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