Government to offer HECS discounts for people who volunteer for community work

[brendan]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24975788-12332,00.html

[costargh]

I like the idea from a selfish point of view- as long as the gain from volunteering outweighs the gains I could have received in the same time had I not been volounteering.

[Fyrefly]

I already undertake 'voluntary community work'.

It's an interesting idea, but a bit strange 2 b basically getting paid 4 "voluntary" work.

And as 4 the heavy workload... students would jst undertake paid work less in favour of volunteering more - the offset of the debt, combined with more students receiving the full amount of Youth Allowance from Centrelink coz their income falls under the threshold would certainly b a great trade-off 4 working 'for free'.

Y would the volunteering b done after the degree?
Volunteering is a good way 2 get work experience in an industry - if anything, students should have some up their sleeves *b4* they look 4 their 1st full-time graduate position, not *while* they're in their 1st full-time grad position.

I do think more ppl should volunteer, but I can't help but feel it's a bit of a slap in the face 2 those who volunteer 4 more honest, charitable reasons.
Like Costa said, it's allows one acting with a selfish viewpoint to throw around the 'I volunteer' card 2 make them look selfless when that wouldn't b as true as the connotations the word 'volunteer' holds.

I dunno, it does seem like a good idea but something bout it doesn't sit rite with me... I don't think I can quite put my finger on it.

[brendan]

of course from selfish POV, i think many things should be done, govt should take $1 from every person in australia and transfer it to me (that's around $21.5 million), etc.

from a policy perspective i am not convinced of the merits of the HECS discount

Andrew Norton, Policy Adviser to UoM VC, makes a good case against it:

More bad reasons for reducing HECS
http://andrewnorton.info/2007/09/more-bad-reasons-for-reducing-hecs/

Suitable jobs better for HECS debtors
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23582230-25192,00.html

The community corps and student debt, #2
http://andrewnorton.info/2008/04/the-community-corps-and-student-debt-2/

[costargh]

Unfortunately I don't formulate government policy; I merely weigh up the benefits of proposed policy implementations for myself.

[costargh]

from a policy perspective i am not convinced of the merits of the HECS discount

I agree

[costargh]

After reflection, even from a selfish view point I don't think it's that good. As I suspected, the anticipated monetary reward for this scheme would not exceed the amount you could get from part-time work. Therefore the only other rewards would be intrinsic rewards such as 'feeling proud of giving back to the community'.

[Eriny]

They really shouldn't call it 'voluntary work', it undermines the work of the people who actually are volunteers. Even though the outcome is the same, intention makes some ethical and practical difference. For instance, somebody looking after disabled people who genuinely wants to do it would probably do a better job than someone who looks after disabled people and hates every second of it and is only doing it out of self-interest. It's fine to be self-interested, but it's wrong to call it 'volunteering'.