Graduate degrees at Melbourne - HECS?

[joseph95]

Someone just told me that post-graduate degrees at Melbourne are not able to be paid for through HECS fees, is this true?
Thanks!

And does a commonwealth supported place mean you pay through HECS as well?

[Russ]

Some postgrad places will be full fee places, which aren't HECS but can be covered by a loan from the government. The rest of the places are HECS funded (or whatever the new name is)

[joseph95]

Thanks heaps for that!
So some are HECS funded and some aren't? Is a loan from the government difficult to get? The JD at Melbourne's fees are over $100,000, and would obviously be enormously difficult to pay for without HECS or a loan.

[Russ]

For a full fee place you can get FEE-HELP (assuming you're a citizen) which will loan you roughly 100k. You'll need to find any other money yourself. JD CSP is obviously much less than 100k.

[joseph95]

Ok thanks for your help!

[simpak]

My friend needs to find like 13k to 18k to do FFP JD with a government loan.  It's not really that much...

[Hancock]

100k isn't much? Lawl

[joseph95]

100k isn't much? Lawl

He's saying his friend has to pay 13 to 18k out of his own pocket after the government gave him a loan to pay for his fees.

[Hancock]

I'm aware of that, but you still have to pay that 85k back you loaned from the Government.

[QuantumJG]

According to this, there exists CAP places which are supported by HECS. I'm doing an MSc through CSP and I'm just using HECS.

Also, looking at your ATAR shows me that it shouldn't be too hard for you to attempt to get a scholarship whilst doing a JD (heck, you should apply for an undergraduate one).

[joseph95]

Also, looking at your ATAR shows me that it shouldn't be too hard for you to attempt to get a scholarship whilst doing a JD (heck, you should apply for an undergraduate one).

I thought though that apart from Melbourne's Chancellor's Scholarship, all the other scholarships are equity based? I.e. from disadvantaged backgrounds?

[HighLatency]

I'm aware of that, but you still have to pay that 85k back you loaned from the Government.

As I know it, you would pay that back slowly when you reach a certain income

[slothpomba]

As I know it, you would pay that back slowly when you reach a certain income

It's still a huge debt to carry around though and i've heard they take it into consideration when you're getting house loans and things like that.

It's about 5% and up of your income each year towards it, assuming you're making a decent salary - http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.aspx?doc=/content/8356.htm . Still a much better deal than the interest bearing loans the yanks get.

[Hancock]

It's all good say you'll pay it back slowly, but you have to put 100k into perspective. Let's say you are a graduate engineer earning ~$65k in your grad job. It will roughly take you 1.54 years to pay that loan back (that is before tax as well). That's 1.53 years of not spending a dime.

The HECS system / FEE-HELP system is an excellent loan scheme, I just don't see how people can rationalize spending 100k on Law or 250k (FFP) for medicine when there are other options at other universities.