Most Australians would support a HECS-like scheme
for business research and development projects but
not for childcare.
Image: iStockphoto

A majority of Australians support the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) scheme for universities and believe that a similar system should exist for business research and development funding but don’t support such a scheme for childcare, according to a survey released on 15 October by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

The survey, conducted by Professor Glenn Withers, CEO of Universities Australia and an Adjunct Professor at The Australian National University (ANU), and Tim Higgins from the ANU College of Business and Economics, comes as the Bradley Review of Higher Education moves to report to Government on university financing including HECS, and the Cutler Review of Australia’s National Innovation System recommends that Government consider such income contingent loans for firms for innovation.

“We asked whether financial assistance provided to businesses for research and development should be repaid when financial circumstances for the business were favourable. Sixty-one per cent of respondents agreed, or strongly agreed, with this suggestion,” said Professor Withers.

“The Cutler Review recommended that the Government should consider income contingent loans for ‘sole traders seeking to fund innovative projects.’ Our research shows that there is significant community support for that too”.

Mr Higgins said that the survey also looked at HECS-style arrangements for other areas ranging from training for elite athletes through to childcare and drought relief.

“Some repayment of government assistance to elite athletes was strongly supported but, by contrast, there was little support for introducing such a scheme for childcare, and especially so from those who have received government assistance for child care. Opinion on repayable assistance for farm businesses for drought relief was evenly balanced for and against”, said Mr Higgins. Such an approach to drought assistance has recently been put forward by the National Farmer’s Federation to assist with farm business re-structuring, in conjunction with other measures

The researchers said that their findings on higher education financing indicated that the Bradley Review should recognise that community support does exist for a HECS scheme as part of the financing of universities. “We found that 64 per cent of adult Australians agree, or strongly agree, that HECS is a good mechanism for providing some higher education funding, and this includes majority support from those who have actually incurred a HECS debt” said Professor Withers.

The survey was conducted in May 2008 as part of an Academy of Social Sciences of Australia research project funded by the Australian Research Council. It involved 1505 Australians aged 18 years and above being asked questions in a Nielsen Survey to explore community reactions to the application of income contingent loans to various policy areas.