Australian & International Student Tuition Rates are the Same?

[informatique]

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On Melbourne's website, it states that the annual tuition rate for an international dental student is approximately $33,100 and $37,000 for Australian students. I know it's comparing 2008 and 2009 fees, but I thought that tuition rates would be significantly higher for international students. Is this the case for all other aussie schools?

Here are the links:

http://www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/int/fees/typical2008/ugrad.html
http://www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/aust/fees/2009fees.html#footnotestar1

 

[greens]

I just looked on their website cause I found what you said interesting and actually you would be paying 44,500 and Australian full-fee paying students (ones that don't have government subsidies) will pay 37,000. The people that get to go to school cheap are Australian student's who get government subsidized places of around 9000. That's the way it works with pretty much all schools.

 

[informatique]

$44,500 x 5 years = $222,500

$37,000 x 5 years = $185,000

I know the tuition rates would fluctuate from year to year as would the exchange rates, but we would still be paying fairly similar amounts. I think I would actually have the opportunity to pay less than an Australian student depending on exchange rates.

Still doesn't seem like a huge difference to me as I would probably be paying around $100K for my state school as opposed to >$200K at an out-of-state school in the U.S.

 

[redshifteffect]

$44,500 x 5 years = $222,500

$37,000 x 5 years = $185,000

I know the tuition rates would fluctuate from year to year as would the exchange rates, but we would still be paying fairly similar amounts. I think I would actually have the opportunity to pay less than an Australian student depending on exchange rates.

Still doesn't seem like a huge difference to me as I would probably be paying around $100K for my state school as opposed to >$200K at an out-of-state school in the U.S.

Keep in mind though that this would be the tuition for a Full fee paying student, which is different then a HECS sponsored place. Or the equivalent of an "out of state" student.

The majority of Australian students will be in HECS sponsored places of 9,000 per annum.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

Most Australian students get HECS, and they pay substantially lower fees than International students. Only recently they started pushing full fee paying spots in universities. Its been the subject of a lot of controversy.

 

[informatique]

I guess HECS is some form of government subsidized financial aid? What qualifies a student for HECS?

 

[JoeNamaMD]

Higher education in Australia is subsidized by the government, usually only Australian and NZ citizens and PRs can get access to HECS.

In American universities, international students pay steep tuition fees too.

Australia has a severe physician shortage, and unlike the US where they take in large numbers of IMGs, many from third world countries, the Aussie system is not as open to these grads like they are in the US. Although lately they have been bending the rules a bit. Instead Australian schools have decided to take internationals and use them as a potential solution to the physician shortage. Still Oz is generally far better than Canada towards IMG doctors, I have heard horror stories about foreign doctors in Canada driving taxis, but Australian trained physicians do not have any issues getting licensure in Canada.