There's no such thing as a free (school) lunch

A story with an actual Australian-Estonian connection made it into the press earlier in the week (yes, I know I'm playing catch-up here) with the news that Estonia may consider adopting the Australian system of higher education payments.

For those who aren't aware of how this works, and assuming nothing has changed since I went to uni - any Australians reading this feel free to correct me if I'm wrong - the system, called HECS or the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, basically means you don't have to pay for your university studies until you can afford to. Which is to say you still have to pay for some of your fees, but the majority is covered by the government until such a time as you can afford to pay it back.

There is one great benefit to this system for someone like me, who pretty much left Australia as soon as I graduated with my degree: having never since worked in the country for long enough to earn more than the however-many-thousands-of-dollar limit requiring you to start repaying your HECS debt, I have not to date had to pay a cent for my education. Presumably though for other ordinary people still living and working in Australia it all works quite conveniently and much like any other kind of loan repayment.

The call for change in Estonia has come about [not only because the increased level of affluence means that more people can probably afford to pay for their own educations anyway but also] because currently there is a perceived inequality in the fact that some students pay nothing for higher education while others do. But the arguments for and against are many, and much the same as those raised in Australia prior to the introduction of HECS.

Former Dean of the University of Tartu, one-time candidate for Estonian President and current Minister of Defence Jaak Aaviksoo warns that despite the generally positive reactions to the potential introduction of the Australian system, any such change would be a hugely sensitive political issue. He also spoke for many in pointing out that "Anyone who doesn't have to pay for their education at the moment is hardly likely to want to in future".

Tõnis Lukas, Minister for Education, while not necessarily against the plan, sees things differently. He says that in a country like Estonia, which hardly has the biggest population in the world and where the number of university students is steadily dropping (due to decreases in birth rates and such, not because they can't be arsed) (presumably), it is equally possible that the government will end up paying everyone's fees rather than demanding that everyone pay them themselves.

Which, I have been told, is what they do in Finland. (Any Finns reading this feel free to correct me blah blah.) It would be nice to see Estonia transform into an educational utopia, but in the meantime it is just as nice to see that something pioneered in Australia has become the model that up-and-at-'em nations are looking to adopt.