This twenty-first AMP.NATSEM report looks at Australian tertiary students today – who they are, how they meet the costs of living while they study, how much they pay for university compared to the rest of the world, how their HECS debts get repaid and the financial value of a tertiary qualification over their lifetime.

A university graduate has the potential to earn $1.5 million more over a lifetime compared to those whose highest qualification is Year 12, according to research identified in this report on the costs of tertiary education in Australia. While university graduates have a greater earning capacity, the report found that Australia has the third highest university fees out of all OECD countries, after the United States and Japan, with the average fee for a Bachelor degree totalling $20,579.