The brutal change coming for millions of young Aussies today trends now
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A generation of higher education graduates will be saddled with student debt well into retirement if changes are not made to the way loans are indexed.
More than three million Australians have woken up to a student debt increase of 7.1 per cent.
Higher education loans are indexed in line with inflation on June 1 each year, but runaway price rises have caused balances to spiral and many graduates are tipped to be worse off than when they finished their studies.
Modelling conducted by the National Tertiary Education Union found loan increases may blow out repayment periods for some university degrees by more than four decades.
Business management graduates are likely to be the worst affected, owing nearly $120,000 over a repayment period of 44 years.
More than three million Australians have woken up to a student debt increase of 7.1 per cent
Modelling conducted by the National Tertiary Education Union found loan increases may blow out repayment periods for some university degrees by more than four decades
A humanities and social sciences honours degree could take 40 years to repay and cost $110,353.
The gender pay gap means female law graduates could take 36 years to pay off their qualification, four years longer than their male colleagues.
The union's national president Alison Barnes said education was a fundamental right and should not lead to decades of financial burden.
Jane Body, 32, holds a bachelor of international relations and politics, a masters in business administration and a student debt of about $78,000.
If indexation continues to be tied to inflation, she's worked
