Comparing and contrasting the income-contingent student loans
A 2026 Goldsmith public lecture presented by Emeritus Professor Bruce Chapman and Professor Gill Wyness
Hosted by The Australian National University Research School of Economics
Australia introduced the world to income-contingent student financing in 1989, with England setting up a very similar system in 1998. While both countries saw significant expansion in university enrolments and improved access for disadvantaged students, both systems now face serious and distinct challenges.
The 2026 Goldsmith lecture brings together two leading economists to examine those challenges and consider what each country’s system can learn from the other.
Emeritus Professor Bruce Chapman addresses the Australian context, focusing on inequities in undergraduate field-of-study price relativities and the economics of university-set pricing for postgraduate students. Professor Gill Wyness examines the English system, where tuition fee freezes have driven a university funding crisis compounded by widespread public concern over the fairness and generosity of the scheme.