I found that the 2nd hand bookshop that was here before VSU saved so much money for students. But I don't wanna start a VSU debate. It defers from uni to uni and is long gone.
But the increased costs in uni fees, despite the advantage of hecs, is just another sign that education is slowly becoming a want not a need. I haven't really seen an approach for either party providing a reasonable solution for young people to better educate themselves and the univeristies are slowly taking in more international students at higher fees.
Yes by using hecs it deters the cost till later in life, but it is still a loan. Students who live in rural areas and come from low income areas would still find this a scary prospect. Look at countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark who have high standard of living in the education areas in particular. This is largely due to the fact that education is free. By subjecting terity education to a pure market type trend (where only those who can afford will attend) this will further increase the divisions in our country between the educated and uneducated, which reflects in so many other parts of society.
Education should be a right. It's a basic human right. Thinking any thing different is just primal. Allowing anyone to better their education should be option, regardless of socio-economic postion in our country.