The only people that should get into uni are those who are academic
achievers in the true sense and not 'guess an answer out of four' under qualified social misfits.
They should also be a position to fund their degrees themselves rather than have the state, taxpayer and humble pensioner bankroll them.
When I went to uni I had to not only pass my intermediate certificate to get into 4th and 5th year, but then I had to get a matriculation level pass to apply for uni
My parents had to then cough up with the One hundred thousand pounds plus fee, up front.
No assistance from the government.

"Even those who drop out learn stuff, both from the course content and the experience of being a uni student."

...and I'm supposed to go to work and pay taxes for that outcome? If it takes an economic depression to get some kind of sense back into gov't expenditure, bring it on.

Single, unemployed 40 odd year-old women getting IVF at huge expense to taxpayers as if success is likely, is like the ATAR debate. If they are a part of the successful 3% (like the success rate of low ATAR uni entrants), the taxpayer then gets to pay for the upkeep of the offspring!

Where does it all stop?. I'm tired of paying thru the gills for such inane stupidities.

Chrisgaff. If you passed the intermediate certificate in NSW, then did 4th and 5th year before matriculating to get into university, you must have done this before 1962-7, when the system changed. The leaving and intermediate certificates went, to be replaced by a six year high school, with the School Certificate at the end of Year 10 and the Higher School Certificate at the end of Year 12. (It may be different if you were in another state, but the fact that you give the cost in pounds means that you're talking pre-1966, so my argument below holds.)

I was at high school in NSW in the late 1950s, under the old scheme. My family was really poor and the only way I got to university - the first in my extended family - was by winning a Commonwealth Scholarship, courtesy of Sir Robert Menzies. (I still had to work part-time for the entire course to cover my living costs, 18 shillings or roughly $2 for Saturday morning as a check-out chick at Woolworths). My younger siblings followed suit, and with education we dragged ourselves out of poverty.

Because I had a scholarship I don't know what the cost of the degree was at the time, but I very much doubt that it was 100,000 pounds. And what does 'plus fee' mean? I haven't been able to find the 1960s cost of university degrees on line, but the median house price in Sydney in 1965 was only about 5,000 pounds, the equivalent in 1966 to $10,000 (an aunt bought a house in Randwick for that in 1960, it was sold in 2010 for $1.5 mill.).

So a university degree at 100,000 pounds in the 1960s would be equivalent to $200,000 in decimal at that time. The current annual cost of an Undergraduate Bachelor Degree is between $15,000 to $33,000 (https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/global/australian-education/education-costs). So a three year degree would be about $100,000, half the cost you have quoted for the 1960s and not allowing for inflation.

So, either you have the figure wrong, or you've just proved that degrees today are really cheap.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/not-in-our-national-interest-universities-slammed-over-atar-leniency-20160530-gp71qi.html

An ATAR or tertiary admissions rank below 50 indicates the student performed worse than half of the nation's school students.
According to research from the Grattan Institute, the same students are up to twice as likely to drop out of university, partly contributing to more than $1.6 billion in unpaid HECS debt last year and forcing the federal government to consider radical measures such as collecting debt from the dead in order to bring spiralling student loans under control

Hi there COSSOMBY...

I did my Intermediate Certificate in 1956, and like you we were dirt poor. So any hope I had of going to Uni. was out of the question. Nor did I possess the brains to gain any sort of scholarship, so the spectra of gaining a degree of any description was now seemingly impossible at that time.

My parents saw no point of insisting I do my Leaving Certificate (another two years), so I left school went bush and became a jackaroo which I thoroughly enjoyed until I found the sheep didn't particularly like me, so I left and joined the Australian Army. Which in my opinion was the making of me. After completing my engagement I reluctantly took discharge (mainly because of my parents continued anguish of me being sent back for a second tour of Vietnam) and joined the police, and there I stayed until I was medically retired after over 32 years of service.

So COSSOMBY, I would contend education or the lack of it, isn't everything. With lots of luck, a fair bit of dedication and buckets of personal discipline, you can still carve out a decent sort of vocational outcome in your life, without necessarily possessing solid tertiary antecedents, to give one, that desired 'leg up' in life.

It could be reliably asserted though I did enjoy exemplary job stability, none of it in my opinion could ever be precisely described, other than unremarkable.

Hi O Sung Wu. I had my first run in with sheep in 1965, when I helped drench a mob, quite an experience for a then city girl. I now live in sheep country in western NSW, so I've seen a few more.

I agree tertiary education isn't everything, but it can give you a boost up.

One of the most interesting people I've ever met (Menindee ca 1976) was a guy, then about 60, who ran a transport business. He was illiterate, and totally matter-of-fact about it. He was also articulate and a born story-teller. He had a prodigious memory, especially for figures, claimed he could remember the details of every job and payment. His contracts were based on a gentlemen's handshake. It was fascinating to hear about his experiences in the bush and in business. (I remember thinking - this is how people worked 1000 years ago.)

Another of the most interesting people I've even met was my boss in the 1970s, a university professor. You'd go to see him to get a form signed, and you'd leave an hour later after a personal master-class, which would start off 'I've just been reading this interesting article ...' I didn't really need to go to university classes for an education, just have lots of forms to get signed! (He didn't much like the form-signing bit).

So I'm even-handed, people are people regardless of education.