I wholeheartedly agree Paul. As the recipient of such Tough Love parenting I often wished things were different. I attended university outside of Australia, in a country where parents' income determined whether the government would subsidise the child's tertiary education, or not. My parents felt it would spoil me if they were to provide financial assistance with my studies or rent, the government said I did not qualify because of my parents' income, so aving just finished Year 12 at 17 years of age I worked nights in a bakery to be able to earn enough to pay rent for my room in a student dorm and pay for food. I attended lectures during the day and somehow managed this for 6 months until I collapsed. By that stage I was so disillusioned with my parents that our relationship has never recovered. My friend's parents found out what was happening and lent me as much as I needed so I could sleep at night and work on weekends only. My Australian husband helped me pay them back. I have vowed that our children will receive every bit of financial support we can afford to help them along the way...it's hard enough these days to save up for a home deposit, imagine adding a HeCS debt to that!

Thank you for providing such sensible advice to parents....

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I paid the first semester in full, but not the current one as so many people said HECS debt is cheap debt and you are better off investing the money. I was hoping the headline would answer which is the better way to go! You're getting sentimental in your old age, Paul! Lol

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I paid the first year of my sons course and i was planning on paying each year till he finished but after 18 months he deferred. Then 12 months later he started another course of which i paid for the year. He did well. He then started the next year (which i didnt pay) & deferred again - that became the first part of his hecs debt. Five years later he decided to go back to uni again & i let him put that on his hecs debt. I decided that if he finished his degree, i would pay it but if he deferred again, it was his to pay. At the age of 31 he finally finished his computer science degree after this time 4 yrs & had a full time job within 3 months. I then paid his hecs bill as a reward for getting his degree

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We have three children. Our eldest is in his third year of a four year degree, which we have paid for and plan on finishing off paying, however it comes with the criteria that any subjects failed are then his responsibility to pay for. We will do the same with the other two. He also has been working since he was 14 and was a very good saver - so good that he bought a modest investment property last year which settled a week after his 19th birthday. It was our choice to bring them into this world, so we will help them as much as we can and hope that this will be the attitude they have with their children. All work and study hard, so I don't see this as spoiling them. You can't take it with you!!

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