Seven years ago, Australia¡¯s Hayne Royal Commission exposed eye-watering misconduct in the design and distribution of many financial products. The government¡¯s response was to require banks and insurance firms to provide consumers with more information about what they are offering, known as product disclosure statements. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) outlines principles for good disclosure, requiring information to be relevant, complete and easy to understand.

These rules are a crucial way to help people make more informed choices about whether signing on the dotted line would genuinely be in their best interests. Yet no such obligations apply to universities. Higher education is one of the largest financial commitments Australians make, yet few students are able to estimate the size of the debt they¡¯re incurring. A student is better informed about the financial implications of getting out of a phone contract than dropping out of their degree programme.

The way universities currently present key information ¨C such as degree costs and loan implications ¨C is deeply inconsistent. Some offer user-friendly tools such as fee calculators, while others bury cost information deep in their websites. At one university, it takes eight minutes to find the cost of a Bachelor of Arts unit. At another, it takes just one. This makes it difficult for students to compare options and make informed decisions.

This is a particular problem in a country where even undergraduate fees vary widely by course. Are prospective students aware, for instance, that a three-year Bachelor of Economics could cost them A$51,000 (?25,000), while a three-year Bachelor of Nursing is?only A$13,500? The minimal impact on enrolment of the big fee hikes imposed in some subjects by 2021¡¯s Job Ready Graduate package suggests not.

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Another problem is the cost of doing unpaid but obligatory degree placements ¨C which can reach up to 1,000 hours per degree, representing a minimum wage loss of $24,950 for those doing paid work to help make ends meet. The government has launched a new ¡°Prac Payments¡± scheme to help cover these costs for poorer students but there is still no standardised information available about them to prospective students.

The federally run loans scheme (HECS-HELP) is often framed as ¡°good debt¡± because repayments only begin once a graduate earns above a certain threshold (currently A$56,156) and there is no traditional interest. But debt is still indexed to inflation, so if repayments aren¡¯t kept up, the debt balance rises.

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Do prospective students really understand that? A revealed that 32 per cent of current students do not. Indeed, a further 14 per cent did not even understand that they were incurring debt, and only 26 per cent knew roughly how much their total debt would be by graduation; 41 per cent had ¡°no idea¡±.

This is all the more concerning given that future earnings are very uncertain and, according to The Economist, the . Yes, outstanding student debt gets written off eventually but until it does, it can affect graduates¡¯ ability to get other credit, such as mortgages. In this context, students need better information ¨C not just about fees but about likely professional outcomes.

That is especially true for disadvantaged students, such as those from low socio-economic backgrounds, regional and remote areas, and first-in-family students. ?found that equity students encounter more challenges than their peers do in accessing knowledge about careers, related courses and the university system in general. And accessible and reliable official information plays a crucial role in helping them make informed decisions as their networks tend to be more limited.

Moreover, disadvantaged students are less likely to complete their degrees ¨C which?mostly undermines the terms of their ¡°deal¡± with universities. In a significant first, the new Adelaide University, which opens next year, is intending to offer part-completed qualifications. Other universities should and will come under pressure to follow suit.

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In banking and insurance, an often-heard complaint today is that ordinary consumers are overwhelmed by financial and legal jargon. No one wants that for students. But the greater peril is too little information.

One potential solution is to better teach financial literacy in secondary schools, covering topics including HECS-HELP loans and indexation. In addition, universities can improve their outreach efforts?to potential applicants, ensuring they use clear, accessible language about the finances of studying.

Students¡¯ level of dissatisfaction about HECS loans is currently hard to gauge but the popularity of Labor¡¯s plan to write off 20 per cent of student debt at the last election underlines that student debt is a big issue for people.?The caseload of the newly established Student Ombudsman is also likely to throw new light on the matter. In addition, ASIC could draw on its experience?in the financial sector to examine the extent to which the lack of transparency in student finance adversely affects disadvantaged students ¨C not just in the longer term but also while they study, in terms of unforeseen living costs. Such an enquiry could even establish a legal basis for a mis-selling claim against universities by particular groups of students.

Widening participation is now explicitly baked into the federal government¡¯s plans for expansion of tertiary education into the 2040s and no one wants to discourage it. But the aims of this laudable goal risk being undermined unless such students enter university with a clear, informed sense that doing so is in their best long-term interests.

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is associate professor and is director of the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success at Curtin University.