A student debt relief programme intended to entice teachers and medical professionals into the Australian outback has attracted only “modest” uptake and should not be expanded to other disciplines until it “matures”, an evaluation has concluded.
A review of the Higher Education Loan Programme (Help) Debt Reduction scheme for “very remote” teachers has found that barely one-quarter of an expected 2,615 participants applied between 2023 and 2025.
And a sister initiative for medical workers had attracted interest from just 0.5 per cent of potentially eligible nurse practitioners and less than 1 per cent of primary care doctors.
Reviewer Rachel Hunter, a former chief Queensland civil servant, said the scheme had “broad…