Bonding

An interesting article about whether certain graduates should be bonded as a condition of the public investment into their degrees.

John Key is quoted as saying while the average medical graduate has a student loan of $90,000 – the taxpayer has put in a further $270,000 towards their degree.

Key said that an average medical graduate with a student debt of $90,000 had received taxpayer investment of $270,000.

He said taxpayers accepted responsibility for funding medical students’ studies because the nation needed smart, capable people to keep it healthy and safe.

“At the moment you educate a doctor who says `Thanks very much, I’m off to Sydney’, and never comes back. What a waste of $300,000 and someone who is very talented. Bonding them makes a lot of sense,” he said.

The problem is the practicality of bonding. If a graduate leaves to go overseas and does not return, there is no real mechanism to recover the investment, even if they have signed a contract.

But the status quo of huge taxpayer investment into supplying Australia with doctors isn’t particularly satisfactory, so good to see some thought going into possible solutions.