University of Melbourne vice-chancellor calls for free university education

Duncan Maskell says idea that education is only of private benefit to individuals, not public benefit to society must be reversed

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The vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Duncan Maskell, has joined the Greens and student unions in calling for tertiary education to be free.

Speaking to students and staff on Tuesday evening, Maskell said it had become “sadly fashionable” to assume students taking out loans to pay for university was a “natural order of things”, rather than a policy decision.

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