Back to the future with uni arguments

A government wants to overhaul higher education funding, students are worried about how much it will cost them and the Senate needs some convincing.

No, it's not today's debate about controversial measures before parliament. It's a plan proposed in 1988.

Back then the Hawke Labor government decided to set up the HECS income-contingent student loans system and substantially increase access to universities.

But cabinet documents from the time, released by the National Archives of Australia, show ministers were concerned about strident opposition from students and unions.

Then-education minister John Dawkins, talking 26 years later, said the familiar issue of higher education still had resonance in the modern day - right down to the need to convince the Senate.

With opposition from the coalition, Labor had to work with the Democrats.

"What we tried to do on that occasion was to give them a deal they couldn't really reject," Mr Dawkins said.

The minor party was faced with a choice of supporting HECS and getting more money for universities or voting it down and seeing funding for universities frozen in real terms.

"That was a deal they found hard to resist."

The cabinet documents reveal the government also hoped its inclusion of expanded welfare for students - via Austudy and Abstudy - would win over the support of the silent majority.

Students were consulted over a 22-day period leading up to the cabinet decision while tertiary unions made clear their opposition to any form of "user pays".

They argued it set up financial disincentives to attend university for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

As well, the specific circumstances of new graduates - such as those who had babies - needed to be considered.

They were also concerned about the indexation of student loan liabilities.

Sound familiar? The same arguments are being used to oppose Abbott government plans to deregulate university funding.

Mr Dawkins told cabinet colleagues some students did support his 1988 plans or "at least they will not be strongly resisted by all students".

HECS was generally regarded as the least worst of the graduate/student contribution options, his cabinet submission argued about the position of students.

Opinion polls of the time showing two out of three voters thought students should help pay for their study.

Qualified support from vice-chancellors - as long as overall funding was maintained - also bolstered ministers.

The world-first loans scheme eventually cleared parliament and operated from 1989.