I think we could definitely do better in the US, but that's not a huge difference. That engineer making 60K (I'm assuming you're number was AUD, so I'm converti

I think we could definitely do better in the US, but that's not a huge difference. That engineer making 60K (I'm assuming you're number was AUD, so I'm converting to USD to simplify calculations), will pay about $3600 per year in Australia, and about $4300 per year in the US. Not really much of a difference. The Australian engineer will pay their lown down quicker since there's no interest (right now subsidized loans are at 3.76% interested and unsubsidized are at a 5.31%), but the US engineer can take a tax deduction of up to $2500 per year in student loan interest. The payment threshold is lower in the US 1.5x the federal poverty rate (so about 16k a year for single person), but again you only pay 10% of anything above that. And any remaining debt is cancelled after 20 years as long as you keep making minimum payments.