Most government grants are not research grants; they fund the component of domestic undergraduate tuition which is not repayable through HECS-HELP. 'The Austral

Most government grants are not research grants; they fund the component of domestic undergraduate tuition which is not repayable through HECS-HELP. 'The Australian Government subsidises a CSP [Commonwealth-supported place] by paying part of the fees for the place directly to the university. The subsidy amount is not a loan and students do not have to pay the subsidy amount back.' [1] This component of government grants is not broken down on the source I provided, but it is explained in the notes to universities' financial statements. See for example those of Australia's largest university, at p 66 [2]. $345 million was provided under the Commonwealth Grants Scheme, compared to $214 million under HECS-HELP and $58 million from the Australian Research Council (research grants are also provided by other bodies such as the NHMRC). The CGS is the means of funding CSPs, not a source of research grants [3]. Your original point, that 'international students make up more than half of the funding-through-fees,' might actually be correct even if you accept that payments under the CGS are on account of 'fees' (which is the language used in [1]). It is correct at Monash, where international student fees generated $653 million, compared to $1.03 billion from the Australian government including CGS, HECS-HELP and research grants. Monash is an outlier because almost half of its students are international or offshore [4], but it leaves me unsure as to the reliability of my original source. We can certainly agree that international student fees are a very substantial source of income, but I wanted to correct the common misconception that HECS-HELP loans are the sole source of domestic tuition funds. [1] http://studyassist.gov.au/sites/studyassist/helppayingmyfees/csps/pages/commonwealth-supported-places http://studyassist.gov.au/sites/studyassist/helppayingmyfees... [2] http://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/844508/monash-university-2016-annual-report.pdf http://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/844508/mon... [3] https://www.education.gov.au/commonwealth-grant-scheme-cgs https://www.education.gov.au/commonwealth-grant-scheme-cgs [4] http://www.monash.edu/about/who/glance http://www.monash.edu/about/who/glance