In Socialist Australia, here's what we do:

- Most Uni places are sponsored by the Govt.

- A proportion of the cost (4000-9000/year - only for tuition) is given to the student in the form of a loan (HECS, FEE_HELP, whatever the acronym is now)

- Interest is charged at the official CPI rate (so I think mine had 3.6% interest charges this year)

- The loan must be repaid once a students income is over a certain level. ($41,595 The required rate of payment goes up with income - about 4% for $42K, up to 8% for >$77K)

Wikipedia have a reasonable summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_education_fees_in_Aust...