Well, in Queensland, there’s no interest, but each semester costs somewhere between, 4 and 8 grand. That is, if you’re not going to a private institution. It starts getting repaid at about 30, 000 per year, at about 3% of your income p/a. This year the senate passed a law in which each university could set it’s own fees. A lot of fees went up from the above prices.
I believe it used to be free, in the time before Gough Whitlam.
My favorite quote from Good Will Hunting:
“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.”
eg “free college” 
MIT’s OpenCourseWare offers something of the sort.
"
MIT OpenCourseWare is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT’s mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century. It is true to MIT’s values of excellence, innovation, and leadership.
MIT OCW:
Is a publication of MIT course materials
Does not require any registration
Is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity
Does not provide access to MIT faculty
"
The Australian tertiary education paymenet scheme, known as HECS, is a federal policy. It is the same throughout the country and is therefore no more interest free in Queensland than it is in NSW.
The official HECS website states quite clearly that “HECS provides a loan to students that is indexed to maintain its real value but is otherwise interest free”. There is no mention of certain states being exempt from that interest accumulation and indeed the Australian constitution would make it illegal for the Federal government to exempt some states in that manner.
Check it out for yourself.
HECS debts are indexed to price inflation, measured by changes in the Consumer Price Index. This is not the same as an interest charge.
Prior to the recent higher education changes, the maximum cost was far below “4 and 8 grand” per semester. In fact, a full course load while studying a Band 3 degree(Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Vet Science) was around $6000 per year. Beyond 2005, this will increase to a maximum rate of around $8000 per year.
Not that there is an accumulation of interest. but what provision of the Constitution do you suppose prevents the Commonwealth from discriminating between states?
Oh for crying out loud the official website says it is an interest charge.
“8.3 Is interest charged on my HECS debt and what is indexation?
Your accumulated HECS debt is indexed annually to maintain its real value, by adjusting it in line with changes in the cost of living (as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)). The debt is otherwise interest free. The indexation adjustment is made by the ATO on 1 June each year and applies to the portion of debt which has remained unpaid for 12 months or more. The indexation figure is available from www.hecs.gov.au under ‘What’s New’.”
It doesn’t say that it is interest free, it says it is otherwise free of interest. In other words the indexation.
Case closed.
That sure sounds different than what I know of as an interest charge – a fixed percentage charged on the amount you owe. I don’t think that “otherwise interest free” necessarily implies that the indexation is interest.
Granted,
It’s inflation. Inflation is interest in theory. But it’s not really interest. It’s just maintaining it’s real value. It would be stupid for you not to have to pay back the correct amount of money because the economy changes. For you to really be paying interest, would be for you to be paying back more that it’s REAL AMOUNT.
… granted, it may be a meaningless distinction, but it sounds slightly different from ordinary interest to me.
Regardless of what the HECS website may read, in finance, inflation indexation is not the same as an interest charge.
Yes, the effect is the same in this situation.
Yes, it’s a silly nit-pick and I’ll drop the issue. 
Care to support this assertion?:
Cooper Alumnus speaking here. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and the Arts (to give the full name) is indeed free in that there is no tutition. Books, etc must be purchased. And you still need to pay for/find your own room and board - the school is located in Manhattan (east village). Until a decade ago the school had no dedicated housing. Cooper only has schools of Art, Architecture and Engineering.
That I am.
Also, when I posed this question to my wife, she came up with quite the valid answer:
