In Australia, the term "sandstone university" is used to refer to any of the country's oldest tertiary institutions. As it is an unofficial term, whether or not a given institution is a "sandstone university" is sometimes subject to dispute, it generally refers to the age of the institution and the use of sandstone building material commonplace at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. Bond University is built of sandstone but is not considered a sandstone university. Tertiary education, also referred to as third-stage or third level education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium. ... Bond University Bond University was the first private university in Australia. ...
The label "sandstone university" is not synonymous with membership of the Group of Eight which includes Monash and UNSW. The Group of Eight (Go8) is a lobby group for the tertiary institutions generally considered to be the most prestigious and research-intensive universities in Australia. ... Monash University Monash University is Australias largest university with over 55,000 students. ... University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ...
Sandstone Universities can be taken to be either universities founded before 1950, or the oldest university in their respective state. Under either criterion, the sandstone universities are: 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
January, for instance, is the time of year when the universities make their offers of places to last year's matriculants and the great lament goes up about "unmet demand" - those unfortunate kids who've applied for uni but aren't offered a place.
You'd hope that kids capable of study at university level wouldn't be so illogical as to be deterred by a scheme that leaves them with plenty of private benefit from their qualifications and that gears their repayments to their income level as graduates.
This is a mentality driven more by parental pursuit of social status than common sense (as is the tendency for people to crowd into the older, "sandstone"universities regardless of their academic performance, and the tendency for overpaid oldies to buy their offspring's way into the flashest courses at the oldest unis).