By Jim Buckell, Higher education writer

ONE of the nation's richest universities seems likely to get approval to offer lower fees to poor students studying for the same course as their wealthier counterparts.

In a proposal certain to influence fee structures elsewhere, University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Alan Gilbert said yesterday he had approached senior public servants to find out if his idea of varying HECS fees within a course was possible.

If his plan gets the nod, poor students studying alongside wealthier students might pay half the HECS fees or less.

The cheaper fees would be for students who qualified through a means test, Professor Gilbert said.

"If it's possible under the package to vary fees within a course, we would think very seriously about treating every student who is on Youth Allowance . . . we would consider reducing their fee very much lower than the current level and perhaps to zero," he said.

"A university like this may exercise a discretion if we were given it. I'm not saying we would go to zero, but that would certainly be something on the table."

Full Youth Allowance is paid to full-time students who are under 25 and have earned income of at least $15,000 over 18 months or whose parents' combined income does not exceed $27,400. About one-third of undergraduates are estimated to receive full or part payment under the scheme.

Under the higher education reform package released in the federal budget, partial fee deregulation will allow universities to raise or lower the HECS fees they charge by 30 per cent across a course.

Professor Gilbert's caution stems from the fact that the package makes no mention of whether fees could be raised or lowered for individual students within the same course.

However, there are signs his plan is finding favour. A spokesman for federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson said yesterday Dr Nelson would be "happy to consider any reasonable arguments".

Professor Gilbert said the idea had already received "sympathetic support" from the bureaucracy.

The proposal is a swipe at critics who have said that few universities would offer lower fees, especially elite, research-based institutions such as the University of Melbourne.

Although HECS is not paid until a student's income reaches a certain level – soon to be $30,000 – research suggests there is a degree of debt-aversion among the poor that discourages them from going to university.

"This would be a means of a university like ours discharging its obligation to make sure that no student is kept from studying at the University of Melbourne by reasonable inability to pay," Professor Gilbert said.

In a further equity measure, Professor Gilbert also wants to increase the number of scholarships for disadvantaged students.

This year 341 of the university's 27,000 undergraduates had received access or equity scholarships. These target rural, poor, indigenous and disabled students, as well as those for whom English is a second language.