Competing modelling of yet-to-be-regulated university fees is starting to resemble a catwalk.
Two main collections are on show: what will happen when tuition fees are deregulated and how much debt students will incur.
They're all based on different and contested assumptions - bringing to mind the saying about what "assume" makes of you and me.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne stepped out this week with modelling showing graduates with a $30,000 debt would pay just $3 a week more under his proposed new system.
It assumes a starting salary of almost $68,000 in 2019.
But most graduates won't get that starting pay, or the assumed 10 per cent annual pay rises, so their debts will take longer to pay off and cost them more.
The National Tertiary Education Union has made its own assumptions.
It believes the average student enrolling in 2013 will end up with $30,000 of debt - although the budget papers say the average debt will only be $21,500 by 2017/18.
The union reckons student debt will overtake government net debt within a decade.
Then Universities Australia looked at what might happen to engineers and nurses under a range of potential fee increases.
The engineer will pay roughly 60 per cent in interest on top of their tuition fees if they work full time and their wage rises quickly.
If they spend some years working part time while raising a family, interest rates will lead to their debt nearly doubling.
Nurses working full time could pay half their debt amount again in interest.
Universities Australia used this modelling to call on the government to rethink both its plans to cut its contribution to tuition costs and to charge real interest on loans.
The peak body was blasted by University of NSW vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer, who said its assumption of how commonwealth cuts would apply showed a fundamental misunderstanding.
"It is up to universities, not Canberra, to decide what fees should apply to which courses," he said.
Education department officials also think some of Universities Australia's assumptions are wrong.
The Australians Greens have set up a whiz bang website for current and future students to see how their fees and debts are affected.
It got more than a million hits in the first day.
The Group of Eight top research universities have commissioned their own modelling about student debt, particularly the impact on women and low-earners, from HECS architect Bruce Chapman.
"As the deregulated arrangements bed down, some options will need to be revisited in respect of student borrowing limits and repayment obligation thresholds," chief executive Michael Gallagher told a Brisbane conference.
Just about the only player not putting up a model is department secretary Lisa Paul.
"It's going to be up to the university," she told a senate committee when asked about how much fees might rise.
"These things cannot be modelled with any granularity."
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