Education Minister Christopher Pyne says the coalition government will investigate whether it is sensible to on-sell $23 billion of HECS debt to the private sector.
There has been speculation the Abbott government will look at privatising the rising debt to generate savings for the budget.
While a spokesman for Treasurer Joe Hockey previously said the proposal was not current coalition policy, Mr Pyne told ABC's Q&A on Monday that the selling off of the HECS debt had been floated as an idea.
"It wouldn't be insensible for us to do so. Why would you rule anything like that out?" Mr Pyne said.
He cited Britain as an example of a country that had sold their HECS debt as an asset.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"We are going to investigate whether it is a sensible move to do so," he said.
"We were elected to make a change. We weren't elected to simply keep the ring that Labor had created for six years in their government."
Meanwhile, Mr Pyne said he would like to begin online national testing for literacy and numeracy from 2014 so results would be made available to teachers within two to three months.
The current National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests are done on paper.
"If you get the results in October or November, it is far too late for the teacher to do anything about using it as a diagnostic tool," he said.
"The principal can use it for the following year but if you do the tests in May, you should get the results back two or three months later.
"The only hitch with that is trying to get the states and territories to agree that they have the hardware necessary."
