Australian National University (ANU) academic and the father of Australia's HECS system Bruce Chapman has suggested expanding the income-contingent loan system to help cover living costs for country students who are required to leave the family home to attend university.

Professor Chapman's concept includes allowing country students to access up to $5,000 a year, capped at $10,000 per student, with a surcharge of up to 20 per cent to limit the burden on tax-payers.

CEF CEO Sarah Taylor welcomed the suggestion, saying it "is definitely worth looking at".

"The Foundation is very supportive of any measure which would make more accessible tertiary education for rural and regional students and I think consideration of some sort of HECS-style loan for living expenses is definitely worth looking at," Ms Taylor said.

"Every family's circumstances are different, but the more options there are the higher the likelihood is that we can close this gap between city and country students.

The CEF provides grants to ease cost of living pressures on country students, many of whom face accommodation, transport and other costs of $25,000 to $35,000 a year.

"Roughly half as many rural and regional students attend university compared to their city counterparts," Ms Taylor said.

"It's not because rural and regional students are any less ambitious or capable - they simply don't have the financial means to make it happen."

Ms Taylor said while many city students remain in the family home and catch public transport to the nearest campus, many regional students juggle a part-time job and run a household while studying.

"They're away from all of their normal support structures. That's not always a bad thing because they [can] become more independent but piecing together accommodation, transport, and a part-time job is out of reach for many rural and regional students," Ms Taylor said.

Parkes MP Mark Coulton said he hopes the concept of a cost-of-living loan will be raised as part of the senate committee inquiring into the federal government's proposed higher education reforms.

"It's certainly something we've been talking about and I know the University of Central Queensland has been putting together a model of combining your university fees with your living fees," Mr Coulton said.

"I'm not endorsing this as the solution but it could be one idea. The reason we're doing the inquiry is we don't want country kids to be disadvantaged and we're open to looking at this, among other things."

Public consultation forums are set to wrap up by the end of September, with the committee's report to be handed down by the end of the year.