Australia’s “unfair” tuition fee regime can be fixed without putting pressure on government coffers or inflicting politically unpalatable price hikes on future nurses and teachers, a policy specialist insists.
Max Yong’s “pragmatic” proposals to wind back the 2021 fee changes, imposed under the Covid-era Job-ready Graduates (JRG) reforms, would cut the cost of the most expensive degrees without slashing universities’ earnings or expending many – or any – extra taxpayer dollars.
JRG’s most unpopular measure has been its massive increase to student contributions for humanities subjects, which now cost A$17,399 (£9,040) a year in many fields. Critics say it in effect closes the door to disadvantaged people who are drawn to arts degrees but cannot countenance amassing debts of over A$52,000.
The government has done nothing to ease humanities fees, despite branding JRG a failure. Analysts say it would be politically perilous for Labor to offset a reduction in the fees by reversing JRG fee cuts in other disciplines – notably teaching and nursing – and that compensating universities by boosting government funding would be extremely expensive.
Yong’s proposals, outlined in a submission to a Senate committee inquiry, would be “budget neutral” – or, in one case, would increase the government’s outlay by a modest 3 per cent – while sparing nursing, teaching and several other disciplines from fee increases.
