‘Scaring off poor students’: HECS relief welcome, but high fees have become a barrier

3 months ago 31

University chiefs say the government’s failure to slash the $50,000 ticket price for some degrees is keeping poor students out of tertiary study, after the government passed legislation to cut student loans by 20 per cent.

Graduates with a $50,000 HECS debt will soon have $10,000 of their loan immediately wiped off, but university bosses say current first-year students will not see the same financial windfall, urging the government to swiftly reverse the 2021 Job-ready Graduates package that pushed up the cost of degrees.

Norman Huang, a final-year student in commerce and computer science, welcomed the 20 per cent cut to student loans.

Former Labor leader and current Canberra University vice chancellor Bill Shorten cautioned his fellow tertiary bosses against having a culture of complaint, saying the government “can’t wave a wand and just magic up billions of dollars”.

“Yes, the Jobs Ready Graduate scheme does need an overhaul. But for those who are saying that not enough has been [done] quick enough, I just caution higher ed to recognise that it’s remarkable that we were first cab off the rank in this government,” he said.

“I’m a realist. I understand around the cabinet table, you’ve got Defence, you’ve got Social Services, you’ve got Immigration, you’ve got Treasury. They’re all demanding attention and love and support. I think higher ed is crucial ... But also know that what we’ve got to do is recognise when you get a win and build on it, and not just simply have a culture of complaint.”

University of Canberra vice chancellor and former Labor leader Bill Shorten.

Education Minister Jason Clare has previously said the government would take advice on reforming university fees from the yet-to-be-formed Australian Tertiary Education Commission, which is set to come into effect next year.

Analysts believe reversing degree pricing to pre-2021 levels would cost the government about $1 billion a year.

Meanwhile, the government has set an ambitious goal of lifting tertiary education attainment to 80 per cent of working aged people by 2050. It also has a goal to increase the proportion of those from a low socioeconomic background to 25 per cent by 2035. This stood at 17 per cent in 2022.

While Shorten said he respected every tertiary institution’s contribution, he said the University of Canberra, Western Sydney University and Edith Cowan were key in the government’s goal to get more students from poor backgrounds into universities.

“We’re doing the unglamorous heavy lifting of higher education, which is getting people into higher ed who might not have always attended higher ed.

“If I can be really direct, Gen Zs and Millennials and people thinking about coming to uni, they don’t want to be going to some sort of educational sausage factory where they’re just churned, where they just seem to be interested in the dollars generated from international students to build more prestigious glass buildings. So that’s part of it. That’s how you get people in.”

When it came to reducing fees, other former Labor politicians including Peter Garrett, Barry Jones and Gareth Evans publicly rebuked the government last week, over its failure to fix the $50,000 cost of humanities degrees, in an open letter to the Executive Committee of the Australian Historical Association.

It noted that prestigious research-intensive universities had maintained strong course enrolments while other institutions were suffering.

“Enrolments for many humanities and social science units at other universities – those often favoured by Indigenous, regional and female students – are falling,” the letter said.

At Western Sydney University, the number of commencing students from low socioeconomic backgrounds fell by 1000 students in the year after the Job-ready Graduates program was introduced.

Western Sydney University vice chancellor George Williams.

WSU vice chancellor George Williams said the steep price tag had scared off poor students who feared they would never pay off the high debt.

“It does work as a price signal to price people out of university … It’s unfair, and it really restricts social mobility,” he said.

Williams noted that the government had spent $20 billion on debt relief, but said that failing to reform fees was “setting ourselves up just to have to do debt relief again down the track”.

University of NSW student Norman Huang, a final-year student in commerce and computer science, welcomed the 20 per cent cut to student loans.

“For most students, it is a relief both mentally and financially,” he said. “A lot of students are starting to think more long-term with their careers and personal goals.”

Sydney University deputy vice chancellor (education) Professor Joanne Wright said unwinding the Job-ready Graduates program “can’t happen quickly enough”.

“We’re looking forward to working with the incoming Australian Tertiary Education Commission and helping to address these complex issues,” she said.

A Macquarie University spokesman said it supported a review of higher education funding arrangements to ensure more “Australian students can access university, offers equitable support across all disciplines, and does not unfairly penalise students for the choices they make”.

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