<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/19/australia-hecs-fee-help-scheme-50000-arts-degree>
"There was a time when would-be poets, historians and writers could expect to
pay off an arts degree at an Australian university within the decade, if they
were able to find stable employment. Fast forward to now and they may die with
their debt.
Arts degrees in Australia are poised to cost more than $50,000 for the first
time, with experts warning some students will never be able to pay off their
debts.
The new figure places Australia on par with the UK and public colleges in the
US, five years on from the widely condemned jobs ready graduates (JRG) scheme.
Data released by the Department of Education this month confirmed the student
contribution for a range of degrees including society and culture,
communications, law and economics would jump to $16,992 annually from 2025.
It’s about $650 higher than last year resulting from indexation, and more than
$10,000 steeper for humanities courses than 2020, before the implementation of
the Coalition’s policy.
The scheme, introduced by the Morrison government, reduced the overall
government contribution to degrees from 58% to 52%, raising student
contributions to 48%.
The JRG also increased fees for some courses, including humanities, to fund fee
cuts in other courses as well as 39,000 extra university places by 2023.
It has been widely panned by the university sector, including the Group of
Eight, Universities Australia, student bodies and academics.
The University Accord interim report said the scheme had failed and “needs to
be redesigned before it causes long-term and entrenched damage to Australian
higher education”, while its final report, released this January, called for
“urgent remediation”.
Before the 2022 federal election, Labor was also scathing in its critique of
JRG, with the then shadow education minister, Tanya Plibersek, calling it a
“total fraud that doesn’t deserve backing from anyone with common sense or a
conscience”.
The successive fee increases means it’s more than twice as costly to study in
Australia than in Canada.
According to the higher education analytics firm Quacquarelli Symonds,
undergraduate humanities courses in Canada average C$5,542 (A$6,028) a year for
domestic students, while in the UK all domestic courses are capped at £9,250
(A$17,900) annually."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
