Yasmin Jenkins Gunn knew the cost of arts degrees had just doubled to $43,500 when she enrolled to study in 2021.
But the Melbourne-based gender studies student followed her passions anyway – they weren’t going to change based upon government policy.
Australian universities report ‘squibs a once-in-a-generation chance’ on research, science leader saysRead more
“It frustrated me, but it didn’t dissuade me,” she said.
Two years later, her total debt is already more than $20,000 – the cost of an entire arts degree just a few years ago. She has only managed to study part-time, working in hospitality to cover high living costs.
Her debt increased by $1,000 alone in the latest financial year on top of annual fees with recent indexation.
“It keeps going up and up; I’m afraid to even look,” she said.
Labor has confirmed it plans to scrap reforms introduced by the former government which increased the student contribution of some degrees. But students will have to wait until at least 2024 to see how their contributions will change.
‘It’s a brutal time to be a student right now,’ says Yasmin Jenkins Gunn.
A panel informing the federal government’s university accord process wrote in its interim report last week that continuing the scheme in its current format risked “causing long-term and entrenched damage to Australian higher education”.
The jobs-ready graduates package was implemented in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic to incentivise students to study certain degrees, including science and engineering.
It reduced the overall government contribution to degrees from 58% to 52% and increased fees for some courses, including humanities, to fund fee cuts in other courses and 39,000 extra university places.
A coalition of leading tertiary voices, including the Australian National University, the NTEU and Universities Australia, lodged submissions to the universities accord review earlier this year arguing the reforms hadn’t worked and more students were studying humanities than before the changes came into effect.
The education minister, Jason Clare, has taken the immediate action of scrapping the portion of the scheme which excluded students from commonwealth assistance if they failed half their subjects, as per the interim report’s recommendation.
But the panel last week delayed firm recommendations on funding changes until a final report is handed down in December.
Clare said the interim report made it “pretty clear” the job-ready graduates scheme needed to be redesigned, but what form that took remained up for discussion.
“Between now and the final report the accord team will work on how to fix this and what other changes might need to be made,” he said.
“I genuinely want people to have a conversation about the merits of the ideas in the interim report. Pull them apart. Critique them and improve on them. Or reject them and suggest others.”
Appearing at the National Press Club earlier this month, Clare fell…
2023-07-29 15:00:05
Original from www.theguardian.com
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