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“Unfair” and “failed”. This is how Education Minister Jason Clare has categorised the Job-ready Graduates scheme, an unsuccessful attempt by Scott Morrison’s government to steer students away from the humanities through lowering the costs of degrees such as nursing and teaching and sending law, commerce and arts costs skyrocketing.
After more than four years in power, Anthony Albanese’s government has yet to commit to undoing the fee hikes, which led to $50,000 arts degrees and $90,000 double degrees.
The newly created Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) will provide advice on the cost of degrees mid-next year.
“[This] means that the Job-ready Graduates (JRG) scheme will continue at least until 2028,” independent MP Monique Ryan said in question time last week. “Next year, 285,000 students will pay more than $54,000 for arts, law and commerce degrees, and $90,000 for double degrees.”
Research from the 2050 Alliance, an advocacy group of nine member universities, says students paid up to $368 million more in 2024 than they would have without JRG and the government kicked in up to $1.1 billion less than they would have otherwise. The group was formed with the goal of lifting tertiary attainment to 80 per cent of working-age Australians by the year 2050.
A Greens bill to undo JRG failed last month, with even those who support the end of it opposing the changed legislation because it would lower student contributions to degrees without increasing government spending.
Constitutional restraints mean the proposed legislation cannot require increased Commonwealth spending.
“The Albanese Labor government talks a big game on equity in education, but they have voted against lowering uni fees and easing the burden on students facing spiralling student debt amid a cost-of-living and housing crisis,” Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said.
“The prime minister got to enjoy free higher education, but he isn’t willing to see students today reap the same benefits.”
Faruqi is not the only one weighing up Albanese and his cabinet’s university costs against that of the contemporary student.
Curtin University pro vice-chancellor Richard Blythe wrote in a paper last week: “Albanese never tires of telling us he was raised by a single mum on a disability pension, in public housing in Camperdown – and that public institutions are the reason a working-class kid could become prime minister. Clare tells a parallel story: the first in his family to finish school, the first to go to university, a product of Cabramatta Public and Canley Vale High, who says plainly that Gough Whitlam changed what was possible.
“The very degrees that carried these men out of disadvantage (arts, law, economics) now sit in the funding band the Commonwealth has all but abandoned.”
UNSW engineering and commerce student Chet Shen Law says the government’s fee settings have left him paying $67,000 for a 5.7‑year double degree, with commerce subjects costing about twice as much per unit as engineering – even though he finds engineering “way harder”.
He said he chose to study commerce for financial literacy, barely thinking about the cost because “it would just go on HECS”, but now often catches himself wondering why he is paying so much.
Shen Law has worked hard to “max out the value of uni”. He lives with his parents, tries to cut his commute to two days a week and is trying to immerse himself in uni life.
“I am trying to volunteer as much as I can and participate in student activities.”
He isn’t alone. University journalism and creative intelligence and innovation student Rodger Liang transferred from UNSW to UTS right when the new fee system hit.
“If I had stayed at UNSW, I wouldn’t be paying these higher fees, but I moved for journalism and decided to wear the cost,” he said.
“I don’t think it is fair at all. Access to humanities is more important now than ever. If we are going to put that behind high fees, then you are just going to have a very small, select group of people actually benefit. We need humanities now more than ever in the age of AI.”
He has accepted the high fee cost, and has tried to make the most of uni life to get bang for his buck, regularly taking part in clubs, activities and free lunches.
“It’d be kind of a waste if I didn’t try and make the most of my grades first off, but any other free opportunities at university.”
Clare declined to answer whether the Albanese government planned to repeal JRG. In June, Clare said he was awaiting information from the new statutory body. “It’s going to take a while,” he said.
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Emily Kowal is a Walkley award-winning education reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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