Australian students pursuing arts degrees will continue to face tuition costs of up to $50,000 until at least 2027, as government plans to reform the controversial Job Ready Graduates (JRG) scheme face significant delays.
Legislative Delays and Political Criticism
Education Minister Jason Clare is set to introduce legislation to formally establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) during the final parliamentary sitting week of the year. However, the bill is not expected to pass within that timeframe, and neither the Coalition, Greens nor crossbench have seen the proposed legislation.
Independent Senator David Pocock has condemned the government's approach, accusing it of failing to treat the reform with "the urgency it deserves". He stated: "Students are paying the price... students can't afford to wait years for this reform, we've known Job Ready Graduates isn't working for many years and reform is urgent."
Financial Impact and Lack of Planning
Department of Education officials revealed to a Senate inquiry into university governance that no modelling has been conducted on how much it would cost the government to reverse or replace the JRG scheme.
Between the start of 2021, when JRG was established, and the end of 2024, total HECS debt grew by more than $10 billion, according to Parliamentary Budget Office modelling.
Officials did not list reform of the JRG among the work being undertaken by the interim Atec, and when questioned about when the department was planning for the scheme to be reformed, they stated it would be a "matter for government".
Concerns About Vulnerable Students
University of Sydney senior deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Annamarie Jagose, told the Senate inquiry that the JRG scheme is having a significant adverse impact on vulnerable communities.
She warned that the scheme "could be making some of Australia's most vulnerable student groups, including First Nations, women, and first in family who tend to study humanities in disproportionate amounts put off enrolling in university at all, despite government and university intention for the opposite to occur."
The Greens higher education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, criticised the government's approach, stating: "Labor spoke a big game in opposition about how terrible JRG was, but now in government they have kicked the JRG can down the Atec road as students continue to suffer under mountains of study debt."
She added that there was "no reason we have to wait for Atec to be up and running to abolish these punitive fee hikes that punish students."
