JRG undermining positive reforms to student support

For humanities students, the proposed changes to indexation and the provision of fee-free university ready courses are completely undermined by the continuation of the Job-ready Graduates (JRG) scheme. Read our full submission here.

We applaud the introduction of paid practicum placements for nursing, midwifery, social work and teaching students, the expansion of fee-free university ready courses, and the changes to how indexation will be levied. However, for students of the humanities, the changes to indexation and the provision of fee-free university ready courses are completely undermined by the continuation of the Jobs Ready Graduates scheme (JRG).

2024 is the fourth year in which students of history, philosophy, media, culture are likely to pay twice as much for their degree as students of science, IT, engineering, health, or architecture. Humanities students know that their preferred subjects equip them for informed citizenship and satisfying careers, but they will not thank the Government for the punitive debt burden relative to average earnings.

In 2023, the Universities Accord final report advised that the Jobs Ready Graduates scheme needed “urgent remediation”, as it had “significantly and unfairly increased what students repay”. But the Australian electorate is still waiting for action.

As the Minister for Education’s own example shows (in his 15 August speech, cited below), the JRG hurts humanities students as much as 10 times more than the fee indexation proposed in this Bill helps them.

Equity students will carry unfair debt 

Large numbers of students from groups which are historically under-represented in higher education choose Society and Culture degrees. These students are the hardest hit by the JRG. In 2022, 

• • 4,800 Indigenous students enrolled in Society and Culture, compared with 3,800 in Health

• • 29,400 low SES students chose Society and Culture subjects, second only to Health (31,000) and ahead of Education (16,200), Management and Commerce (13,100), Natural and Physical Sciences (10,700) 

• • • • noting also that the proportion of students from low socio-economic areas commencing higher education decreased after the introduction of the JRG, from 17.1 per cent in 2021 to 16.9 per cent in 2022 (enrolments declined overall, but declined more steeply among low-SES students)

• • 29,300 regional students chose Society and Culture subjects, second only to Health (34,300) 

• • almost twice as many disabled students chose Society and Culture subjects as the nearest category (28,200 vs 14,900 in Health). 

As overall society and culture enrolments decline, the JRG is having a perverse impact. Students are beginning to show price sensitivity and are turning away from their preferred courses. 

• The JRG is driving students away from the study of history, philosophy, media, and culture at university  

• • data analysis by Yong, Coelli and Kabatek, which looked at NSW, found a 7.3% decrease in applications for history and philosophy after the introduction of the JRG, over and above the declining trend line from 2014 to 2022   

• • the study also shows that women were more price-responsive than men
• The JRG may worsen the broader problem of declining Australian enrolments in university degrees of any kind, down by 5% from 2021 to 2022 (latest available Department of Education data).

Fair policy for a 21st century workforce 

Humanities undergraduates are thriving in the 21st century workforce. They are prepared to shoulder an unfair debt burden, but they won’t thank Labor for it. 

• A large majority of Australia’s university students, including equity students, interested in the humanities know that humanities courses are right for them despite the increases in student contributions. 

• These students know that by pursuing their interest in humanities subjects  

• • they are more likely to complete their courses

• • they will be better prepared for second degrees in professional areas 

• • they are more likely than medical, biological, and other science graduates to be employed within six months of completion, and to remain employed

• • they are likely, as automation replaces routine cognitive work, to earn better wages than the average graduate, and by an increasing margin

• • the aptitudes and skills they obtain in humanities courses will increase in value as they advance in seniority through their career
    
  • relative to their graduate peers, they will have higher average work satisfaction.

The Job-ready package hurts humanities students 10 times more than fee-indexation relief helps them.

• JRG ‘increased student contributions in history studies [and philosophy, communications, journalism, media, curatorship, politics, sociology] by 117% (from $6,684 to $14,500 in 2021, now $16,992) to discourage enrolments’; this change is unusually large – unprecedented in the international literature.

• on 15 August in his second reading speech, the Minister for Education said that ‘for someone with a debt of $45,000, [this Bill’s changes to fee indexation] will mean that their debt is cut by about $2,000’; we would argue that this is a small mercy when over $20,000 of this standard Arts degree debt is due to the JRG.

A workforce that can handle social and economic complexity 

Employers have said clearly and often that they need more graduates with the skills in which the humanities are uniquely specialised: research and analysis skills in relation to economy, society and culture; the ability to discuss and write about complex issues in ways that bring people together.  

• A 21st century economy requires experts who can meet community expectations

• • for disciplined learning that supports the role of civil debate, expertise and science in democratic decision-making  

• • for the regulation of complex technologies such as AI 

• • for cross-cultural understanding in the face of rising geopolitical tensions.

A wealth of evidence shows a 20-year decline in Australia’s cultural capability.

• attempts to remedy this will continue to fail until there is a concerted effort by political leaders and academic leaders to build a pro-learning narrative. 

• If the JRG is allowed to continue, Australia’s social and cultural momentum will stall, putting our cohesion at risk, and starving the workforce of the 21st century skills needed for the transition to economic complexity.

• in a generation, the research workforce in general has gone from being comfortable to precarious; young humanities researchers are being hardest hit and, too often, are burning out. 

• each year that JRG debts accrue, fewer Australians can afford the double degrees or the higher degrees by research we need to keep pace with the challenges and opportunities ahead.

We urge the Committee to consider the impact of declining cultural capability at a time when social cohesion is under threat.

‘We cannot simply let this scheme continue to fail not only the generation of students facing this utilitarian discrimination but Australia as a whole. … If the future offered to those who study an arts degree is one of mounting debt and high-interest payments, they will withdraw from higher education entirely. That is surely not the message that we want to send or the future that we want our students to aspire to.’

The Hon Ms. Dai Le, MP.

Read our full submission here.