Federalparliamentlooksset to approvethelatest attack on higher education aftertheSenate voted on October 8 to support theHigher Education Support Amendment (Job Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Rural Students)Bill 2020, which seeks tohike fees for some university courses and reduce costs for others.
Thegovernment claims to want more students studying “job-ready courses” — which itbelieves will lead to greater employment after graduation.But to do this, Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposedlargefee hikes for some courses, while degrees viewedas being “in demand”willhavetheir feeslowered.
Fees for humanities, law and communications courses, among others, are set to skyrocket, whilefees forscience, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) willbereduced.
The National Union of Students (NUS)hasdescribedthe fees hikes for arts degrees of up to 113% times more expensive, and costing the equivalent of medicine degrees, as“heartless and neglectful”. It said the bill would enforce a cut to funding when universities are already expected to lose $4 billion next year due to the coronavirus.
In addition, the bill seeksto disqualify students frombeing eligible for theHigherEducationContributionSchemeifthey fail half of their first-year units.
Rather thanseeinghigher education asafundamental human right, thebillaffirms the neoliberal view that universities only exist tofilljobs. This is despitethe fact that91% ofthose finishing humanitiesdegreesare in full-time employment within three years.
Thebill’s plan toraisefees condemnsyoung people to evengreaterdebt. While the bill supposedly advantages those studying STEM by cutting thosecourse fees, no new funding has been allocatedto supplementthedecrease in funding, and the averagegovernment contribution to Commonwealth Supporter Places (CSP) is set to be lowered from 58% to 53%. The overall resultwill bea $2 billion cut from universities,as reported byThe Saturday Paper.
Universitieswill begranted incentivesto enrolstudentsinthemore expensive courses.
Students and academics say the new funding arrangements are aninsidious culture war attack on humanities and critical thinking.It has promptedthe biggest student mobilisations since former prime minister TonyAbbott’s attempt to deregulate CSP in 2014.
While COVID-19 has limitedthe numbers able to turn out at protests, the bill has generated a lot of debate.
Thelack ofcoronavirusfundingfor university workers,job lossesandwage theftat universitiesareadditional motivationsfor protest.
The National Tertiary Education Union said the bill “does nothing to address the funding and jobs crisis that is smashing our universities”and that it woulddestroy livelihoods and careers.
Whileextra-parliamentaryoppositionhas remained steady, theLiberals have beenforced to negotiatewith cross-bench Senators,as well as withintheCoalitionas the bill ispredicted by the NUS to hurt regional students the most.The Nationals settled for a modified definition of humanities courses, exempting social work from the fee hikes.
One Nationcame on boardquickly,with ,which some universities say will make it harder to discipline racist or sexist academics,andthe reinstatement ofa10% fee discount for students paying their HECS debt in advance.
Needing onemorevote in the Senate,the government turned itsattention to Centre Alliance’sSterling Griff, and SenatorsJacqui Lambie and Rex Patrick.The student movement managed to convincethe latter two to oppose the bill, with Lambie gaining widespread coverage for her refusal “to be the vote to tell poor kids … to dream a little cheaper” pitch.
Centre Allianceagreed to support thebill in exchange for the three South Australian universities beingreclassified as “regional”,fromlow-growth metropolitan — therebyattracting greater funding.Students condemnedCentre Allianceforsellingout,after it had criticised the bill.
The House of Representatives now needs to sign off on the amendments approved by the Senate.
However, as Varsha Yajman, an organiser with Students Against Fee Increases, noted, this is just the beginning for a new student movement that has been invigoratedbypeople organising and taking action,includingSchool Strike 4 Climate(SS4C).
A former SS4C activist, Yajman said thatthe intersection between the fight for student rights and other rights, such as having a safe climate, is having an impact on the student movementand that2021 “is where [the activism] will really flourish”.
[Leo Crnogorcevic is amember-elect of the Monash Student Association Student Affairs Committee.]