High cost of degrees leaves graduates grappling with study choices

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Students starting university next year are being warned they could pay nearly 55-thousand dollars for a 3-year humanities degree. If they take out a government loan to fund their education reduced earning potential means they'll be stuck paying off the debt for decades.

Transcript

00:00The final bell's about to sound on Tori Henderson's school career, but tests remain as she weighs

00:08university options.

00:09I'm trying to opt for something that I'm actually going to enjoy, but it's going to

00:13cost me so much more.

00:15Tori's first choices are communications or arts, but the nearly $55,000 price tag means

00:21she may try a different course or even skip university altogether.

00:25It's devastating. That is more than a house deposit nowadays.

00:30She's among the hundreds of thousands of school leavers grappling with study choices because

00:35of the Job Ready Graduates program.

00:37Under the scheme introduced by the Morrison government, the cost of some humanities degrees

00:42doubled while nursing and maths went down.

00:44The complex funding formula also means universities are getting less per student in some areas.

00:50Students pick up more of the tab in others, meaning higher average student debts.

00:55My concern is particularly for arts graduates, their income won't be enough to fully repay

01:00their debts and so they will be left with a HELP debt hanging over them for their entire careers.

01:05It comes as figures showing earning potential across all university graduates has fallen from

01:1060 per cent more than non-graduates to 20 per cent in four decades.

01:14That's left people with greater debts that's taking longer to pay off and that's a really

01:19big problem.

01:20A sweeping government review called the Universities Accord found the policy failed to skew student

01:25choice and called for its urgent reform.

01:27But more than a year later and the government is yet to move, despite opposing the policy

01:31since 2020.

01:33Universities are calling for action, warning of more job cuts on campuses next year.

01:37You can't put nearly a billion dollars of financial pressure on a system each and every year without

01:43having this materialised with job cuts, with courses reduced, with infrastructure delayed.

01:49The government says it's invested $6.7 billion extra in higher education over the next decade

01:55and is working through the recommendations of its review.

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