A ‘good deal’ for who? Christopher Pyne’s proposal to let the market rip with the fees of University courses will take tertiary education from the grasp of Australians. Yesterday Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, introduced the highly controversial legislation to Parliament regarding tertiary education fees. The Abbott Government has proposed legislation that would create three monumental changes to the funding and financial structure of universities within Australia. Firstly, the cutting of funding to undergraduate degrees, possibly as high as 37%. Secondly, the deregulation of university fees. This would give universities free rein in their fee structure for students. Lastly, the introduction of commercial interest rates, potentially as high as 6 per cent for all future and existing HECS-HELP debts. Previously students paid interest on their loans at the Government rate: theguardian/news/datablog/interactive/2014/jul/11/cost-degree-university-calculator There are a variety of problems that these proposed changes will inflict. By deregulating the university fee structure, students will suffer at the hands of higher university fees. This will be inevitable as the universities will need to recoup the loss of government funding. The anticipated rise in university fees will be roughly 30 per cent, as a starting point. This will result in higher overall debt and potentially leaving students repaying HECS loans into retirement. However, the regional universities and students may be hit even harder. Regional Universities Network executive director Caroline Perkins has said, regional universities are not expecting to set their fees at the highest levels if deregulation were indeed introduced. This is a result of the “thin markets” outside of metropolitan areas, thus forcing the regional universities to suffer financially or see enrollment decline. In contrast, the Australian elite university will be set to make hundreds of millions of dollars annually. With such changes the government is anticipating $5 billion in saving towards the budget. However, many people, including the Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten, question the so-called benefit of such changes: I say to Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and Christopher Pyne – bring it on with your higher education changes. We’re going to fight you, and we’re going to win. We do not believe in doubling and tripling the cost of going to university. We do not believe that the future for Australia is by dumbing us down and making it harder for working class and middle class kids to get a higher education. The future of this country resides upon the shoulders of the next generation of Australians. The idea that this government will take 20 cents in every dollar from university funding and somehow think this is a good idea is a disgrace. We will stand up students, we will stand up for mature age students, who have to retrain and re-skill in an ever changing world, and these higher education changes will discourage that. We will stand up for people who don’t live in the capital cities and need access to regional universities, which will be hardest hit by these changes. We’re going to stand up for women who shouldn’t have to have debt sentences for decades because this government is so out of touch with the future of Australia - Bill Shorten, Canberra, 28/8/2014 How will this all affect you? Click on the link below, created by a mathematics team at ANU, to compare how your degree will change due to the Abbott Government proposed deregulation. https://maths-people.anu.edu.au/~alperj/deregulation/
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 07:20:44 +0000
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