Campus Review Vol 30. Issue 08 - Aug 2020 | Seite 28

ON CAMPUS
campusreview.com.au
Forecast fail
Inquiry told no modelling done
to see if uni fee hike would
influence student choices.
By Wade Zaglas
A
parliamentary inquiry has heard that
no modelling was conducted to
see if the plan to increase fees for
humanities and arts-related degrees would
influence students to take other courses in
so-called in-demand fields.
The Education Department’s deputy
secretary of higher education, Rob Heferen,
informed the COVID-19 inquiry that such
fee hikes had produced “muted” results in
the past, and did not respond to questions
regarding why fees for courses such as
social work, for instance, will be hit with
a 113 per cent fee increase, Guardian
Australia reported.
Regional education minister Andrew
Gee said fees for courses in social work,
behavioural studies and psychology might
have to be reconsidered over fears the hikes
will have an impact on the workforces of
regional communities.
Underpinning Minister Tehan’s coursefee
proposals is the job-ready graduate
program, released in June. The program
aims to reduce government spending on
targeted degrees by 6 per cent (from 58
to 52 per cent) while upping fees in other
courses to create nearly 40,000 extra
university spots.
The education department’s website says
the changes “aim to deliver more job-ready
graduates in the disciplines and regions
where they are needed most and help drive
the nation’s economic recovery from the
COVID-19 pandemic”.
But the sector’s union voiced concerns
to the senate committee, arguing the
package does not “address the problems
of the sector”, with Australian universities
expecting a loss of $16 billion by 2023.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)
national research officer Terri McDonald
also told the committee that trying to “fit
more students into the system with less
money per student … actually creates more
problems for us”.
Charles Sturt University deputy vicechancellor
Helen Cavanagh told the
committee it was “highly unlikely” that a
student wanting to study social sciences
would change their preferences to study
science, technology, engineering or maths
(STEM) because student debt was not
something students typically though about.
Cavanagh was also concerned the
package would have “unintended
consequences” by increasing the price of
social work degrees and therefore limiting
the future workforce (particularly in regional
areas) of critical professionals such as child
protection officers and psychologists.
During the inquiry Heferen was again
asked why degrees in social work were
hit with higher fees, to which the deputy
secretary of higher education repeatedly
said, “that’s a question of policy”. He then
agreed to take the question on notice.
“Whether universities and students will
do that is a very hard thing to predict.
[There is] no reliable
information about elasticities of
an 18-year-old thinking about
a debt liability they might pay
back when they’re 35.
Previously when [course fees have]
changed, the response from students has
been pretty muted,” he said.
Heferen then suggested that more
students might consider switching courses
as the fee hikes for some degrees are large.
However, he then said there is “no reliable
information about elasticities of an 18-yearold
thinking about a debt liability they might
pay back when they’re 35”.
Vice-chancellors warned the committee
that the program, as it stands, could
incentivise regional students to move to
the city. While regional universities are
expecting growth of 3.5 per cent in course
places, vice-chancellors were concerned
the $5,000 payment for regional students
could result in them leaving smaller towns
for cities to study.
The regional education minister
said there is “a maldistribution of
social, mental and community health
workers between the cities and
country communities”.
He also stated that close consultation
with vice-chancellors “will play a crucial role
in informing the Nationals’ party position on
the proposed tertiary education reforms”. ■
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