Historic Shake-Up for Australian University Fees

With youth unemployment rates soaring to 16.1 per cent, the Morrison government is offering universities more places for an expected increase in numbers. The aim is to steer young Australians into degrees that lead to jobs and that means cutting fees for anyone looking to study teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, agriculture and health.

Education Minister Dan Tehan will today outline the coalition’s plan for rejigging university funding in a speech to the National Press Club.

He is offering to increase the number of university places by 39,000 over the next three years, rising to 100,000 more by 2030. The trade-off in the new deal is what students and taxpayers will pay.

What students will pay

Nursing degrees, maths courses and clinical psychology degrees will be slashed to just $3,700-a-year.

For allied health and other health degrees, student contribution will be just $7,700-a-year. Medical and dental will also receive a discount, with students now paying $11,300-a-year.

The move is certainly good news for the future health sector but for others, studying outside of recognised job growth areas will come at a cost.

A three-year humanities degree would now more than double in cost for students, from about $20,000 to $43,500. The same goes for the humble art degree. Fees for law degrees, typically four years, would jump from $44,620 now to $58,000.

No existing student will pay more.

For more information on the ‘Job-Ready Graduates’ scheme, tune in to National Press Club of Australia today at 12:30pm. Live on ABC and Sky News.