2LT Local News

CANBERRA, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) — Australian universities have called on the government to abandon planned fee rises for students and increase the number of student places.

Education Minister Dan Tehan in June announced a plan to reduce the overall government contribution to the cost of a degree from 58 percent to 52 percent.

Under the higher education package, fees for humanities courses will be increased to subsidize an extra 100,000 places at universities by 2030.

In a submission responding to the proposed changes, the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) network, a group of seven comprehensive universities, argued that the government should “rework the student charges so that no unit is subject to a charge higher than the current highest rate.”

The group proposed raising the lower rates for “job-ready” courses to ensure that the changes remained budget neutral so that no unit is subject to a charge higher than the current highest rate.

“As we explore the details and universities model the period to 2024, there is less and less comfort that the funds saved are all being returned in other ways,” said the submission published by the Guardian Australia.

“Revenue for STEM and agriculture ought not to reduce if more graduates with these skills are required.”

In a third proposed major change, the IRU urged the government to support more university places.

“Additional growth places are needed since the number planned will only just cover the population growth in the younger age groups in the short term and will fall well short towards the end of the decade,” it said.

It comes after Universities Australia, the peak body representing universities, and the government raised concerns about the changes.

Minister for Regional Education Andrew Gee said in a statement earlier in August that the decision to increase fees for people studying humanities by 113 percent was a “glaring and potentially detrimental design flaw.”

He said that the changes would hurt regional areas that already suffer from a lack of access to mental health support.

“Country people deserve the same access to mental health support as those in the cities. It’s a fundamental issue of equality,” Gee said.