SENATOR CAROL BROWN

SHADOW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR FAMILIES

AND PAYMENTS
SENATOR FOR TASMANIA

OPINION PIECE

STUDENTS FACE CASH CRISIS

The future of higher education in Tasmania is at the crossroads.

The Abbott Governments $5 billion cuts to higher education will be felt hardest at
regional universities, such as the University of Tasmania.

The changes to higher education will see fee rises of 40 to 60 per cent to recoup the
shortfall and a real interest rate of up to 6 per cent on debts. Our fair and equitable
higher education system will come to an end.

Student fees will rise, courses will be slashed and research abandoned.

As many Tasmanian students prepare to graduate at ceremonies next month, others
are facing a future of higher fees and crippling debt.

Many Tasmanians will not be able to afford a $100,000 price tag for a degree.

Modelling by the University of Melbourne shows that a course such as medicine
could cost between $117,000 and $203,000 over the course of a degree, while the
debt for a veterinary science degree could take 45 years to repay.

UTAS has indicated it will have a $30 million cut to its annual budget. In an email to
students, Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen said: In a world where
competition is intensified, specialisation is encouraged and the demand on students
to fund our activities is increased, we may also need to evaluate which aspects of
our mission must be assigned higher value and which, regrettably, may need to be
diminished or abandoned.

The dilemma for UTAS will be in setting fees in the face of the Abbott Governments
broken promise that there would be no cuts to education.

The changes to higher education were described as a crime by Nobel prizewinning
economist, Professor Joseph Stiglitz.

He said the United States private for-profit university system was a disaster and
exploited poor children.

The changes to Australias higher education sector will create greater inequality.

Smaller universities, such as UTAS, with a higher proportion of students from low-
income families, will have to raise their fees.

Two Hobart parents recently sent me a letter expressing their dismay at the higher
education changes and how their children may not be able to go to university.

They wrote: Both are doing very well academically and would be able to undertake
a variety of courses including the more demanding ones.

We are very concerned that they will either be deterred from entering university or
will be burdened with massive debts if they do so.

The proposals are also socially unjust they would favour wealthier families where
the parents can afford to pay their childrens university fees.

At Budget Estimates hearings the Department of Education confirmed that more
than $172 million would be cut from equity funding for low-income students
attending university.

The slashing of equity funding will do nothing to help students from low and middle-
income families from fulfilling their ambition to go to university. They will be
discouraged from studying because they will be faced with crippling debts.

Without equitable access to higher education, Tasmania will not be able to build a
strong and smart economy in the 21st century.

Tony Abbotts cuts to higher education will force many Tasmanians to give up their
hopes of going to university.

Labor will not support cuts to university funding and student support.

We will not support a system of higher fees, bigger student debt, reduced access
and greater inequality.

This opinion piece was first published in The Mercury on Thursday the 31
st
of July
2014.