University of Sydney arts student Brynn Daly said the cost of her course had little bearing on her choice of degree and was not surprised that demand had risen despite rising rates.
“I was quite determined to study politics and French,” she said.
“What has been frustrating as an arts student is that we’ve heard all these things about rising fees, but we’ve actually suffered a lot of subject cuts.”
Daly said introducing rate hikes as a way to deter students from studying an arts degree will never work.
“Most people I know didn’t choose subjects based on fee costs, we chose our subjects based on interest or future career, but I know this comes from a privilege,” he said.
“The humanities are so important that they have taught me so many critical thinking skills and different ways to approach real world problems.”
Professor Catharine Coleborne, chair of the Australasian Council of Deans of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, said that in addition to shifting the debt burden to students, the increase in fees had also created problems for funding courses. of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). .
He said universities were receiving less revenue from STEM subjects under the changes, making it difficult to teach and maintain expensive courses.
“Students are still choosing [humanities] because there are a large number of people in the workplace who have studied these degrees and so this is evidence that workers need these skill sets, ”he said.
“The reforms have given nothing more than a reorganization of budgets within universities.
“It could end up having the kind of long-term impact of oscillating students, but so far nothing has been done.”
Norton said the new Labor government should quickly enact legislation to reduce tariff hikes.
“Unfortunately, it will not be possible to make a simple reversal … they cannot be allowed in the current budget climate because of the additional subsidy it would require,” he said.
“But they can make a neutral budget change for the courses.”
Education Minister Jason Clare said the reversal of the rate increase will be examined as part of the review of the job-ready graduate package that was committed to the previous government.
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