AGED in their early 20s, a group of Newcastle journalism students have explored the soul-crushing sums of HECS debts sitting on their shoulders and how it will affect their futures.
This year there was an indexation hike of 7.1 per cent on HECS-HELP debt, and while Peter Hyslop, Sophie Jaggers, Zali Winch and Holly Fishlock value tertiary education, they've raised the question - why are they paying so much?
"We've all been personally impacted by the Job Ready Graduates Package - introduced by the Federal Government in 2020 - we're all humanities students studying journalism, and the cost of arts and humanities has risen by 113 per cent," Ms Jaggers said.
Through a 20-minute documentary as part of their studies, the group have captured an insight to the rising costs of HECS, why graduates are paying their debts off in full and why others refuse to find out how much they owe.
The film also explores how technology has altered education since the last generation of students went through the tertiary system.
"We've talked to former and current students with debts as high as $80,000 and between different degrees we found students who are studying humanities are footing a much higher bill than those who might be studying education," Mr Hyslop said.
"This is a national issue, it's not just specific to our university. It's something that impacts every student studying the arts," he said.
"The more we started to research, the more we realised the bigger the issue is," Ms Jaggers said.
Ms Fishlock said through interviews they found a student who opted to pay out their $40,000 debt in one payment and other students who weren't aware of what they owe.
"Some of them don't even want to look at their HECS, they want to cross that bridge a bit later on in life," she said.
The group said through this project they hoped to contribute to the national conversation surrounding HECS and how the Job Ready Graduates package has affected young people in their studies.
"It loads some degrees with a lot of bad debt, which can affect our financial decisions in the future such as getting a loan for a house, we want people to understand how much university is costing," Mr Hyslop said.
"We just want people to be aware of what they're paying."
The documentary will be screened at the University of Newcastle's Chromatic Festival on Friday, where there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers. It will also be posted to the Yak Media YouTube channel.
The Chromatic Festival is running from November 1 to 5 at UON's Q Building and offers a multimedia exhibition featuring a diverse array of creative works from students at the University of Newcastle, School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences.
