When I became an academic, I never thought I’d be handing out food vouchers. But yet, in 2023, we increasingly have to — or at least triage for student services.
My university has a small stash of vouchers for such emergencies, but the mounting requests and worsening distress of students — particularly in the humanities — make it harder to face each day. Students are facing massive cost-of-living pressures, but also have spiralling HECS debts that refuse to diminish. As a result, many students will be delayed or stopped from having kids and a mortgage.
I don’t want to be spending time with students crying about their rent and the cost of their courses; I want to be discussing ideas and plans for their future. I was given that opportunity, and we owe it to the kids to give them the same.
We’ve been struggling through a decade of policies created by a government that didn’t value education and research, particularly in the humanities. So when the first real Labor budget was released by Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week, so many of us in the education sector felt let down.
Looking through the “winners” and “losers” in this year’s budget for some specks of joy, there was so little to be found: $20 a week more for students on ABSTUDY and Austudy payments; an average of $12 a week for those who manage to get Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
That hardly covers any of the rises we’ve all been experiencing lately. But then there was the real kicker: HECS loans will rise to 7.1% in June, adding to the debt burden students will have to repay.
Cold comfort
I acknowledge that significant work is taking place to transform Australia’s higher education system through an Australian Universities Accord, which has drawn together an expert panel and asked for ideas to take higher education into 2050.
A discussion paper released in February poses about 40 questions to the higher education sector to make sure that it’s fit for purpose and funded fairly, that there are appropriate provisions for research and commercialisation, and that it ensures positive student experiences.
The work being done in Canberra and in universities and the vocational education and training (VET) sector is important for shaping the future education needs of our nation. But there are too many competing interests for universities and other stakeholders to agree on everything, so the government is going to have to carefully weigh its decisions. That is cold comfort for students currently struggling to make enough money to live and study.
If Australia is to be a clever country, we need to do more to ensure all Australians hold a formal qualification — not necessarily a university degree but some kind of qualification that will help them work and progress in society.
Understanding motivation
Among the many hits to the education system under the previous government was the decision to increase the cost of humanities degrees by 110% in a bid to force young people to consider careers in nursing and STEM. This was the one policy we thought would be immediately reversed under Labor, but it hasn’t.
Anyone familiar with what motivates students to study knows it’s much more complex than the cost of a university course. If you want to encourage people into nursing, you also need to fix the workload, experience and pay.
It’s the same for aged care: increasing wages is important, but that’s only one part of the solution. To really get people to want to work in areas of critical skill shortage — such as aged care, disability, mental health and family violence services — Australia needs to think holistically about wages and conditions, as well as upskilling and reskilling Australians alongside skilled migration.
And that’s what it comes back to. Instead of watching our students juggle work and study, we need to better support them to do both. My university is trying to do this through more work-integrated learning, or more learning while working — i.e., being paid while educated.
Less talk, more support
Right now, about 1 million Australians do not have the qualifications they need for the future. There is a lot of low-level upskilling available, but very little for those in the workforce. Increasingly people at universities and in the VET sector need to be acknowledged as employees first.
But enough about the sector generally. In my Staff Student Consultative Committee meeting last week, instead of talking about the great things staff are helping students create in class, one student apologetically said: “Is it here that I can raise the cost of attending university? Why does my course cost so much more than my friend’s?”
This young woman, a leader in her course and a promising journalist, wanted to know how we could help. We were all flummoxed, particularly me as the oldest in the room, sitting with my four degrees — all gained through free education. I told her to talk to her local politician. But to be honest, we need less talking and more support for young people right now.
If it’s not time to help during a surplus budget, then when is it time?
