Media Releases

CAPA opposes the resurrection of university fee deregulation

6 Apr 16

MEDIA RELEASE: CAPA OPPOSES THE RESURRECTION OF UNIVERSITY FEE DEREGULATION

CAPA media release- CAPA opposes resurrection of university fee deregulation

6 April 2016 – CAPA is appalled that the Minister for Higher Education, Senator Simon Birmingham, confirmed the Government’s support for the Abbott Government’s poisonous university fee deregulation plan. This plan was rejected by the Senate twice and is widely unpopular among current and future university students as well as their parents. It was presumed to be off the table after the change in prime minister, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull repeatedly assuring Australians that any changes to higher education would only occur with the involvement of key stakeholders in the sector.

Postgraduate students have not been consulted and will pay a heavy price if the government implements the fee deregulation program. Postgraduate study will become more unattainable for students as fees soar, and will entrench further inequality into the tertiary system as the sandstone universities charge a premium to students. The fee deregulation proposal will weaken higher education in Australia at a time when graduates increasingly undertake postgraduate qualifications to stay competitive in the workforce.

Not only is there the looming possibility of $100,000 degrees, but the impact of fee deregulation on the Commonwealth budget would be to increase the nation’s debt by tens of billions of dollars over the forward estimates. The plan would do absolutely nothing to improve the sustainability of the HECS-HELP system and will end up costing the taxpayer billions of dollars in non-performing HECS-HELP loans and interest subsidies.

If fee deregulation remains on the cards, postgraduate students must be preparing for a lifetime of debt with little to no improvements in the real problems in the higher education sector such as workplace preparedness, quality of teaching, and learning and research training. This proposal belies the notion the Turnbull Government is committed to the innovation system. It seems that the Government is following the well-trodden path of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in bringing forward poorly thought out policies which will cost the taxpayer billions of dollars in the medium term with no consideration of outcomes or fairness.

CAPA National President Jim Smith says, “CAPA is committed to sustainable equity in the higher education sector. The failed and flawed fee deregulation plan of the Abbott Government has never been, and will never be, the solution to the problems facing the sector.”

ENDS

For comment: Jim Smith, National President, CAPA: 0437 006 605 / president@capa.edu.au