New university enrollments from students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are set to fall by 10% between 2020 and 2024, as Independent Senator David Pocock warns the Morrison-era Job Ready Graduates (JRG) scheme is creating a “divided” higher education system.
The JRG scheme was introduced in 2021 under former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison and led to arts degrees costing students more than $50,000, while other degrees, including science and maths, cut fees by up to 59%.
The scheme, designed to encourage students into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) courses – has been accepted by experts and the government – has “failed” and instead discouraged those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds from pursuing a university education.
According to an analysis of data from Innovative Research Universities, new enrollments among students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (9.8%) fell nearly three times over the four-year period compared to all other indigenous students (3.5%).
In 2024, the scheme would cost all domestic students an extra $368m, with students studying degrees in the highest band paying an extra $1.3bn compared to a scenario where the scheme did not exist, the IRU said, as the group of seven public universities “committed to combined education and innovative research”.
ACT Senator David Pocock has lobbied the government to change the scheme and the IRU figures – based on the most recent data available – show entrenched inequality in the scheme.
“[JRG] Besides admitting students with $50,000+ humanities degrees, they are also creating a separate higher education system where only students from affluent backgrounds can study subjects like law,” he said.
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Between 2020 and 2024, law and commerce degrees, which have the highest fees among students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, fell by 17.7%. Among all other students, law and commerce starts increased by 2.3%.
Pocock continued: “The Albanese government talks about their commitment to equity, but we need to see those words matched with action to scrap JRG, which has now been under their watch longer than the Morrison government.”
The IRU found that the Commonwealth provided $1.2bn less funding in 2024 than pre-scheme settings. Despite the increase in student contributions, base funding for universities is $813 million lower in 2024.
Paul Harris, executive director of the IRU, said the data showed “signs of division in our higher education system based on the cost of a degree to students”.
“We are really concerned about the urgency of the two-track higher education system,” Harris told Guardian Australia.
IRU Chair and Western Sydney University Vice-Chancellor George Williams said the scheme was actively working against the principles of the Public University Agreement to improve equity, quality and sustainability in higher education.
“JRG has a devastating effect on the people who should be serving higher education, who often benefit most from a university degree,” Williams said.
“Law is sometimes a really great opportunity in life and a field that needs people from diverse backgrounds. To see a 17.7% drop in low-SES [enrolments] A big marker of a problem in a law degree.”
The Government has introduced a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC), which will help implement some of the recommendations of the Universities Agreement. The establishment of ATEC has already been delayed, with the government initially committed to formally launching it by January.
But concerns have been raised over the current bill: that ATEC can provide advice to the government on Commonwealth funding for universities, but is not required to consider student contributions and provide advice.
Harris said it is “essential” that ATEC has the ability to balance cost to students and government.
Green’s higher education spokeswoman, Mehreen Faruqi, raised the alarm over ATEC’s failure to consider student contributions in its advice to the government and accused Labor of “kicking the ‘JRG can’ down the road”.
“This Labor government talks a big game on equity in higher education, but there is no need to abolish the policy that bars low-SES students from accessing the degrees of their choice,” she said.
