Why is the university fees going up

Read more about: Kathleen Wynne , Doug Ford. Report an error. Journalistic Standards. About The Star. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now it is free Sign In. Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions. More Politics. Top Stories. About Contact Us Feedback. Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. Ministers also set out plans to improve post vocational education including student loans for adult learners.

The DfE also launched a consultation on changing the timetable for applying to university - to a so-called "post-qualification admissions" system. This would mean admissions being based on the grades achieve by students, rather than not relying on predictions.

The government outlined its plans for higher education reforms for overs in response to a landmark review , commissioned by the government from finance expert Philip Augar. Its recommendations were published in May The DfE said given the pandemic "now is not the right time to conclude the review in full". Any further reforms are expected to be announced at the next Spending Review. Mr Augar also suggested the return of maintenance grants for poorer university students as part of his review, but there was not mention of this in the interim response.

The Government projects 40 per cent of students will end up paying more for a university education, while most will either have fees reduced or stay the same. The changes still have to be passed by Parliament before they actually become law, but if you're a student or a parent worried about how the changes could affect you, here's what you need to know. But the cost of a university degree is actually higher than that, when you account for the Government stepping in to share the load with students.

Because degrees like engineering require more resources, they cost more per year, but the Government again shoulders some of the additional burden. These structures will remain the same under the proposed new scheme — what will change is the balance between the Government and the student when it comes to paying fees.

The Government has two goals in mind with its changes to the sector: introducing an extra 39, student places over coming years, and encouraging students to study subjects that are projected to become employment hotspots. No current university student will be affected by the changes, which will begin with new enrolments next year if passed by Parliament.

Education Minister Dan Tehan last week said cheaper degrees would be offered to students in subject areas where jobs were most needed. It's important to note that none of these changes are set in stone yet, with the Government's proposal still needing to get through Parliament. The courses to see the biggest increases under the plan are those in humanities, law, management, communications and social sciences.

Those areas would see students shouldering about 93 per cent of the cost of their degrees. Remember our social sciences example from earlier? Similarly, teaching, nursing, science and agriculture will be among those subjects made cheaper to study. The Federal Government emphasises the costs will be at a unit level, not at a degree level, suggesting humanities students may be able to reduce their costs by studying electives in highly subsidised areas. It depends. If you are studying a degree where courses fees are set to increase — such as law — the changes will not apply to you.

However, students part-way through degrees where the courses will become cheaper, such as nursing and engineering, will benefit from the lower fees. The government says the new funding model will result in lower or unchanged fees for 60 per cent of students. In Australia, university students are charged fees for each unit also called courses or subjects they study, rather than the overall degree.

Each semester, students receive a statement telling them how much they owe, although most elect to defer these fees through the Higher Education Loan Program HELP. Some subjects have higher tuition fees than others. Exactly how much a degree will cost will depend on which subjects a student chooses to study across the course of their degree.

This means the Australian government subsidises the cost of the course, leaving students to pay the balance. Each subject a student enrols in is funded in this way — that is, through a Commonwealth contribution the portion the government pays to the university and a student contribution the fee the student owes to the university.

The fee changes were the centrepiece of a package of reforms dubbed the "Job Ready Graduates" reforms, announced by federal Education Minister Dan Tehan in June. The rationale underpinning this plan is that students will be incentivised to study the cheaper degrees, thereby producing more graduates in fields where they are needed — science, technology, engineering and mathematics STEM as well as teaching and nursing.

From next year, students will have a choice. Their degree will be cheaper if they choose to study in areas where there is expected growth in job opportunities. Tehan said government projections prepared before the COVID pandemic showed that over the five years to almost half of all new jobs would go to someone with a bachelor or higher qualification. Health care, science and technology, education and construction were expected to provide 62 per cent of total employment growth over the next five years.

The government says the changes will fund an extra 30, university places next year, and up to , places by Students at the University of Technology, Sydney.