This submission has been prepared in response to the call for public comment on the Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50K Arts Degrees) Bill 2025 by the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee. This Bill seeks to repeal the table in section 93-10 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003. Under this change the maximum student contribution amounts for a place in a unit of study in Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, and Communication or Society and Culture are reverted to what those amounts would have been on 1 January 2026, accounting for indexation, if the amendments made by the job-ready graduates bill had not commenced.
We believe that the proposed Bill is consistent with a commitment to building a better and fairer education system and the government’s response to the Universities Accord that concluded the Job-Ready Graduates’ fee hikes require "urgent remediation".6 It also builds on the changes made to the HELP system to make it fairer.7 In summary, we support the proposed rollback of student contributions for those undertaking undergraduate studies in Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, and Communication or Society and Culture from both an economic and social justice perspective.