The Importance of Equal Government Support for All Students Regardless of Their Field of Study
By Rachel Cutler
In the midst of budget pressures (Karp 2023), there are government policies that will not deliver the outcomes needed by the community and will cost Australians more now and down the track. One of those policies is the Job Ready Graduates (JRG) package, introduced by the Morrison government and implemented in 2021; costing $18bn in 2020, increasing to $20bn in 2024 (DET 2023). This program has a range of objectives, including research, better support for remote students and more university places. The part of the package I take issue with is this: in aiming to deliver better results for industry and community, more funding is being directed towards high-priority areas of study including teaching and nursing while the costs of arts, social sciences and humanities (ASSH) degrees will double (Bisley 2022).
There is significant evidence that students who are supported to study in their area of interest will be motivated to complete their studies and enjoy greater academic success leading to more meaningful employment and careers (Marackiewicz et al. 2016). Essentially the government is telling students that if they choose non-priority fields of study, they will take on increased financial hardship. We are already seeing graduates in financial hardship with no relief in sight from the record-high indexation rate (7.1% in 2023, up from 3.9% in 2022) leaving many young people with higher education loan program (HELP/student) debts that are increasing by significantly more than their payments each year (Cassidy 2023). While the 2024 rate dropped back to 4.7%, we aren’t talking about the choice between saving for the great Australian dream OR enjoying ‘smashed avos’ anymore, we are just setting young people up for failure.
I considered being a teacher for about five minutes when my children were young and I was managing care arrangements during school holidays around full-time work. I can assure you the education sector is not missing out on anything by the fact that fleeting thought was not pursued. And that’s just it, do we want people becoming teachers and nurses because those are the cheapest degrees (or have the most convenient holidays)? Will the JRG package entice students who aren’t quite sure what to study? Maybe, but will it translate into more teachers and nurses, or will it result in more transfers to other fields of study and employment and even higher levels of student debt? I have worked in recruitment for over 20 years, and I am still amazed at the number of applicants I see who have completed tertiary qualifications in fields they have never worked in or only worked in for a short period.
I spoke with Michael (28) (personal communication 1 May 2023) who ended up graduating with a Bachelor of Education Studies from the Australian Catholic University in 2021 (with a high distinction average), after completing all requirements for a Bachelor of Education (Primary) except the final two practical components. While he enjoyed his first practical, he stopped the second practical on the second day because he “was appalled by his mentor teacher” and the third practical because he decided he just did not want to be a teacher. Michael worked in disability care during and after his studies before moving into youth detention, so he isn’t someone who can’t handle the stresses of the classroom.
Susie (personal communication 25 April 2023) finished a Master of Nursing with the University of Sydney in 2021, following a long career in the public service in the community services space and policy roles for a number of agencies including Prime Minister and Cabinet. Interestingly she completed a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) in 2002, which launched her public service career. She has been working as a Registered Nurse with The Royal Hospital for Women since February 2022 and although she plans to continue nursing, she commenced work as a Recruitment Consultant in March 2023 and has already dropped down to two nursing shifts per week because “full-time nursing is just not sustainable”.
If the government wants to redirect students to high-priority areas like education and nursing, they need to do something about making those industries more attractive. The pandemic put the spotlight on the challenges in both fields: long hours, low pay, ridiculous expectations etc. While expected pay increases in both of these fields (Butler 2023 and ACT Government 2023) will go some way to addressing the problem, the JRG package is not the answer.
Employment outcomes for graduates have risen across all sectors, but there have been significantly higher increases for ASSH graduates in 2022 from 2019: humanities, culture and social sciences are 89.6% from 64.9% (an increase of 38%) and creative arts are 79.5% from 56.2% (an increase of 41%), compared with teaching which is up 15% and nursing up by 21% (Challice, G et al. 2022). Generalist degrees, rather than under-preparing students, develop a broader skillset and focus on the skills employers want and need in their staff (Carnevale and Smith 2013). The skills students learn in ASSH studies drive Australia’s creative economy, which employs 600K workers and delivers $112bn of Australia’s GDP (The Australian 2021).
Michael and Susie chose to study education and nursing, without enticements of ‘cheaper’ degrees. They were both mature age students who had life experience before they made the decision to study in these fields. What does this mean for younger students who don’t have the benefit of that life experience? A background paper to inform the Dropping out: the benefits and costs of trying university report highlights that ‘field of study’ has a high impact on completion rates while socioeconomic circumstances have a low impact, although the financial pressures associated with the cost of study often result in students studying part-time and this does have an impact on completion rates (Cherastidtham and Norton 2018). This suggests that making high-priority courses cheaper and low-priority courses more expensive will not achieve the government’s objective of getting more students into high-priority fields.
There are a number of reports about the attrition rates for qualified teachers and nurses, and what is similar with all of them is that quality national data is not available; however, it is estimated that the five-year attrition rate for new teachers is 30-50% (Weldon 2018) and that 20% of all nurses are planning on leaving their roles and 41% of these would not be taking up another nursing role in Australia (Berlin 2022).
Isabella (20) (personal communication 28 April 2023) is studying for an arts/history degree at the University of Melbourne. The cost of this three-year degree will be $45K before indexation on her student loan. The government can call it indexation, but this is compounding interest, and that degree will cost $49K+ before she gets a chance to start paying it off. Isabella said she developed a love of history in high school and cultivated this with a double major during years 11 and 12 at Dickson College, during which she researched where she wanted to pursue her tertiary education. To fund studying away from home, she took a year off and worked at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) as a Visitor Services Officer (gallery/tour guide), an opportunity she nurtured through doing work experience at NMA while she was in Year 12. This experience meant nothing when trying to get a similar job in Melbourne, and she is currently working two hospitality jobs to support herself through her studies. I was as impressed with her determination to pursue an art/history degree (rather than an education/history degree that would have been half the price), as I was slightly horrified by her living conditions, which included very limited facilities in a house shared with four others (with a serious rodent problem). I can’t help but wonder if her enthusiasm, which as a society we should be supporting, will dim over the course of her degree. While I’m all for building the resilience of our youth, I really don’t believe it should be this hard. It’s worth noting that working in cultural institutions does not pay as much as positions in payroll processing; hopefully Isabella will make it and stay the course, otherwise teachers may struggle to find somewhere to take their students for excursions.
All levels of government promote diversity and inclusion, yet the JRG package reflects a federal government that underestimates and undervalues the benefits that come from diversity and is taking an approach whereby those students who are following their interests, an approach which has been proven to deliver greater success (Cherastidtham and Norton 2018), will incur higher student debt. Governments have repeatedly shown they are out of touch with what Australians consider important. Ignoring all I’ve said so far, what if the JRG package was successful and all new students decide to study in high-priority fields? What happens to the arts sector, which supports a far broader industry including tourism and hospitality? The arts sector has helped to shape Australian society and plays a central role in establishing and sustaining our culture (Hull 2013). We have to consider the legacy of the JRG program and how that will impact the next generation. From where I’m sitting, it looks pretty grim.
Unfortunately, the Morrison government put the cart before the horse with the JRG package, which relied on research that had not yet been undertaken (DET 2020), and will no doubt be undertaken by people with generalist degrees. If they had operated like an intuitive, smart, forward-thinking business, the JRG package would not have seen the light of day. We all get it wrong sometimes; it’s how we fix it that makes the difference. The JRG package needs to be rebalanced to support all students, regardless of their field of study, and stop setting young people up for hardship.
Reference List
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