April 10, 2026
Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee
Group of Eight Universities (Go8) submission to inquiry into Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) Bill 2025
The Group of Eight (Go8) supports serious and timely consideration of the ongoing impacts of the Job-ready Graduates (JRG) reforms on the sustainability and suitability of the higher education funding system, universities’ capacity to deliver high-quality education, and the long term financial burden placed on students – especially those with the least capacity to afford it.
The Go8 supports the objective of the bill to address the inequities and distortions created by Job-ready Graduates, particularly the unjustifiably high student contributions set for many courses in humanities, arts and social sciences.
The bill responds to a genuine and widely acknowledged policy failure. However, it does not and cannot, on its own, resolve the wider structural funding problems identified through the Universities Accord process and recognised across the sector. Addressing these issues requires coordinated action by Government, working with universities, rather than further piecemeal reform.
Reversing the increases in student contribution amounts, as this bill proposes, without restoring the Commonwealth contribution amounts that were reduced at the same time would reduce funding to universities at a time when many are already under financial pressure. It would also cut funding to the same disciplines this bill seeks to protect.
The Go8 emphasises that reform of student contributions cannot be considered in isolation from overall system funding. Changing student contribution amounts without restoring Commonwealth contributions and without addressing the long‑standing gap between public funding and the full cost of teaching, student services and support will shift financial pressure onto institutions, with consequences for quality, access, and sustainability.
This is a conversation the higher education sector is ready to have. It is also the central rationale for the establishment of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC). Working with Government, the Go8 seeks a sustainable and effective funding framework that supports fairness and accessibility for students while enabling Australia’s leading universities to continue delivering excellence across teaching and research.
Recommendation
The Go8 recommends that the Committee calls upon the Government to formally task the ATEC, in partnership with the higher education sector, with developing and implementing a comprehensive response to the most significant impacts of Job-ready Graduates, including unfair and unsustainable Commonwealth and student contribution amounts.
Key points
- The Go8 supports reform of the Commonwealth and student contribution arrangements introduced under Job-ready Graduates to create a funding system that is fair for students, adequately supports universities to deliver on community and government expectations, and is sustainable.
- Reforms that do not address the long‑standing gap between total funding per place and the full cost of teaching, student services and support will transfer financial pressure onto institutions with adverse consequences for quality, access, and long-term stability.
- The Universities Accord process has identified the policy failure and long-term damage caused by Job-ready Graduates. Now that the ATEC has been legislated and established, it should be tasked with working alongside the sector to design a coherent and implementable policy solution.
Further information
The foundations of Australia’s current approach to funding Commonwealth-supported university places were laid by the Dawkins reforms in late 1980s. That framework – acknowledging both the public and private benefits of higher education, with students contributing through income contingent repayments once they could afford to do so – served students and universities well for decades. It supported growing participation, widening access and system stability, while ensuring university remained affordable for all students offered a place.
Subsequent changes to the Commonwealth and student contributions, the loan repayment system, other university revenue sources, and broader shifts in the education system, labour market and economy have fundamentally altered these foundations. Job-ready Graduates was the Morrison Government’s attempt to re-align and re-engineer the system following earlier reform efforts that did not secure Senate support.
Job-ready Graduates was intended to:
- Encourage student enrolment in courses aligned with perceived labour-market need;
- Better align university funding with the cost of delivery; and
- Support growth in Commonwealth supported places.
It has not succeeded on any of these measures. Instead, it has broken the link between student contributions and prospective earnings, extended repayment periods, increased indexation impacts, and expanded the portion of debt unlikely ever to be repaid.
The wide differentials in student contributions introduced under Job-ready Graduates have:
- Created significant price shocks for students in particular disciplines;
- Introduced blunt signals that do not reflect the diversity of labour market outcomes or societal value of these disciplines;
- Contributed to inequitable access, particularly for students from lower‑socioeconomic backgrounds; and
- Failed to align total funding for universities with the actual cost of teaching and service delivery.
The Go8 has consistently argued that student demand is shaped by a complex set of factors, including capability, aspiration, geography, and opportunity – not solely by price signals.
Under Job-ready Graduates:
- Student contributions in many humanities, arts and social sciences courses increased by 113 per cent, moving from the lowest band ($6,804 per year in 2021) to the highest band ($14,500 per year), exceeding charges for medicine and dentistry ($11,300 per year);
- By 2026, a three-year arts degree costs students around $52,000 in nominal terms; and
- The student share of total teaching costs rose from 42 per cent to 48 per cent, while the Commonwealth share declined from 58 per cent to 52 per cent.
The evidence now overwhelmingly demonstrates that Job-ready Graduates has failed on its own stated terms.
- It has not materially shifted student choice. Commencementsin Society and Culture declined only slightly – from 25 per cent of bachelor commencements in 2020 to 22 per cent in 2024 – while other priority fields remained largely unchanged.[1]
- It has increased inequity. First Nations students are more likely to study courses in the highest student contribution band – 31 per cent of First Nations students are in Society and Culture programs compared with 23 per cent of all domestic students.[2]
- Overall funding for teaching has declined. Total funding fell from $14.9 billion in 2017 to $14.1 billion in 2024 (2024 dollars) despite marginal growth in Commonwealth supported places.[3]
The bill before the Committee would restore student contribution amounts for many humanities, arts and social sciences courses to levels that would have applied in 2026 had 2020 rates simply been indexed. However, it does so without restoring the corresponding Commonwealth contribution, resulting in a reduction in total funding per place.
The Go8 acknowledges that the bill this would:
- Eliminate the most excessive and inequitable student contributions;
- Remove a clear disincentive to study in many humanities, arts and social sciences courses; and
- Improve fairness and accessibility for students.
However, reducing student contributions without restoring Commonwealth funding risks transferring cost pressures from students to universities rather than resolving them. This would constrain universities’ capacity to invest in teaching quality, student support and workforce capability at a time of heightened domestic and global financial pressure. It may also discourage the provision of places in disciplines that remain critical to Australia’s cultural, social and civic life.
Affordability for students must not be achieved by undermining the long‑term sustainability of institutions.
Conclusion
Reform of student contribution arrangements should occur as part of a broader package that:
- aligns student contributions, total funding per place and delivery costs;
- supports disciplinary diversity and national capability; and
- provides certainty and stability for both students and universities.
Addressing one element of the funding model in isolation risks perpetuating fragmented policy outcomes.
For research‑intensive universities, distorted teaching funding arrangements also weaken Australia’s research capability by eroding the institutional capacity that underpins early‑career researcher development, research‑enabling disciplines, and delivery of national research priorities.
With ATEC now legislated and operational, the Go8 urges the Committee to recommend that Government use this framework to deliver a durable, evidence‑based response to the failures of Job‑ready Graduates.
[1] Australian Government Department of Education, Selected Higher Education Statistics – 2024 Student data – Student Enrolment Pivot Table <https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/resources/perturbed-student-enrolments-pivot-table-2024>
[2] Australian Government Department of Education, Selected Higher Education Statistics – 2024 Student data – Section 6 – First Nations students <https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/resources/2024-section-6-first-nations-students>
[3] Universities Australia, Critical challenges in Australia’s university sector: securing a sustainable future (2025 edition) <https://universitiesaustralia.edu.au/stats-publications/>
