Overhaul to uni fees could harm the NT, warns union

THE Territory’s higher education sector may be worse off under Federal Government changes to university fees, the tertiary education union says.

THE Territory’s higher education sector may be worse off under Federal Government changes to university fees, the tertiary education union says.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan on Friday announced an overhaul of university fees in an attempt to drive job growth.

Fees will be cut for teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, science, health, architecture, IT, engineering and English, while fees for humanities and law degrees will be increased.

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National Tertiary Education Union NT president Darius Pfitzner criticised the approach and said it may harm major local industries such as tourism and entertainment.

“If at the very least, pending more details relative to the NT, it may actually skew the skill market towards skills the Territory doesn’t need,” he said.

“It’s time the Federal Government stopped gouging students and ripping off the university sector and fund Australian education appropriately, and support the Northern Territory in what it’s trying to achieve in education.”

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A Charles Darwin University spokeswoman said the educator would not comment on the changes until next week.

And CDU would not respond to questions about which fields of study were most popular at the university, or fields of study it considered most important to the Northern Territory.