Australian Tertiary Education Commission to review Job-ready Graduates scheme

As the re-elected Albanese government doubles down on education reforms, the Job-ready Graduates package will be put on the chopping block.

The Coalition wants to steer more school leavers into university degrees - especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Coalition’s unpopular Job-ready Graduates scheme is set for demolition this year as the re-elected Labor government champions student equity in its second-term education reforms.

The new Australian Tertiary Education Commission, to be legislated by the Albanese government this year, will be told to replace JRG with a new scheme that links taxpayer subsidies for degrees to the earning potential of graduates.

Doctors, lawyers and engineers – who typically earn more than other professionals – would be likely to pay the highest fees for degrees, while students of teaching, nursing and the arts would pay less.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said on Tuesday he wanted “more people from the outer suburbs and regions getting a crack at TAFE and university’’.

“Education is the linchpin to building a stronger and fairer country,’’ Mr Clare said.

“In the years ahead we are going to need more people with more skills – that’s what our reforms are all about.

“The Liberals see education as a cost not an investment, and are ­obsessed with US culture wars.’’

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare says education is an investment in Australia. Picture: Nikki Short/NewsWire

Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy welcomed the Albanese government’s re-election and called for focus on replacing JRG and boosting research funding.

He said universities needed “certainty and stability’’ in terms of revenue from international students, and criticised the “stopgap measure’’ of Ministerial Direction 111 to limit international student visas.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy says universities need certainty and stability over funding

The government is likely to reintroduce legislation to discourage international students from “course-hopping’’ out of universities and into cheaper and low-quality vocational courses.

Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thompson, representing the research-intensive universities, said they would play a key role in the Albanese government’s agenda to boost national productivity.

“We also encourage the government to move forward with reforms to the Job-ready Graduates scheme to create a more equitable environment for our students, so we can educate the highly skilled graduates we need to remain competitive,’’ she said.

The re-elected Albanese government’s first piece of legislation will cut student debts by 20 per cent on June 1, to be backdated if the legislation does not pass parliament within the tight deadline.

Universities will be expected to administer the new “prac payments’’ of $315 a week for trainee teachers, nurses, midwives and ­social workers from July 1.

The Coalition had planned to tack the payments onto students’ Higher Education Loan Program debts for eventual repayment through the taxation system, after universities complained about the complexity of administering the payments to university students who undertake mandatory work experience as part of their degree.

Innovative Research Universities called for reform of the JRG policy, as well as simpler pathways for students through the tertiary education and training systems.

The new ATEC will also require legislation, although Mr Clare will not wait for the bill to be passed before appointing Mary O’Kane as interim commissioner from July 1. Professor O’Kane chaired Labor’s landmark Universities Accord review in 2023, which recommended that “student contributions reflect future earnings’’.

Professor Mary O’Kane will chair a review of the Job-ready Graduates scheme through the new Australian Tertiary Education Commission.

The JRG scheme, introduced by the Morrison government in 2021, tried to fill skills shortages by doubling the cost of popular degrees in law, communications, business, the humanities and arts, while making it cheaper to study teaching, nursing, mathematics, psychology and agriculture.

The Universities Accord review concluded that JRG “has led to large and unfair increases in student contributions’’ and had failed to deter students from enrolling in costly courses. It noted complaints that the changes were “deeply ­unfair and punished students for following their interests’’.

Federal government data shows that enrolments in natural and physical sciences plunged 10.8 per cent between 2019 and 2023.

In management and commerce degrees, which were made more expensive, enrolments fell 9.2 per cent – but the number of students studying agriculture fell 6.1 per cent, despite cuts to the cost of the degree.