Coronavirus: Federal government offers cut-price university courses

Education Minister tells newly unemployed to get off Netflix and start studying for work in high demand sectors, via cut-price courses.

Minister for Education Dan Tehan said the government would encourage Australian universities to become “world leaders” in short courses, or micro-credentialling, in subjects including nursing.

The federal government will slash the price of shorter university courses and diplomas in an effort to retrain newly unemployed Australians for work in high demand sectors when the country emerges from COVID-19.

Education Minister Dan Tehan said the government would also give universities their estimated income from the Commonwealth Grant Scheme despite a heavily disrupted year, putting a “ballast” in the higher education sector.

“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And what we want to do is provide an opportunity for all those people who have had their lives turned upside down by the coronavirus to re-skill or look at different career options,” Mr Tehan said.

Mr Tehan said the policy would enable unemployed Australians, “rather than bingeing on Netflix, to binge on studying”.

He said the government would encourage Australian universities to become “world leaders” in short courses, or micro-credentialling, in subjects including nursing, health, teaching and “areas where we need people, and we are going to need people as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic”.

“If our universities can seize this opportunity, we will be able to ensure that education remains one of the foundations which will build this nation into the future.

“We are ensuring that when it comes to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme, what we estimated their income this year, that they would get from the CGS, they will get. So the estimates will now become the reality for the university sector, providing a ballast for them when it comes to fee help, the student loan contribution, they will also get a window to repay that.

“So they will not have to repay fee help if there is under enrolment of students next year, and then we will give them eight years to repay any under enrolments of the fee help calculation.

“When it comes to tertiary education, we also want to provide opportunities for Australians to be able to use this period, this next six months, to re-school, to re-skill, or to re-engage in other parts of the workforce.”