Plans to double arts degrees blasted as ‘incredibly shortsighted’

Plans to double the cost of some university courses have been blasted as a shortsighted stunt that could put our future economy at risk.

Plans to double the cost of some university courses will leave Australia with a serious deficit in human-based skills and an unbalanced economy that will leave us all worse off, it has been argued.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan announced the changes on Friday, saying “Australia is facing the biggest employment challenge since the Great Depression”.

Under the plans, nursing degrees, maths courses and psychology degrees will be slashed to just to $3700-a-year while arts degree and communications courses is set to double to $14,500 a year.

Law degrees and economics will also face fee hikes of nearly 30 per cent rising to $14,500.

The Morrison Government is trying to dissuade students from studying courses without a clear job pathway, but the President of the Australia Academy of the Humanities Professor Joy Damousi said the plan will backfire.

Minister for Education Dan Tehan announced the plans on Friday. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

She told news.com.au she was hit with a sense of “utter dismay and disappointment” when she heard the announcement.

“The government has chosen to identify the humanities as an area that is basically being defunded and devalued as a contributor to the workforce,” she said.

“This is a very hostile and panicked response. It’s incredibly shortsighted and it utterly shows a lack of understanding of the humanities to the workforce, to our economy and to society.”

She believes there is a “disturbing message” in the announcement that arts and humanities do not have a contribution to make.

She said that the fact that an arts degree now costs more than a medical and veterinary course is “clearly ridiculous” — particularly since it costs far less in resources to run an arts degree.

It’s a decision that she says will make it difficult for lower income students to take a humanities degree, leading to an unbalanced economy and national skill-set in the future.

“Those skill-sets are going to become depleted in the coming years and as a nation we should be very concerned about it,” she said.

President of the Australia Academy of the Humanities Professor Joy Damousi says the government’s plan is shortsighted. Picture: Suppied

Given what is happening in the world right now, she said the skills taught on these courses, including critical thinking, communication, ethics, creativity, innovation and human-centred decision-making, are more important than ever.

“There is no better time than the crisis we’re in to understand how important it is to have these sorts of approaches and these perspectives,” she said.

It’s also widely-known that artificial intelligence will replace many of the jobs we have today, but areas that require critical human thinking like the law and the arts are timeless, Professor Damousi said.

“An education isn’t just about what’s happening today it’s about looking forward five, ten or 15 years into the future then the timeless skills that have been with us since the beginning of university need to be maintained and recognised,” she said.

“Across all sectors of employment, time and time again we get the same message that employers want people with arts degrees because they can transfer and bring to a position a generic set of skills that are going to be valuable today and in the future.”

It has been argued that humanities will be more important once more jobs become automated. Picture: iStock

Professor Damousi argued the policy goes against the core principles of Liberal Party’s founding vision.

“The Menzies vision was to include support, fund and support the humanities,” she said. “So to me it’s very incongruous that the very party that party that Menzies set up is something that is being completely undermined by this government decision.”

Mr Tehan said a “cheaper degree in an area where there’s a job is a win-win for students”.

“Universities must teach Australians the skills needed to succeed in the jobs of the future,” Mr Tehan said.

“We will also incentivise students to make more job-relevant choices, that lead to more job-ready graduates, by reducing the student contribution in areas of expected employment growth and demand.

“To deliver cheaper degrees in areas of expected employment growth, students who choose to study more popular degrees will make a higher contribution.”

Originally published as Plans to double arts degrees blasted as ‘incredibly shortsighted’