Because $11 490 isn't enough.

[melwil]

The federal budget, Peter Costello's smirking moment of the year, was handed down last night. As you might know if you have visited lizbee's LJ, one of the government's major budget reforms includes the higher education system. These changes (due to be in place for the beginning of 2005) include:

-Abolishing compulsory union fees
-Allowing universities to raise most fees by 30% (deregulation)
-Allowing students to borrow up to $50 000 with an interest rate 0f 3.5% - plus inflation
-Using the universities as guinea pigs for work place reforms
-A 'learning entitlement' that limits students to five years of publicly subsidised education.

Now, before I start yelling about this, it would be appropriate to rehash Australia's current education status. Each undergraduate student in Australia is given the chance to defer their university fees in a system known as HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme). You pay this money back to the government in your taxes when you earn enough money. The fees are graded dependent on the course you take - (education, nursing, arts, humanities, performing and visual arts, science and foreign languages on the lowest rung; accounting, commerce, economics, maths, statistics, computing, engineering, science and agriculture on the second rung; law, dentistry, medicine and veterinary on the highest) and calculated on the number of courses you take over a year.

I took 33 courses over three years and two courses over another half a year. I have a degree which will not get me a full time job. I owe the government $11 490. That's a low bill.

Of course, if I had thought about it, I probably should have done education right from the beginning. But our system, probably like many others, requires students to choose their future education at the age of 14 or 15 - when they're in grade 10.

Because students will only get five years of subsidised education, choosing the right course in the first place will be vital. So too, getting the right marks to study - because doing one year of an easier course to increase your OP or score will put your allotted time in danger. Even doing your honours year could be against the government's new rules.

Not to mention that the thirty percent extra would have put my degree at around $15 030 - and there's no guarantee that it won't go up more in the future.

It won't really affect me - I want two more years at teaching, but teaching and nursing will be protected. But it will affect my youngest sister who graduates from high school in 2004 (to begin uni in 2005), and further down the track, my own children. It means that being a stay at home mother will be less of a choice for women my age, because we'll need to be earning money to give our children the kind of education that was free for the people who are inflicting this on us.

Comments

[melwil.livejournal.com]

I think riting letters is the only way we're going to stop this from happening. Not so much to the Liberals/Nationals - as we all know they're not really listening to us - but writing to Labour, the Greens and the Democrats who want to stop this going through the senate.

If we let them know that they have our support on this, then there's a better chance that it will be blocked.