Australia doubling fees for arts and humanities degrees

That’s supported by a survey conducted by The University of Melbourne investigating the experiences of first-year students between 1994 and 2014. When students were asked their main reason for enrolling, intrinsic interest in their subject consistently ranked highest, ahead of improving job prospects. In 1994, 94% considered interest in their field as an important reason to study, a figure that went up to 96% in 2014.     

“I think the idea that you can persuade the student who is interested in philosophy to go and become an engineer is just not how this is going to work,” says Joel Barnes, a public history researcher at University of Technology Sydney. Then there are also reasons beyond interest and job prospects that go into a student’s choice to pick a field of study. For example, those with learning disabilities may face additional challenges if they were forced to pick courses that don’t correspond with how they learn best, or isn’t taught in a way that is conducive to their learning. 

Sheehy points out that prior education reforms in Australia made law degrees more expensive, yet universities continue to see a consistent increase in law graduates. Conrad Liveris, a labour market economist, told ABC News that while the change may prompt more students to at least think about studying job-ready courses, “whether they continue with that is another thing”.   

Both Brown and Barnes acknowledge, however, that students from low-income backgrounds could end up factoring price into their decision-making. Barnes fears that the “demographic character” of humanities will change to include fewer people from working-class or less privileged backgrounds, something he says would be a great shame. “If humanities do become something that’s just for the privileged, it will become less diverse, less critical and less interesting.” 

That’s a sentiment shared by Tiana Sixsmith, a third-year anthropology and human rights student at Monash University in Melbourne. “What we feel like we’ll see is that those who don’t need to worry about the fees aren’t going to worry about it,” says Sixsmith. But she’s aware that the fee increases are already making those from low socio-economic groups reconsider studying particular subjects, based on the conversations she’s had with activist student groups and discussions on a Facebook group opposing the fee change. 

Culture war or common sense? 

Sixsmith also raises a question that has stirred passionate debate in the Australian higher education community - whether the change is an “ideological jab at the arts” or a solid plan that will “actually support students and universities post-pandemic”. Barnes, in a recent article,  described the changes as the latest battle in a “decades-old” culture war against the humanities driven by those who perceive them “as generally antagonistic to political interests”.

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