In fact, mhaze, I refer twice, to the (?) "world leading" contingent loans scheme. As one possible reason, why higher fees don't matter.

To me, they do matter. Because we have a two-tier school system, plus high uni fees already, and now "COVID scarring" of grad employment and earnings. Which also, ttbn, is why you can forget about strict user-pays, politically.

Plantagenet, I agree, the fees are confusing. Seriously, I kept thinking they were misprinted. Blame Tehan, not me. Full contributions tables, sorry I couldn't fit into op-ed, may be found under the links "Department" or "even more"

Hi Steve

Thanks for your reply.

I would also say that Tehan's Liberal Party would likely classify Arts Degree students as regular or future Labor and/or Greens voters.

So what is effectively a fee increase for these current/future voters will be at little political cost for Tehan and the Liberals.

Pete

What utter twaddle.

The current system simply wastes money on people without enough grey matter to handle a real education, hence the dumbing down of most university education. It is used to fill a few years of kids who don't know what to do with themselves.

It therefor pumps out arts degreed people to fill unnecessary desks in public service departments around the country. About all it does, apart from costing real workers an arm & a leg, is keep the unemployment figures down a bit.

It was much better in the 50s. If you had a brain, & were prepared to work really hard you could get any number of scholarships from many companies in many industries. Three honors in the externally set & marked leaving certificate gave you almost total pick, a couple of honors got you most, & 3 "A"s & 3 "B"s would get you into almost any teachers scholarship. Just reasonable English & Math would get you into teachers college. It was because of this our high school teachers were a couple of cuts above the bunch today.

I was one of 3 given by Holden in Sydney in my year, 4 days at uni & one at the factory. Of my 5Th year class, only 2 did not get to uni or teachers college, one went into the family business, & one back to the sheep station.

From the perspective of an utterly un-educated namely myself, it is painfully obvious, just as Hasbeen said, that the majority do not have sufficient intelligence nor do they have a healthy enough mentality to firstly; handle education & secondly, to become useful members of society instead of being the burden they are on the rest of us !
A Tradesman of yesteryear could out-do a BA holder of today in seconds in just about every aspect of daily requirements for a worthwhile Citizen !
My old buddy Dave, may he rest in Peace, had twenty times more general knowledge, had a very good grasp on Latin, knew minerals & participated as a soldier in three wars.
Try & have a conversation with BA holder now & it'll become painfully obvious in moments what BA really stands for !

Steve S,
It seems obvious to me that a much better solution would be to raise the repayment threshold for the more useful degrees. Do you have an opinion on that alternative?