Arts degrees to cost $50,000 until at least 2028 as measures to lower Australian university fees put on hold | Australian universities

The man tasked with reforming the controversial Job Ready Graduates (JRG) scheme says he will not propose any stopgap measures to reduce the $50,000 cost of arts degrees, although he says the plan has failed.

Under the plan introduced by the Morrison government, the costs of science and maths courses have been reduced to encourage students to take Stem subjects, while arts and humanities fees have risen sharply. This change has caused university enrollments of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to fall in some arts courses, with critics warning of a “segregated” higher education system.

Barney Glover, the new chairman of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec), told Guardian Australia he would make recommendations to the government on degrees funding in the second half of next year.

“I certainly appreciate the frustration of people calling for immediate action on job-ready Graduates,” Glover said.

“Our mission is to deliver compelling evidence for change at a time when governments, not just here in Australia but around the world, are under pressure to invest in education.”

He has previously said the plan was flawed, telling The Australian in May: “It’s clear the JRG reforms have failed.”

The timeline has raised concerns in the industry. Western Sydney University vice-chancellor George Williams said this would mean the cost of humanities degrees would remain high until at least 2028.

“The longer it takes to fix job-ready Graduates, the longer it will take for students to pay unfair wages and take on unreasonable debt,” Williams said.

“This needs to be fixed urgently so every Australian has the opportunity to further their education.”

Studies are already underway to determine how much it costs universities to award degrees, Glover said.

“I’m sure we can present a convincing argument to the government and I appreciate the challenges, but I think this job needs to be done well and it’s very difficult to do it faster because it’s complex.”

Data analysis published by Innovative Research Universities in February found that Job Ready Graduates have led to a decline in government funding for the sector. That said, the province is $1.2 billion less in funding in 2024 than in pre-JRG settings, with underlying funding for universities $813 million lower in 2024 despite the increase in student contributions.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi also called for an immediate solution rather than waiting another 18 months.

“We should make university free, just like the prime minister did,” Faruqi said.

“Instead Labor is going along with the easiest reforms.”

Glover, who will take on the task of allocating the number of international students to universities next year, also warned that the international student boom is over and warned the sector to find new financing sources.

He said the number of international students had remained stable due to government-imposed restrictions after years of rapid growth, but he believed this would end some of the instability that has shaken the sector.

“Universities should now be carefully planning for stability in international education rather than growth, and they should certainly be looking at diversification. This was a very important indication from the government,” Glover said.

“If they are highly dependent on a single market, they should diversify.”

Glover took on the Atec role after serving as commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia and is a former vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University.

The government controls overall overseas student recruitment, but from 2027 Atec will have the power to distribute these numbers to universities through negotiation.

“I know you’ve grown and developed as vice-chancellor, which is great because it’s important to bring international students to Australia, but right now I’m hopeful that this will be a period of stability,” Glover said.

“If you take away the variability, you find that universities do not have the same unfortunate need to react through restructuring, downsizing, and layoffs.”

Between 2014 and 2019, the number of international students studying in Australia increased by approximately 10% compared to the previous year. This rate fell significantly during the Covid pandemic between 2020 and 2022, then increased by 27% in 2023. Although NSW institutions increased intake by 7.5% between 2024 and 2025, some universities again saw a small decline over the last two years.

WA auditor general Caroline Spencer released a report in May highlighting concerns about the “continued reliance on support for international students”. [universities’] current financial performance”.

He said all universities in the state were in the medium to high risk exposure categories due to dependence on foreign revenues.

“This dependency is increasingly problematic given recent federal government immigration policies aimed at managing international student numbers that restrict international student numbers to Western Australia in 2025,” Spencer wrote.

“Some universities are responding to this risk by expanding or entering into offshore operations. While this may expand the potential student base, it also introduces other risks that cannot be easily mitigated.”