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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/28/open-letter-to-australian-government-university-fees-jrg-scheme>
"Tim Winton knows what it’s like to be the first in a family to go to
university – “what a breakthrough that is, the kind of opportunities it
provides”.
It was at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, studying arts, that
he wrote his first novel,
An Open Swimmer, launching a four-decade writing
career.
This was the 1980s, when a Labor government temporarily made higher education
free to all Australians.
“Earning a humanities degree was not only life changing, in terms of opening up
a world of knowledge otherwise beyond my reach, it also turns out to have been
enormously productive – for me and many, many people around me,” Winton said.
“My little arts degree has created jobs and cultural value for over 40 years.”
Flash forward to 2025, and arts degrees have ballooned to cost in excess of
$50,000, thanks to the Coalition’s Jobs-Ready Graduate (JRG) scheme, introduced
in 2021 to incentivise students into certain disciplines such as Stem (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), education and health.
While strongly condemned by Labor at the time, the Albanese government has
deferred any reform to tuition fees to a newly established independent tertiary
commission.
Winton is among more than 100 high-profile Australians who have signed an open
letter by the Australian Historical Association (AHA) urging Anthony Albanese
to abolish the JRG scheme and implement an equitable university fee system that
“does not punish students who choose to study the humanities and social
sciences”.
“That any Australian government should seek to make getting a humanities degree
more difficult is upsetting … but the idea that a Labor government would do
nothing at all to right this wrong is utterly mystifying,” Winton said.
“If Labor won’t act to defend equity in education, what is the point of them –
I mean, what do they really stand for?”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
