2018-01-17
The Government must guarantee that all students offered a place at university will have their study funded, following billions of dollars in cuts that puts at risk 10,000 places this year alone, according to Universities Australia.
“The effect of the Liberal Government’s $2.2 billion cuts to higher education are already having a huge negative impact on our young people’s futures. They’ve made it harder for universities to guarantee funded places and they’re making it harder for students from low income families,” Greens higher education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“Hopeful students and their parents deserve answers from the Education Minister: is their university place funded? Will students be supported during their time at uni? This should be an exciting part of a young person’s life, taking the first step into adulthood, that is now fraught with fear that the system cannot support them.
“Students who slogged their way through Year 12 with the hopes of going on to further their education find themselves today against a Government that sees higher education as a burden, not an investment.
"With record youth unemployment and a changing workforce, young people more than ever need a university education to get a job.
“Every taxpayer subsidises the value of higher education because we recognise that a well-educated country is a benefit to all of us. The Turnbull Government is failing the graduates of the future, many of whom are reading their names in the newspaper today wondering how they’re going to make this work.”