Australian Green's Additional Comments

1.1The Australian Greens welcome the opportunity to contribute additional comments to the committee report, and thank the witnesses and authors of submissions for their time and expertise.

1.2Universities are in crisis. Student debts increased by 11 per cent in one year and are rising faster than they can be paid off.[1] Unpaid placements and unliveable PhD stipends are pushing students to the limit, while the cost of living soars. Staff are increasingly in precarious, casualised and insecure jobs and are often overworked and underpaid. University spaces are unsafe with hundreds of students assaulted every week, and 1 in 5 staff experience sexual harassment.[2]

1.3The Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023 (the bill) is a missed opportunity to make urgently needed reforms.

Postgraduate Commonwealth-supported places for First Nations students

1.4The bill provides Commonwealth-supported places for First Nations students in bachelor and honours level courses only, and should be amended to make Commonwealth-supported places available to First Nations students for all postgraduate coursework degrees for Table A providers.

1.5This would deliver on the intent of the Universities Accord interim report, which notes ‘students, including HDR students and postgraduate coursework students, should have access to sufficient financial support to support their study’.[3] First Nations people experience financial barriers to undertaking postgraduate coursework. As Dr Leroy-Dyer of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Postgraduate Association (NATSIPA) emphasised:

The average Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person who is a postgraduate student is working full time, usually has a family to look after and extended family and community obligations, which include monetary obligations. Quite frankly, the cost of coursework really eliminates a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from being able to undertake courses. The average one-year postgraduate degree is around $28,000.[4]

1.6Make all First Nations students eligible for Commonwealth-supported places for postgraduate coursework degrees for Table A providers.

University oversight and accountability to ensure student support and safety

1.7Current student support policies and any mechanisms at universities for providing safety are clearly failing students and staff. Effective and independent oversight of universities is needed to address the crisis of sexual violence on campuses.

1.8Stakeholders including End Rape on Campus (EROC), Fair Agenda and the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) raised concerns over universities self-reporting.[5]

1.9The NTEU noted that universities have failed to comply with many of their existing policies, noting the ‘plethora of positive sounding policy that…is either partly implemented or not implemented at all—for example, their policies around sexual harassment and staff and student safety on campuses’.[6]

1.10Ms Sharna Bremner of EROC emphasised that existing oversight from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) is inadequate:

What we've seen is that universities have been able to self-report their actions and TEQSA has just said, 'That's great, thank you very much', without actually investigating the efficacy of what universities have said they're doing, or even really confirming that they're actually doing what they're saying.[7]

1.11EROC advocated for ‘specific standards on sexual violence prevention’ and ‘oversight of compliance’ and enforcement for breaches as they relate to sexual violence’.[8] Elsewhere, EROC and Fair Agenda recommended creation of an independent, expert-led accountability and oversight mechanism such as a taskforce to address sexual violence in universities.[9]

1.12A recent Senate inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia recommended that the Commonwealth government implement an independent taskforce with strong powers to oversee universities policies and practices to prevent and respond to sexual violence, and commission an independent review of TEQSA’s response to sexual violence on university campuses.[10]

1.13Implement an independent taskforce with strong powers to oversight universities’ policies and practices to prevent and respond to sexual violence on campus and in residences, including to provide:

An effective and accessible complaints process

Meaningful accountability for both universities and residences if standards are not met, and

Transparency around which institutions are providing appropriate and effective responses and prevention initiatives.

1.14Commission an independent review of the of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency’s response to sexual violence on university campuses.

Reverse the fee hikes and funding cuts introduced by the Job-Ready Graduates package

1.15While the Bill reverses the 50 per cent pass rule of the Job-ready Graduates (JRG) package, the disastrous fee hikes and funding cuts introduced by the JRG package must be scrapped.

1.16As noted in the committee’s report, stakeholders to this inquiry have called for urgent reversal of the JRG package.[11] NTEU described it as ‘an appalling piece of legislation’ that ‘clearly needs to be unscrambled’.[12] Dr Alison Barnes of the NTEU noted to this inquiry:

The Job-ready Graduates changes saw a reduction in government funding on student learning of $1 billion per year, while student contributions have increased by $414 million per year. Perversely, it is now more expensive to undertake a journalism or arts degree than a medical degree.[13]

1.17The Australian Academy of Humanities (AAH) and NATSIPA noted that the JRG package significantly impacted low SES and First Nations students who often choose humanities and social sciences courses, as fees for these courses were raised significantly by JRG.[14] AAH said:

We are increasingly concerned for current and future generations of students carrying higher levels of student debt, particularly humanities students who, since the introduction of Jobs Ready Graduates (JRG), will pay 113 per cent more for their degrees.[15]

1.18Reverse the fee hikes and funding cuts introduced as part of the Job-ready Graduates package.

Make the student debt system fairer

1.19Our higher education system traps graduates in a debt spiral and forces them to repay student loans when they are barely earning above the minimum wage.

1.20More than 3 million Australians owe in excess of $74 billion in student debt.[16] Indexation led to student debt rising by 3.9 per cent on 1 June 2022, followed by 7.1 per cent on 1 June 2023, and the Parliamentary Library estimates it will rise by a further 3.9 per cent on 1 June 2024 based on CPI forecasts in the May budget.[17] This would be an astronomical 15 per cent rise in just two years of the Labor government.

1.21The current annual minimum repayment income is $51,550 which is only around $5,600 above annual minimum wage.[18] People on low incomes, struggling to survive in this cost of living crisis, are having desperately needed income taken away to cover their student debts.

1.22The Greens believe that university and TAFE should be free and all student debt wiped, and we hope the final report of the Universities Accord will make that recommendation. In the interim, the following actions should be taken to relieve students and graduates of some of the burden of debt.

1.23Abolish indexation on all student debt.

1.24Raise the minimum repayment income for student debt to the median wage.

Ensure mandatory placements are paid

1.25Students who are required to undertake unpaid vocational or educational placements are particularly at risk of financial stress. The burden is particularly felt by women undertaking study in feminised sectors, including social work, teaching and nursing.

1.26As the Committee’s report notes, several stakeholders to this inquiry including Australian Council of Heads of Social Work Education (ACHSWE), National Union of Students (NUS) and Students Against Placement Poverty (SAPP) argued that students should be paid for compulsory placements.[19] ACHSWE also proposed allowing students to complete placements in their existing workplaces, reducing the number of required placement hours, and increasing recognition of prior learning.[20]

1.27Ensure students are paid for mandatory placements.

Improve conditions for PhD students

1.28The current PhD stipend of $29,863 per year falls well below annual minimum wage.[21] Universities can top this amount up but data on 189 Australian universities shows only 42 universities offer more than the government’s stipend and none meet the minimum wage.[22]

1.29Raising PhD stipends would provide much-needed financial relief for many struggling to complete their research. Additionally, PhD students, despite often conducting research full time, do not have paid parental leave entitlements.

1.30The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) and NATSIPA argued in this inquiry that the bill is a missed opportunity to raise PhD stipends and provide parental leave for PhD students.[23]

1.31Raise PhD stipends.

1.32Extend paid parental leave to PhD students.

Ensure the welfare of international students

1.33The Universities Accord process is ‘considering a levy on international student fee income’.[24]This risks being a blatant tax on international students who are already treated as cash cows, which is unacceptable. CAPA and NATSIPA emphasised their opposition to the proposed international student levy.[25]

1.34Scrap the idea of a levy on international student fee income.

Ensure university staff have secure work and excellent conditions

1.35University staff are increasingly in casualised and insecure jobs and are often overworked and underpaid. NTEU expressed concerns that the support-for-student policy could add an additional burden on staff who are already ‘at breaking point’.[26] University staff must be provided secure roles and excellent conditions, and this is essential to ensure students are adequately supported. As Dr Barnes of NTEU noted:

We need staff to be employed securely, not casually or on rolling fixed-term contracts. At a bare minimum, staff need secure employment. This is important both for them and for students so that students have continuity of relationship with staff members.[27]

1.36Boost government funding to universities and link it to ensuring increases in secure, permanent and ongoing employment for staff.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi

Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens

Senator for New South Wales

Footnotes

[1]Parliamentary Library, HELP debt - the evolution of higher education contributions (9 June 2023).

[2]See: ABC News, Calls to update university student safety survey after fears true extent of assaults on campuses remains unknown (9August, 2023); and NTEU, What are the main issues for women in tertiary education.

[3]Australian Government, Australian Universities Accord Interim Report, June 2023, p. 140.

[4]Dr Sharlene Leroy-Dyer, National President, NATSIPA, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 39.

[5]NTEU, Submission 1, p. 3; Ms Sharna Bremner, Founder and Director, End Rape on Campus Australia, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 33; Ms Renee Carr, Executive Director, Fair Agenda, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 33.

[6]NTEU, Submission 1, p. 3.

[7]Ms Sharna Bremner Founder and Director, End Rape on Campus Australia, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p.34.

[8]Ms Renee Carr, Executive Director, Fair Agenda, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 33.

[9]Fair Agenda and End Rape on Campus Australia, Submission to Universities Accord Discussion Paper, p. 7

[10]Australian Senate, Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia, September 2023, pp. 115–116.

[11]See paragraphs 2.70–2.78 in Chapter 2 of the committee report.

[12]Dr Alison Barnes, National President, NTEU, Proof Committee Hansard, 1 September 2023, p. 25.

[13]Dr Alison Barnes, National President, NTEU, Proof Committee Hansard, 1 September 2023, p. 24.

[14]AAH, Submission 10, pp. 1-2; Dr Sharlene Leroy-Dyer, National President, NATSIPA, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 39.

[15]AAH, Submission 10, p. 1.

[16]Parliamentary Library, HELP debt - the evolution of higher education contributions (9 June 2023).

[17]Parliamentary Library, HELP debt - the evolution of higher education contributions (9 June 2023).

[18]Australian Tax Office,Study and training loan repayment thresholds and rates.

[19]Professor Linda Briskman, Member, ACHSWE, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 42; Mr Isaac Wattenburg, Representative, Students Against Placement Poverty, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 41; Ms Bailey Riley, President, NUS, Proof Committee Hansard, 1 September 2023, p. 36.

[20]Professor Christine Morley, Member, ACHSWE, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p. 43.

[21]Department of Education, Research Training Program.

[22]The Guardian, Instant noodles and extra jobs: PhD candidates 'barely scraping by' on stipends below minimum wage (29 January 2023).

[23]Mr Errol Phuah, National President (Caretaker), Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September, p. 39; Dr Sharlene Leroy-Dyer, National President, NATSIPA, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September 2023, p.39.

[24]Australian Government, Australian Universities Accord Interim Report, June 2023, p. 23.

[25]NATSIPA & CAPA, Submission 19, pp. 5-6; Mr Errol Phuah, National President (Caretaker), Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, Proof Committee Hansard, 8 September, p. 37.

[26]Dr Alison Barnes, National President, NTEU, Proof Committee Hansard, 1 September 2023, p. 26.

[27]Dr Alison Barnes, National President, NTEU, Proof Committee Hansard, 1 September 2023, p.25.