Honi Soit has received screenshots, testimonies, and transcripts indicating that students at the University of Sydney are paying disparate fees for the same units of study.
Observed across interdisciplinary units, where students from different subject areas come together to work on a common project, these costs appear to differ according to each student’s Faculty of origin.
Honi was first made aware of these cost differences in the third-year Industry and Community Project unit, registered as FASS3333 in Sydney Student for students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and SCPU3001 for those in STEM. Invoices dated January 25, 2024, show that while a Bachelor of Arts student was charged $2,040.00 on HECS to complete the unit, their Bachelor of Science counterpart was only charged $1,118.00. Both students were in the same class and worked together in the same group.
Further investigation has revealed similar disparities as high as $1,000 across other interdisciplinary units. This is evident in the interdisciplinary units only required for students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, such as FASS3999. The unit was described by Deputy Vice Chancellor Annemarie Jagose as “providing senior students with scaffolded opportunities to work effectively with others from different disciplinary backgrounds in the context of a real-world issue or problem”.
This proves a large inconsistency between the prices that different disciplinary backgrounds are expected to pay. A student who completed FASS3999 in 2023 as part of a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Advanced Studies was charged $1892.00. In comparison, a student who commenced a combined Bachelor of Education (Secondary) and Bachelor of Arts in 2020 was charged $858.00 on HECS to complete FASS3999 on March 31 in 2022.
The discrepancy is further complicated by the lack of a STEM counterpart for FASS3999. Students within the humanities are not only paying more for interdisciplinary units, but are also required to complete additional interdisciplinary units to fulfil their degree requirements. This limits opportunities for academic choice and growth through electives, while also furthering the narrative that Arts graduates are unemployable and lack value unless they engage with other disciplinary skill sets.
These fee hikes are a direct outcome of the Jobs-Ready Graduate Package (JRGP), introduced in 2021 by Scott Morrison’s Coalition government. Initially aimed at “investing in higher education in areas of national priority,” the package has resulted in the doubling of the cost of Arts and Communications degrees and fewer HECS options for students with low completion rates.
Although findings from the Albanese government’s Australian Universities Accord Interim Report 2023 have resulted in the removal of the requirement for students to pass 50% of the units they study to remain eligible for a Commonwealth supported place, HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP, large fee disparities remain.
Consequently, the costs of different degrees as a whole have been inflated to align with the JRGP’s guidelines. Arts students, who are paying the most for interdisciplinary units, are listed as completing a Band 4 degree, which incurs the highest student contribution rate of $16,323 in their first year of study.
In contrast, their STEM counterparts and Education counterparts pay between $8,000 in Band 1 and $10,000 in Band 2 during their first year of study.
The JRGP is reflective of broader attitudes towards the contributions and necessity of the humanities. Dan Tehan, former Minister for Education, announced this policy in 2020 to the National Press Club of Australia and commented that “we want our arts graduates making sure that they are thinking about the employment outcomes that they are going to get from their degree,”while also suggesting to prospective arts students that “they don’t silo their degree” and “If you wanna do an arts degree, think about also doing IT.” Tehan later stated that it was “common sense” to incentivise students to make “job-relevant choices”.
When informed about Honi’s findings, SRC President Harrison President stated that “it is utterly absurd that arts students are paying over $2,000 for a mandatory course (such as FASS3999) that is in no way relevant to the major they are undertaking.” He went on: “JRGP and HECS are schemes which have ruinous and inequitable outcomes for students now and decades in the future and have only degraded the quality higher education, turning it into a commodity for management to profit from, not as a public good accessible to all. The solution is fee-free tertiary education.”
SRC Education Officer Grace Street echoed these sentiments, commenting that “targeted fee hikes” are a “waste of students’ money while they battle incessant cost-of-living crises, and a waste of academia and teaching that provide students with critical and important studies of history, politics, culture, and society. Between my own experiences in FASS3999 and the collective pessimism shared by undergraduate students, the interdisciplinary units currently on offer are impractical at best, and a complete financial and mental burden at worst.”
Honi will continue to monitor the costs of these interdisciplinary degrees, and others across different faculties, as the Federal government continues to review the JRGP and release the Australian Universities Accord report.