University students who fail over half their subjects may be subject to losing HEC-Help under new changes proposed by the Federal Government.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan announced the changes today, as part of the government’s controversial Job-Ready Graduates laws, which will also see fee hikes in humanities subjects.
The reform proposes that students who fail more than half — or eight or more subjects — in a bachelor course will no longer be eligible for HECS-HELP.
Mr Tehan revealed that the new proposition is about ensuring students won’t take on a study load they are unable to keep, in an attempt to stop them from leaving university with substantial debt and no qualifications.
“These measures will ensure students can’t take on a study load they won’t complete, leaving them without a qualification but a large debt,” Mr Tehan said. The proposal cites a few left-field examples in which students have accumulated debts between $220,000 and $660,000.
Universities will have the power to give special consideration to students whose performance has been affected by illness or bereavement. Students transferring courses will also be given a second chance.
The new proposition fails to address factors like mental health, homelessness and positions of financial precarity.
“The lack of transparency of a student’s enrolment has allowed some non-genuine students to enrol and re-enrol at multiple providers at the same time,” Mr Tehan shared.
These changes arrive after a 2018 scheme that imposed a $100,000 limit on the HELP debt a student can accrue.
Labor education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek shared that the glaring aspect of this package was “no one supports it”.
“The government is trying to pretend that there is this big problem with failing students,” she said.
“Of course students who are failing should be given the encouragement and opportunity to succeed at university.
“But the real problem is that at a time when thousands of people are joining the unemployment queues this government is locking people out of TAFE and out of universities and out of jobs.”
