The devil is in the detail
Is there another agenda in the Jobs-ready Graduates package?
JOBS-READY GRADUATES
POLICY & LOBBYING
When the exposure draft of the Morrison Government’s Jobsready Graduates package was released a few weeks ago, there was much to digest in a very short timeframe. While the headline issues included the Government cutting overall funding per student (by around 15%) and the unbalanced and unfair revisions to the HECS-HELP bands would result in a far larger proportion of students (over 40% compared to about 25% currently) paying the highest student fees, closer examination of the package's fine print reveals a number of hidden details that are both puzzling and concerning.
PUZZLE OVER VET PROTECTIONS One of these seemingly incongruous additions is around a number of ‘student protection provisions’, which appear at first glance to be an extension of the VET FEE-HELP protections that were put in place following the disastrous rorting that occurred when the VET sector
was deregulated and opened up to private for profit providers. Their inclusion in the Jobs-ready Graduates bill, however, has left many baffled, as these may either not be relevant to universities, or are requiring universities to act where they already have established policy and processes. continued overpage...
Terri MacDonald Policy & Research AuthorOfficer Name
vol. 1 no. 4
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nteu.org.au/sentry
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