Uni fees up & Graduate employment rates are down – What does this mean for you?

In the past 2 weeks, our universities have been in the spotlight – but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, our universities have been charting high on recent international university listings with 6 universities making the prestigious top 100 Times University World rankings (For more information see here), but its for much more political reasons we have heard so much chatter lately. It’s around about this time each year as the new prospective cohort of students submit their university applications that our universities are put under scrutiny and we see each one of their successes and pitfalls. Unfortunately, in 2016, on the back of political change in Australia and a constantly growing population, two articles released in the past couple of weeks have shown that not only are university fees going UP, but the likelihood of you being employed at the end of your expensive degree is going DOWN.
 
In an article written by Michael Spence, the vice-chancellor of The University of Sydney and chair member of the Group of Eight Universities (Go8), he called out the new government on an outdated university funding policy in desperate need of an overhaul. This is in response to the recent ‘priority directions’ document released by the Go8 which proposed reform in higher education funding. In the most recent 2016-2017 budget, the government canned the notion of university fee deregulation (YAY!). Whilst this is great news for all of us university goers, they have put a hold on making any firm policy decisions due to the great backlash that was received after the previous budget, including the forward estimated 20% cut to higher education funding.
 
We are still basing our decisions on the HECS policy that is now 30 years old. Whilst this was great reform at the time in the 1980’s, students who took out a HECS loan were leaving university with a debt of somewhere between $12,000 to $15,000. In 2016, with superior technology and globalization of our universities, students are now leaving uni with HECS debts up to $40,000 (with many degrees paying even more) and it seems this price is still rising.

What does this mean for me?
The top 8 universities in Australia have called for change! With universities producing such an important aspect of our economy, they want the government to update their 30-year old policies and using today’s data, update costs to reflect a more modern innovative society.

In the midst of these calls for reform to university funding, a recent paper by the Flinders University has revealed that there is an increasing percentage of unemployment in first year graduates. In this analysis, it found that full-time employment rates in new university graduates have suffered a massive drop from 51.4% in 2008 to 41.7% in 2014. So it seems that although universities are taking an exponential number of students each year, the job market isn’t keeping up with the graduates they are producing.
 
While this all sounds very serious and mildly intimidating, do not be put off a university education! The very same paper that showed a decrease in employment rates post-degree also found that the unemployment rates in university graduates were substantially less than those vocationally trained or with a lower level qualification such as completed secondary schooling.
 
It is also important to consider that some degrees offer more job opportunities than others and when you finish your degree, sometimes, you can move straight into a job. Medicine as an example of a degree where you are guaranteed excellent job security, in the past 20 years has had an average of only 1.1% unemployment rate in new graduates. Compared to degrees such as visual and performing arts where 31.6% of people are neither employed or full time study, it highlights a significant discrepancy in demand and supply between graduates and job positions in some fields of work.

   
It appears that we are at a point in the political climate where it's time to make a change. Whether the government listens or not to the advice of academics and scholars to reform our university sector and make it more acceptable to study at a university level, we should see some movement in this area within the next year or 2. Additionally, the graduate job market is quickly becoming a hot topic, raising issues that many students may find it harder to find full-time employment at the end of their degree. As prospective university students, this will more than likely impact you at some point in your life, but for some it might be more or less than others. What this means FOR YOU is that now you have to consider the end game. University if great – you can socialize, have fun, learn new skills, but remember at the end of the day you still have a rising HECS debt and will be entering a competitive job market. If you do your research and know your end game though, you can and will have it all! Good luck on the upcoming exams guys!