The Australian Historical Association welcomes the federal government’s recently announced proposal, if re-elected, to reduce the HECS-HELP debt burden on Australian university graduates by twenty per cent. Higher education fee repayments and indexation have exacerbated the current cost-of-living crisis for thousands of Australian graduates, including graduates in history. This debt cut, operating in concert with the proposed indexation refund and revised repayment threshold, will be welcome news for many of our members.
However, the AHA notes that this modest measure does nothing to grapple with the underlying problems that now engulf Australian higher education, including its high cost to students. Moreover, the largest share of that collective debt burden falls most heavily on those who are poorly placed to pay it off.
Until the Job-ready Graduates Package has been abolished and a better model for student fees has replaced it as envisioned by the Australian Universities Accord process, the HECS-HELP system will remain manifestly unfair, and graduates in history will continue to draw the short straw.