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A STUDENT union says the needs of students have not been prioritised in the federal government’s budget.
University funding will be cut with a 2.5 per cent efficiency dividend, students will see course fees rise by 8 per cent and graduates will have to pay their loans back sooner.
La Trobe Student Union president Jacob Cripps said a lot of students were facing financial hardship and the government’s budget measures were “not the answer”.
He said higher fees would lead to higher costs for associated materials and equipment.
“The proposed increase in course fees will mean a spike in things that students need, and are already paying too much for,” Mr Cripps said
“Textbooks and other study materials will increase in price and therefore university will not become a place of qualification and academic enrichment, but rather a place of financial burden.”
The minimum earnings at which compulsory HECS-HELP repayments begin will be lowered from the 2016-17 threshold of $54,869 to $42,000.
Mr Cripps described this element of the reforms as a “war” on students, graduates and universities.
“Any decreases to the HECS repayment threshold could tip the economic equilibrium that has been successful for almost 30 years,” he said.
“If graduates are expected to pay back their HECS on a salary they could get by working part-time, they will eventually wonder what the point of going to university is.”
A La Trobe University spokesman said the university was seeking more information from the government, but would be “concerned by any cuts to La Trobe University and the university sector more broadly”.
A Deloitte Access Economics report, commissioned by the government, found universities receive enough revenue to cover the cost of delivering most courses.