Institutional Change: Schmidt proposes HECS to cover Vocational Courses

By Brianna Elliott

Outgoing Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt and current Group of Eight (Go8) universities Chair member has recently proposed national changes to the tertiary education sector. He states in his submission that vocational training providers and academic universities should be unified to “produce a single tertiary system”. This would allow students undertaking vocational programs to access financial assistance from the government through HECS-HELP, which is currently only available to domestic students at Australian universities.

The move to extend HECS-HELP loans to cover both the university and the vocational education sector would allow students to study a mix of theoretical and practical courses, without going through separate education systems.

The submission paper to the government universities review will be available to the public in June 2023. 

Schmidt said “the current system doesn’t do hybrid well” and does not “work for students or employers”. The divide between vocational certificates and university degrees, he claimed, does not supply the skills or qualifications that many employers seek from graduates. 

Without a unified system, Schmidt continued, “there is no incentive for employers to upskill or retrain their staff”. His submission, however, discusses potential benefits for businesses and employers who promote studying in both sectors. Schmidt further highlighted that Australia is consistently underproducing graduates in industries that are understaffed.

His proposal aims to remove the forced favouring and financial incentives to study particular degrees or programs over others. This will allow prospective students to select their educational and vocational pathways, Schmidt stated, without “[the government] assuming it knows best over the prospective student’s best interests”.

In his submission, Schmidt states equal access to financial support would be combined with the standardisation of HECS-HELP across all courses. Rather than continuing to allow governments and educational institutions to financially incentivise certain courses over others, all courses offered at tertiary education establishments would cost the same. This would remove the uneven distribution of course fees while simultaneously achieving equal opportunities for students to study their passion instead of what is financially accessible for them. 

Furthermore, Schmidt said Australia’s current tertiary education system is “fundamentally unfair” for lower socio-economic status (SES) Australians, as they do not have the same educational opportunities as others. There is an ongoing demand to increase students’ ability to have equal access and opportunity for tertiary education and government funded financial support.

The proposal also claims unifying the tertiary education system will improve both academic universities and vocational institutions’ ability to “compete… in a world that will be increasingly disrupted” by digital skills training providers “at low cost and large scale”. 

Without access to HECS-HELP, students may be more likely to select cheaper online-education companies, thereby “reducing the financial viability of Australia’s TAFEs and universities”, Schmidt continues. Instead, the hybrid nature will provide  financial assistance to more potential students, while also allowing students and graduates greater freedom in choosing between university courses and vocational programs.

Schmidt concludes his submission by saying the demand and attractiveness to achieve “an academic career has diminished substantially in the last two years”, and to reestablish this notion, serious national change in the education system needs to occur. 

Graphics by Will Novak

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