BY JESSICA ROUSE

Labor is forming a united front against the Federal Government’s proposed changes to university enabling programs which would see programs such as NewStep and Open Foundation which are free, cost students up to $3,200 in fees.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Education Tanya Plibersek hosted a roundtable at the University of Newcastle yesterday with Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon and Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Daryl Evans to discuss the changes and the affect they’ll have on students wanting to undertake study.

The University of Newcastle is one of the largest and oldest providers of these enabling programs, and Tanya Plibersek says in an area where youth unemployment is high and university participation rates are already low, the changes would make higher education impossible for some students.
All smiles here, but not for the government’s proposed changes

Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon & Deputy Labor Leader

Tanya Plibersek.

“They (students) wouldn’t have even considered it even if was a much smaller fee,
some of them just wouldn’t have had the money, others are saying they
wouldn’t have had the confidence to spend that money on themselves
because they had such a tough time at high school, because their marks
weren’t good,”

“They wouldn’t have had the confidence to say its worth
putting thousands of dollars into an educational opportunity like this
because they would’ve thought they were going to bomb out,” said Tanya Plibersek.

Also known as ‘university preparation courses’, Sharon Claydon says they focus on higher education pathways for Indigenous and mature-age students as well as recent school leavers between 18 and 20 years old.

“The fact that Newcastle has more than 1,000 Indigenous students enrolled and trains more than half of the nation’s Indigenous doctors is no coincidence – this is directly attributable to decades of hard work and Newcastle University’s steadfast commitment to delivering equity in education through high quality enabling programs.”

Tanya Plibersek says the enabling programs give students the option to study who otherwise wouldn’t even consider taking the step into higher education. She believes it’s dumb and short-sighted to propose fees now.

“It’s absolutely typical for the liberal government to be handing out
tax cuts to millionaires and tax cuts to big business and a new fee for
uni students who’ve had a tough time, who are trying to turn their
lives around and they’re slugging them with all of these fees.”