For five years, many Australian university students have been watching the amount they have to pay for their studies with alarm and despair.

In response, the Senate is considering a Greens bill to slash high university student contributions for arts, law and business students.

The bill proposes to reverse student contribution increases imposed in 2021 by the “Job-ready Graduates” policy. This includes doubling the cost of arts degrees – which now cost more than A$50,000 as a result.

Despite the unpopularity of the Job-ready Graduates scheme in the community, the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate.

Only the federal government can fix the problems created by Job-ready Graduates. And in the lead up to the next federal budget on May 12, it shows no interest in doing that.

The Job-ready Graduates policy cut student contributions in teaching, nursing, engineering and IT courses. It did so to encourage students to enrol in these degrees, which were deemed “job-ready” by the Morrison government.

At the same time, Job-ready Graduates increased student contributions in arts courses, where many graduates take time to find suitable work.

Student contributions also went up for business and law courses, despite their above-average graduate employment rates. Three year bachelor degrees in all these fields now cost more than $50,000.

Under the new Senate bill, proposed by Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the annual student contribution for arts courses would reduce from $17,399 to $8,164. For business and law,........

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