Fifty thousand dollars of debt by the age of 21. That’s what it means to complete a bachelor of arts in Australia today under the government’s Jobs Ready Graduates scheme.

Currently, we’re in the midst of university application season. I’ve been working towards studying arts for two years, since I first really began contemplating what I would do when I finished year 12. But now as I’m preparing to submit my university preferences, the reality of how much debt I could be saddled with if I study arts has me leaning away and looking towards an area of study that I am not passionate about.

The cost of certain university degrees has got me rethinking what I should study.Credit: iStock

This dream-crushing policy, introduced by the Morrison government in 2021, is a sad indictment of our university system. It’s worth noting that this policy has failed on all fronts.

The Jobs Ready Graduates scheme doubled the price of most arts degrees while lowering the fees on other university course deemed to be more “useful”. It was intended to take a tough-love approach by diverting students away from arts and into high labour-demand fields such as nursing or teaching (where there have been shortages for decades), and other “national priority areas”........

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