BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE, EDITOR
The Australian Government has announced major changes to university fee structures to build a new workforce of “job-ready graduates“.
Education Minister Dan Tehan — himself an arts degree graduate — has revealed fees for courses in Creative Arts and Humanities (among others such as Law and Communications) would almost double for students commencing academic studies from 2021.
The trade-off is a fee decrease for university courses such as IT, Mathematics, and Agriculture — those being defined as more “job-relevant” to future graduates and employers.
Some arts students will see fee hikes of up to 113 per cent. Specifically, annual student fees for Creative Arts will increase from $6,804 to $11,300; while Humanities, and Society and Culture, will increase from $6,804 to $14,500. This means a degree in the arts may cost students more than a degree in medicine.
But how non-essential or job-unready are arts practitioners, really?
To find out, I asked Australian arts practitioners of different ages, backgrounds, and career paths what they think of the university fee increases for future students in arts and creative disciplines. Here are their comments.
Disclaimer: All comments reflect the personal views of the individual artists. They may not necessarily represent the views of the organisations or initiatives with which they are involved or the views of the publication.
Sally Whitwell, ARIA-winning composer
This decision is a disaster, but unsurprising. Over the past few decades, we’ve witnessed an inexorable shift away from education for critical thinking towards education as qualification for employment. It’s a blinkered view, and this fee hike is just the manifestation of that unimaginative ideology.
Sylvie Woods, vocalist and writer
‘Groupthink’, shutting down vigorous debate, and prioritising safe spaces over free speech is increasingly a concern of conservative politicians and writers. Why then is our government pricing young people out of degrees which teach them to think creatively and critically?
Lotte Betts-Dean, mezzo soprano
This is an incredibly damaging and short-sighted policy, and a nail in the coffin for creative thinking.
Learning is not only about fact-retention and acquiring employable skills; it’s also about learning to think creatively and express. This is applicable and indispensable in all walks of life, not just for “creatives” like writers, musicians, dancers, and sculptors.
How, for example, are future Australian diplomats supposed to deal with complicated negotiations and situations without skills and knowledge in culture, temperament, philosophy and behaviours — in other words, in Humanities?
It is also, quite simply, unfair that a Law, Humanities, or Creative Arts student should have to pay a staggering $10,000+ more per year than a Mathematics or Agriculture student — a figure which only decreases if the [arts-focused] student includes “prioritised” electives in their course [from other disciplines such as maths or IT], whether they wish to or not. It will force future students to potentially move away from pursuing the subjects which are actually the most important within an advanced democracy.
If the government is of the opinion that Australia needs more nurses, teachers, and engineers, it should not fall to young students of Humanities, the Creative Arts, and Law to foot the bill. Students shouldn’t have to choose what to study based on financial reasons, and placing such an obvious hierarchy on fields of study is fundamentally wrong.
This policy also makes it quite clear that there is an underlying disdain for creative thought within the Australian Department of Education, which is deeply concerning. The Creative Arts and Humanities are the expression of identity. If we stop practising identity, we lose the sense of self, community, and future.
Sean Tinnion, screen composer
I am absolutely appalled and enraged at the decision to double the cost of these courses. It is taking away opportunities, and purposely making it more difficult for creative individuals who genuinely have what it takes to make a career for themselves in one of the biggest industry’s in Australia and the world.
Jessica Wells, composer and orchestrator
This myopically short-sighted Liberal government is once again using the arts as a punching bag: they are trying to deflect attention from the fact that they are cutting their budget to universities. In decimating and punishing the Creative Arts and Humanities, they hope to shift blame instead of owning up to the fact that they have never supported higher education adequately across the board, especially to encourage more domestic students to do degrees.
You could say that this government is losing its humanity.
Matt Withers, classical guitarist
As a full-time professional practising in the music industry, I am shocked to hear of the increase in fees for university degree programs, for a sector that contributes around $111 billion to the Australian economy.
Australia must cultivate its creative industry and support young, emerging artists to pursue their talents and ambitions, giving a path for them to be the future of Australian music, arts, and humanities.
My Bachelor, Honours, and Masters studies at the Australian National University have formed the foundation of my musical career, leading me to be invited to perform, tutor, and record for major festivals, record labels and tertiary institutions globally.
Jacinda Jaensch, founder of Cadenza Apparel and mother of emerging cellist Lianah Jaensch
I’m growing really tired of this current government persistently telling my daughter — through their actions — that the one thing she excels in; the one thing that unites so many different people of age, sex, background and race; the one thing that brings such happiness, joy, and the full spectrum of human emotion to an entire population, is non-essential.
I wish everyone who goes to their next football match to do so in silence, and for the teams to run out onto the field in silence, and for there to be absolute silence during half time. Because silence is what happens when artists can’t create.
And the government can forget about finding a brass player for Anzac Day services.
Tim Hannah, French horn and arts administrator
I think this decision would be easier to swallow if it was really about undervaluing the Creative Arts and Humanities, if it really were the short-sighted pragmatism of the desperate and foolish. Unfortunately, those in power understand the full value of critical thinking, lateral thinking, and creative response — and they understand the threat that poses to the status quo and the structures that currently allow them to operate as they do.
This is not about undervaluing what we do. It’s another attempt in a string of recent attempts to make it harder to do it.
Matt, pianist
This is classic Liberal Party hypocrisy and ideology. Forever carping on about ‘the free market’, they are interfering in higher education in order to price-signal to students and virtue-signal to their donors and industry buddies. If they actually gave a sh-t about this country, all education would be free.
The Liberal Party can’t stand the Humanities, because a populace who could actually think for itself would turf them out and never let them back.
Bourby Webster, violist and founder of Perth Symphony Orchestra
It is extremely hard to stomach the idea that arts degrees are now among those out of reach to all except the truly financially fortunate.
A huge majority of donors and grants support arts companies to reach less-advantaged communities, pursue opportunities to take music into schools, and demonstrate that arts are accessible, in-reach, and “for everyone”.
It is painful for me to consider the message to the kids and communities we visit is now: “We hope you enjoy what you see and hear, because this can never be for you.”
This move to have degrees out-of-reach for so many has just made Perth Symphony’s mission of “Music for Everyone” almost a mockery. It is in essence saying that yes, you can listen, but absolutely do not consider it something open to your children to pursue as a career.
Not only is this a tragedy for all those already hoping to pursue a career in the arts who now will not be able to afford it, but the long-term impact on the arts sector if the number of future artists declines will be devastating. And this comes right on the heels of the pandemic, which has already made being an artist an incredibly tough proposition.
Australia, we can do better.
Jennifer Hankin, flautist and educator
Not only is this an attack on high school students considering working in music — and more widely, other forms of the arts — but it’s an attack on every person who has ever studied or worked in a creative field.
The government’s response to our industry over the COVID-19 period has made it clear that our industry, and the way it contributes to society, is not valued politically. This attack against universities is just the icing on the cake.
Christopher Healey, composer
Art has a crucial role in expanding the human ability to create meaning from the human experience. Science informs us what it is, while art shows us what it means to perceive it.
These two things, the arts and sciences, ought not be seen as separate endeavours. Without science, we have no future. Without the arts, we have no present worth living — only a barren wasteland without the promise of reprieve.
It is easy to undervalue art because it is ever-present. It is like hope: only when it is truly gone do we realise how vital it was to sustaining us.
Sam Weller, classical saxophonist, conductor, and founder of Ensemble Apex
Above all, we see another insult hurled at Australia’s creative arts scene. If we want our creative industries to thrive, we simply need a new government — I’ve given up hope with this one!
It’s sad to think how many great artists will slip through the cracks discouraged by a whopping price tag.
Claire Edwardes, percussionist and artistic director of Ensemble Offspring
It is difficult to see how our conservatoriums and university arts faculties will be able to weather this latest storm in the long term.
It baffles me to think that our government seems to seriously place zero value on skills that are not “necessary” for a country to operate. It is utterly ridiculous to suggest that anyone could survive without some element of the arts in their lives — it’s obviously not as simple as physical survival. Where is the value for mental survival — and more than that, flourishing as a race?
All these simplistic [politicians] need to do is just look around them in their cosy little offices in Parliament House, and imagine what it would be like with completely bare walls, no movies to watch or books to read, no music to listen to, and their kids with no dance or drama lessons.
Just because it is more difficult to quantify these elements of humanity, it does not mean they are not intrinsic to all of us in some form or other.
To be honest, we are all so sick of arguing this til we are blue in the face. This is just another blow to our worth as artists on the back of the arts minister having the word “arts” removed from his title and the years of cuts to arts funding in this country.
Alex Siegers, vocalist and university staff member
There is an identity crisis in tertiary education. Universities have, or used to have, a core value of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, and it was our vocational colleges which managed a bulk of study-to-work pathways.
But the prestige of universities and the expansion of white collar work in Australia, and the social clout of a university education, has created this situation where universities are seen as this place that prepares people for the workplace — when really, they’re places for people to be immersed in knowledge; in a microcosm which is, for the most part, separate from how the corporate, not-for-profit, or government industries operate.
This dissonance is what is exemplified by this policy change. The government wants to be able to control the types of skills being developed for the Australian economy, but that is incompatible with the founding principles of universities. And it’s also pretty rich for the government to defund our tertiary education sector, both TAFE and universities, and then have the audacity to then want to be in control of the kinds of graduates being produced.
There is also a whole sociology-economic layer to this discussion — universities originally as a place for elites, who could afford to spend years learning for learning’s sake; but now being a place for social mobility.
There is this double standard where students are encouraged to learn for the sake of it, but also know that they must be employable and fit for our capitalist economy so that they can pay the money back.
I completely understand what the government is trying to achieve with this decision — they want Australia to have a robust economy and be producing home-grown thought leaders and innovators.
This is not the way to do it.
There are much larger problems with the education system at play here.
Wendy Zhang, pianist, writer, and educator
I did an arts (media & communications) degree in Sydney University back in the day, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I learnt a broad range of arts and media subjects, which helped me get a taste of different career paths and industries before deciding what I really want to do with my life. It was also affordable, and I was grateful to be able to pay each semester’s fees upfront with my part-time job income.
I can’t believe that the government is now doubling its fees to persuade students choose more “job-ready” subjects like science and teaching. Many young people didn’t know what they wanted to do with their career when they were 18 or 19. That’s why having a broad arts/humanities degree was so valuable [for my cohort], as it helped them explore what’s out there and find out what their interest was before committing to a job and career.
Alicia Crossley, recorder virtuoso
These proposed changes to university fees are highly alarming and will have disastrous effects on the arts sector and Australia’s cultural fabric.
While the government is framing these proposed changes around encouraging students into “essential” businesses such as engineering, science, nursing, and teaching, their approach is completely misguided and overlooks some of the core reasons for a lack of people in these “essential” jobs, primarily work conditions and salaries (teaching and nursing), and limited job availability (government funding cuts to the CSIRO and loss of engineering jobs with the recent downturn of the mining sector, for example).
People who study the Arts and Humanities, as well as Law and Commerce, should not be punished for their career choices simply because the government will not make further investments into universities.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said “all workers are essential“. Maybe his government’s policies need to reflect this.
Allison Bell, soprano
It’s obvious that the value of an arts degree does not fit with the “plug-and-play” system of higher education that Dan Tehan and the Federal Government want to build. Pursuing a tertiary arts education will become the purview of the elite only — for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, such as I was, an arts education will be an impossibility.
However, we know that an arts education builds some of the most-wanted “soft skills” in graduate employees; not just in the arts sector but for most industries — creativity, sophisticated and innovative critical thinking, self-expression and communication, an ability for producing outside-the-box ideas, skills of persuasion. An arts education can show us ways to understand and improve ourselves, our society, and the world.
Furthermore, Tehan’s argument that “Universities must teach Australians the skills needed to succeed in the jobs of the future,” in justifying the increase of arts degree fees, isn’t sound in the face of research, which shows that knowledge and skills provided by a liberal arts education will be critical to a future that will become more reliant on artificial intelligence. Tehan should read Microsoft president Brad Smith and executive vice president of Microsoft AI Harry Shum’s book, The Future Computed. They insist that an arts education will ensure people have the “critical, philosophical, and ethics-based skills that will be instrumental in the development and management of AI solutions“.
Extra comment: Stephanie Eslake, freelance arts journalist and founding editor of CutCommon
Terms such as “job-ready” or “job-relevant” are meaningless at best, and dangerous at worst when used to define entire industries and disciplines of practice.
As a former student of Creative Arts and Humanities, I have been continuously employed or self-employed since graduation. Working in roles across music and writing, I have also paid taxes to a government that now considers my fields somewhat unemployable or job-irrelevant. A twist of irony, perhaps.
What I consider most unnerving is the way “employability” has been placed as a determining factor in the pursuit of education. Similarly, having majored in Journalism (truth), Music (power), and Sociology (understanding), I am fearful of an Australia that makes these disciplines less accessible. Such a strategy hasn’t worked well for other states and regimes in the past, and I’d go so far as to argue such fields are essential for a functional democratic nation.
One can only hope these fee increases will not deter Australian students from enrolling in the courses they wish to pursue. All education is important. Educational opportunities shouldn’t generate, or depend on, inequality.
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Featured image shows University of Sydney for illustrative purposes only (credit: Christopher Neugebauer via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0).
