'End of the glory days': Students up in arms as Budget anger boils over

Anger is bubbling around the country as the full impact of Treasurer Joe Hockey’s ‘horror’ Budget sinks in.

Protesters outraged by the announced Budget cuts to Government services - including health and education - gathered in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Hobart on Sunday, as part of the nationwide March in May rallies.

In Sydney, the crowd was estimated at up to 10,000 people. Protesters gathered in Sydney's CBD carrying placards with messages such as "hands off health, education and welfare".

Student protests: 'The glory days of education have been slashed'

Among the most significant changes in the Budget is a raft of radical policy initiatives for higher education.

The Government has made clear that it will impose significant cuts to its contribution to student funding and reduce the ¬income threshold for repayment of Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) debts and impose interest rates.

Scholarships for disadvantaged students will be paid from higher fees.

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The Government has said it wants to change the rules to “rebalance the Commonwealth’s contribution towards course fees” and that $1 of every $5 in extra revenue raised by universities would go towards a scholarship program for disadvantaged students.

Unsurprisingly, students are up in arms against the proposed changes.

At the Victoria’s Deakin university, the students union has called for a day of protest action on Thursday, forcing Prime Minister Tony Abbott to cancelled a planned trip.

Mr Abbott had been scheduled to attend the official opening of a carbon fibre research facility at the university in Geelong with Education Minister Christopher Pyne.

Rowan Payne from the Deakin University student association and a member of the National Union of Students told ABC that the Prime Minister's cancellation showed protesters had achieved their aims.

"Tony Abbott represents a massive threat to university students across the country and he's only coming on to campus to sell a radical new budget that will prevent access to tertiary education for students," he said.

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"This budget represents the biggest changes to the tertiary education sector since the introduction of HECS. "I think he's here on campus to sell his new budget," he said, "The glory days of free education in this country have been slashed and it looks like things are only going to get worse.

"So I think it's understandable that students are incredibly upset about what's happening, and these demonstrations show just how angry students are."

On Tuesday, former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella had to be escorted by police out of a lecture at Melbourne University after it was disrupted by protesters.

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Mrs Mirabella had to suspend the first-year Australian politics lecture after students started chanting about racism.

It followed a similar incident at Sydney University last Friday when Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was mobbed by students who were angry about planned changes to higher education.

Students in both the cities will also relight bonfires of budget papers in metal bins.

 
The new system takes effect from January 1, 2016, but has a May 14, 2014 start date. Therefore, students enrolling from last week can be subject to fee hikes from 2016.

The change takes effect ¬immediately for universities. This means that they must move quickly to determine their fee position, or leave students who are considering starting study in mid-2014 in the dark about the fee structure in January 2016.

The $120,000 uni degree

A deregulated system for paying university fees will cost students up to three times as much, leaving graduates with a debt to the tune of $120,000-plus, says Bruce Chapman, the architect of HECS student loan scheme.

''I expect most universities will increase tuition fees to international student fee levels, which are currently about three times higher," he told Fairfax last week, "The Group of Eight universities will do that pretty quickly."

Professor Chapman said the Government's plan for students to pay interest on loans up to six  per cent - depending on the government bond rate - was unfair.

He also said it was quite likely the cost of a bachelor of medical science would rise from $24,000 to $120,000.

This is the fee for international students at the University of Sydney.

Who will be the worst hit?



Uni drop-outs who start out in low-paying jobs or women who delay paying back their debts after their maternity leave would be the worst hit from the move, Professor Chapman said.

The new interest charges may also deter students from entering university in the first place, he said.

But not everyone thinks it’s a bad deal. Ian Young, the Group of Eight universities chairman, told Fairfax that the extension of Commonwealth support to TAFEs and private colleges  will bring back .

''If universities want to charge a premium, they will have to convince students there is a real benefit to what they offer. This will keep us on our toes and force us to innovate, '' he was quoted as saying.

In more bad news for the youth, unemployed people under 30 years of age will now face a six-month wait for benefits, which have also been slashed.

(With inputs from AAP and ABC)