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In the last few days a number of academics have talked about how the current higher ed system is will loose its egalitarian nature if the proposed changes to the cost of degrees are passed. But is it egalitarian? And what damage does rewriting the past do?
At 17 I was first in family to go to uni. I did most of my BA at a G8 in the 1990s, when HECS was relatively cheap. It took me 5.5 years part time as I had to work to support myself. For a few years I had to go on the dole, and in my final year I worked full time.
I also had to complete my BA across two unis, in the end moving to distance / online study (at a second tier uni) for financial and other reasons. My easiest year was when I was finally eligible for Austudy, but it meant I racked up $7k debt through an Austudy loan.
Before that I couldn’t access income support because my parents earned ‘too much’. Off course cut offs are low, and the early 90s were tough for working class families — double digit interest rates and unemployment.
My parents were mortgage stressed and didn’t have money to support me living close to campus, but living at home meant 90-120 min commute each way. So I could chose either financial stress or the stress of living nowhere near campus. I chose both at different points.
I loved my BA though and being able to take units across literature, economics, politics, geography and history gave me an incredible education. Though many times I had to cut corners because i had to work, like only reading the books I wrote essays on in literature classes.
When people talk about loving the time they had as undergrads to read everything on a syllabus, and really challenge themselves, I get jealous. I had to wait to my PhD for that (my MA Res was part time while I worked full time).
Uni changed my life immeasurably, because of both the degree and social capital I gained (a lot of that in student politics). But how many kids like me never get the opportunity to attend? How many drop out because of financial strain?
It seems to me that if it is this hard for working class kids to get a BA when HECS was much lower, casual and part time jobs more available, and rents cheaper — what hope do young people have if these changes are passed?
Of course we don’t want it to get worse, but it’s not exactly wonderful at the moment. When I taught at Sydney University it was still pretty similar in its undergrad cohort twenty years after I was at Melbourne Uni, and I met few students who were like me.
Low SES access to higher education is terrible, decades after it was set as key goals in the Hawke-Keating era. This graph shows 2011 data from the linked Deakin report. The far right column is where I grew up (but not my school): https://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/365199/widening-participation.pdf
So let’s not pretend Australia has a ‘long had a proudly egalitarian tertiary sector, which has allowed students from less advantaged households to benefit from higher education’. It allowed me to do so, but the class segmentation of tertiary education remains shameful.
