Give new commission power over fees, Canberra told

Next year’s hike to Australian tuition fees is already set in train, and the tertiary education commission – whose role includes stewarding changes to higher education funding – will be powerless to prevent it.

Monash University policy analyst Andrew Norton said student contributions would rise by almost 4 per cent in 2027. Teaching subsidies and student loan limits will increase by the same margin.

Fee indexation for each coming year is calculated by comparing an inflationary measure from the last quarter of the preceding year with the equivalent measure 12 months earlier. Specifically, the indexation figure reflects the increase in the weighted average cost of key goods and services across the country’s eight capital cities.

That increase in 2025 was 3.6 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Norton said the 2027 fees for arts degrees would consequently rise to A$18,025 (£9,232), up from A$17,399 this year.

If these inflationary trends persist, people currently embarking on three-year humanities degrees – which carry Australia’s highest fees despite delivering below-average graduate salaries – will amass student debts exceeding A$54,000.

Higher education insiders have long sought alleviation of Australia’s oversized arts fees, which were more than doubled under the Covid-era Job-ready Graduates reforms. Many expected the forthcoming Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) to assume that task.

Education minister Jason Clare confirmed that Atec would have the power to examine course fees, according to a 2024 report in the Sydney Morning Herald, which said the commission would work to rebalance the cost of degrees.

The legislation to create Atec gives it no such power. Under the bill, the agency will only be able to influence fees indirectly by advising on government teaching subsidies – advice that can only be provided on the education minister’s request.

“Atec is supposed to be a system ‘steward’ but it won’t be allowed to touch the most controversial aspect of the current system,” Norton said.

His frustration is echoed in many submissions to a Senate’s committee’s inquiry into the Atec legislation. Universities Australia said the commission’s remit should be expanded to advise on “student contributions and not just commonwealth contributions”.

Most other university networks agreed. “Atec must have the authority to examine the relationship between commonwealth and student contributions and recommend appropriate funding clusters and rates,” the Group of Eight insisted.

The Regional Universities Network said the legislation as drafted would “embed an artificial…wall” in how funding was conceptualised. “Atec [should have] regard for not only the total quantum of per student funding, but also the components of it.”

The universities of Queensland and Western Sydney likewise said Atec’s remit should extend to tuition fees. “This is a key in addressing the punitively high student cost for some degrees,” Western Sydney said.

The Australian Academy of the Humanities also backed the call, saying students were amassing debts “that do not reflect their future earning potential”.

Norton’s 46-page submission proposes dozens of amendments to the Atec legislation – including empowering it to advise on fees – although his principal recommendation is to reject the bill in its entirety.

He said more than 800,000 Australians paid university fees every year, mostly through student loans. “This part of the funding system is of high policy and political relevance,” his submission says. “It would be sensible to get Atec’s advice on the practical implications of different student contribution options.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com