THE FLAWED LOGIC BEHIND AUSTRALIA’S HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY

The Jobs Ready Graduate Scheme (JRGS) was designed to steer students toward areas of national priority, but in practice, it has inflated student debt, deepened funding inequalities, and done little to shift enrolment patterns into areas of national priority. As HECS-HELP balances grow and equity gaps widen, the need for meaningful reform is clear. In this piece, Angelene Kalafatis calls for a higher education model that reflects how students actually make decisions, and reaffirms education as a public good and not exclusively as private investment.