Australian university reforms to incentivise Stem degrees over arts have ‘dismally failed’, peak bodies say

Australian National University’s vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt says there shouldn’t be barriers to funding for degrees governments ‘don’t like’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Higher education reforms introduced by the Morrison government – which doubled the price of some humanities degrees and lowered fees on some other courses – have not benefited students and should be scrapped, peak university bodies say.

The jobs-ready graduates package was implemented by the former Coalition government in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic to incentive students to study certain degrees, including science and engineering.