Australians think students are being asked to pay far too much for their degrees. Just under half (47%) of Australians surveyed by YouGov in June 2025 believe a worker on an average income should be able to pay off the debt for a standard three-year degree within five years. When it comes to the cost of a degree, 58% believe a student should pay A$5,000 or less per year – less than a third of what arts students now pay.
Just under one in five, or 18%, believe a standard degree should be free – as it was 50 years ago, when the Whitlam Labor government introduced free university education in 1974. This ended in 1989, when in a world first, the Hawke Labor government introduced the income contingent Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) – which is still with us today. It has continued to evolve, with costs to students rising with successive governments since.
Today, thanks to the Job Ready Graduates scheme introduced by the Morrison Coalition government in 2021, the cost of an arts degree has risen to over A$50,000.
