Should I Change My Course Preferences Based On How Much It Costs?
Recently, the Federal Education Minister made an announcement about proposed changes to the way that the government would contribute to tertiary course fees from next year, decreasing the cost for so-called “job relevant” courses and increasing the cost for others.
This means that, if the legislation goes through:
fees for maths, agriculture, teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English, and languages will decrease dramatically.
fees for science, health, architecture, environmental science, IT and engineering will decrease by about 20%.
fees for law and commerce subjects will increase by about 28%
fees for humanities subjects will more than double
There’s a lot that could be said about all this, but today I want to focus on the question that most of you will be asking right now: should I take the changes in price into account when I’m choosing my course for next year?
Unfortunately, there’s not an easy answer, and no one can make it for you. But the first step in making a decision is to look at the facts.
How do uni fees work?
When you’re looking at courses, you’ll notice that sometimes there are different course codes for the same course. This is because the university will have a certain number of places available for international students who are paying the full fee, some more places for domestic students paying the full fee and another group of places for students who are in a Commonwealth Supported Place (or CSP).
If you apply for a CSP, it means that your fees are partly paid by the government. You can apply for these if you’re an Australian citizen, a permanent resident or a New Zealand citizen.
The portion of the fees that you need to pay can either be paid upfront when you enrol in your subjects each semester, or you can take out a HECS-HELP loan. These loans don’t attract any interest like car loans or mortgages do, but they are indexed each year to take inflation into account so that the value of the loan remains the same over time. If you have a HECS-HELP debt, each year when you submit your tax return, the amount you need to pay back will be calculated based on your income for the year. As of June 2020, you don’t make any repayments until you earn at least $45,881, and then the amount you pay starts at 1% of your income up to 10% of your income if you earn over $134,573. So if you earn $50,000, then $500 would automatically be taken out of your tax return (for the full details, click here)
What courses were you looking at before this announcement?
If you already have an idea about what you’d like to do next year, double check how the changes will affect your fees. You might find that the courses you were looking at will all be cheaper next year! There’s also a possibility that some subjects within the course you were looking at will be more expensive and others will be less expensive, for example in an Arts degree, humanities subjects like History will be more expensive but a language would be less expensive. In this case, maybe you could think about the mix of subjects you would be interested in taking to see if you can offset the extra cost of some subjects you really want to do.
If you were looking at two very different courses, and one will be more expensive while the other will be less expensive, then maybe the difference in cost will help you make a decision for one over the other.
Think about the choice you’re making
At this point, I want to remind you that you’re aim is to choose a course that will lead you to a fulfilling career, so it’s unlikely that you have two courses that have equal value to you. Yes, if the legislation goes through, then the cost of some degrees could be twice as much as others, so going for the expensive one can seem like a bad decision.
However, there are two points that you should consider:
If you’re applying for a HECS-HELP loan to cover the cost, there’s no interest attached to the loan, you don’t start paying it back until you earn a certain amount and the amount you pay is relative to how much you earn.
You’re making a choice about the area you’re going to work in after you finish your course, and potentially for the rest of your working life. If there’s a particular area that you’re interested in, you’re likely to get more out of that career (and earn more money because you have the drive in that area) than if you choose a different one just because it’s cheaper.
No one can make the decision for you, but having the facts means that you can make a more informed decision as it gets closer to the time you need to put your VTAC application in.
