Fee threat is turning some off

LABOR has warned that the looming threat of university deregulation, which could lift th the cost of some degrees to $1 $100,000, may deter students fr from higher education.

Labor Senator for Queensla land Murray Watt said the L LNP will release its plan for h higher education in the comin ing weeks with deregulation a ““real threat”.

“The real risk is that, for at l least some courses, they (LNP) want to deregulate fees and essentially let universities charge whatever the market will pay,” he said.

“We would like to think that all kids, no matter what their background is, can go to university if they want to and won’t get priced out.

“A few decades ago it was only the rich kids that could go to university and we’ve come a long way since then, we’d hate to see it go back to that system.”

Griffith University law student Sophie Lynch, 18, said millenials were “already struggling” following recent penalty rate cuts.

“Education is getting so expensive and we’re going to be paid less because of the penalty rate cuts, nothing is very appealing for young people right now,” she said.

“I think rising education costs are definitely on people’s minds and it’s deterring them from going to university, especially with so much talk about housing prices.

“Young people feel like they can have a degree or have a house because they know they’ll be left in so much debt after uni.”