Happy ATAR Day: The Aus Gov Might Start Capping Uni Places From Next Year

This will definitely change things for future students.

Today is a day of many emotions for finishing Year 12 students from around Australia. Today is the day they find out if they'll be eligible for their preferred uni courses, and that is already daunting as hell.

To make matters worse, another surprise has been levelled at them which could affect their chances of gaining entry at all if they choose not to attend university straight away.

The ABC is reporting that Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham will announce a new plan to cap the amount of government-funded places in Australian universities as early as next year.

The plan comes after Birmingham's proposed university cuts were voted down in the Senate earlier this year. You remember, the ones that wanted you to pay more money for each course and make you pay your HECS debt back as soon as you start earning over $42,000? Yeah, those ones.

So, what does that mean exactly?

Well, the ABC is explaining that government-funded university places (the ones that let you pay the costs with HECS-HELP) have risen from around 440,000 in 2008 to more than 600,000 in 2016, and this has increased the government's budget considerably.

To help with cutting costs in this sector, Birmingham will propose to cap government-funded places, possibly, at 2016's levels, to help save $1.5 billion for the budget.

This doesn't mean that only 600,000 students will be allowed go to uni each year. It just means that only around 600,000 will be funded, leaving the rest to fund themselves (or have their parents do it).

These proposed changes could affect students from lower socio-economic areas who don't have the level of resources and support as students in elite schools. It could also mean students from wealthy families could simply just pay for their places while students from families with lower incomes would not be afforded the same opportunity.

Opposition Foreign Affairs Minister Tanya Plibersek spoke out against the changes, explaining it would make it harder and more expensive for some students to attend university.

"This would be the end of the demand-driven system; the system that threw open the doors to uni for 190,000 extra students," Plibersek said.

It is said that the Government could cap the places at 2016's levels without parliamentary approval, which means 2018's Year 12 cohort will be affected. Let's hope that some of these issues are taken into consideration if that does happen.

Photo: iStock.com/simonkr