As federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne pushes to deregulate university fees, new data backs his claim that graduates receive a large personal benefit from higher education.
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Figures released on Thursday by Graduate Careers Australia shows that graduates who completed their bachelor degree in 2010 enjoyed a 34 per cent wage increase in their first three years in the workforce.
Even more spectacularly, the class of 2008 saw their salaries rise by 67 per cent in the first five years of their careers.
In a speech on Thursday at Monash University, Mr Pyne backed his case for deregulating fees by saying university graduates earned up to 75 per cent more than those who had no higher education, and that growth in university student numbers was straining the government's capacity to pay.
"Over their lifetime, graduates may earn around $1 million more than if they had not gone to university," he said in the speech, which marked the opening of a new research facility.
Although Mr Pyne has backed university fee deregulation not fee increases, an easing of the ceilings on undergraduate university fees means that some course fees will rise.
Mr Pyne will announce a higher education and research package in Tuesday's budget. Apart from containing the government's policy on fee deregulation, the budget is also expected to provide for increased competition in higher education by giving the same course funding to private colleges and TAFEs as received by universities, and extending HECS loans to these non-university providers.
Responding to Mr Pyne's speech, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), representing university staff, said the minister's support for fee deregulation broke a promise made just before last year's election, when he said in a statement: "The Coalition has no plans to increase university fees."
Told of the union's comment, a spokesperson for Mr Pyne said: "The Coalition will keep our election commitments."
In his speech, Mr Pyne also said Australia risked falling behind overseas universities, particularly in China, which were rapidly improving in quality.
However, the NTEU national president, Jeannie Rea, responded: "If Mr Pyne is so concerned about the international standing of our universities, then he and his government need only emulate the policies being pursued by most of our Asian neighbours, including China, by significantly increasing public investment in universities."
