Latest news with #MonashBusinessSchool
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Want a secure, high-paying job? Don't expect university to get you there
I often debate with my university friends whether the debt and opportunity cost of going to university was worth it, especially now that the rise of non-degree workers is impossible to ignore. Recently, a friend I hadn't seen since high school pulled up to our running club in a brand-new Mercedes. No surprise, he went into real estate. Another casually mentioned dropping $500 on a night out at Crown. You guessed it, he's a sparky. It makes me wonder if I were finishing high school today, would a university degree offer the same clear-cut value proposition it did a decade ago? Why spend years studying when you can make six figures in construction straight out of school. In Australia, construction wages have outpaced the broader economy over the past decade as a result of increasing labour shortages, mirroring trends in the US, where blue-collar workers have seen significant wage gains post-pandemic. 'The median income of men in their 20s with a vocational qualification is higher than for those with a bachelor's degree,' says Andrew Norton, a professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School. Loading But he adds: 'Income growth in trades tends to stall in their 30s, while it continues for graduates.' According to The Wall Street Journal, young Americans are increasingly choosing trades over higher education, perceiving that they offer better job prospects in a future where artificial intelligence threatens white-collar graduate roles. Some employers are now offering highschoolers $US70,000 ($107,000) jobs to take up a trade. Increasing economic uncertainty and fears of recession are also causing companies to retain existing workers longer, while reports from the UK and US reveal graduates are struggling to find work as entry-level positions disappear.
The Age
5 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Want a secure, high-paying job? Don't expect university will get you there
I often debate with my university friends whether the debt and opportunity cost of going to university was worth it, especially now that the rise of non-degree workers is impossible to ignore. Recently, a friend I hadn't seen since high school pulled up to our running club in a brand-new Mercedes. No surprise, he went into real estate. Another casually mentioned dropping $500 on a night out at Crown. You guessed it, he's a sparky. It makes me wonder if I were finishing high school today, would a university degree offer the same clear-cut value proposition it did a decade ago? Why spend years studying when you can make six figures in construction straight out of school. In Australia, construction wages have outpaced the broader economy over the past decade as a result of increasing labour shortages, mirroring trends in the US, where blue-collar workers have seen significant wage gains post-pandemic. 'The median income of men in their 20s with a vocational qualification is higher than for those with a bachelor's degree,' says Andrew Norton, a professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School. Loading But he adds: 'Income growth in trades tends to stall in their 30s, while it continues for graduates.' According to The Wall Street Journal, young Americans are increasingly choosing trades over higher education, perceiving that they offer better job prospects in a future where artificial intelligence threatens white-collar graduate roles. Some employers are now offering highschoolers $US70,000 ($107,000) jobs to take up a trade. Increasing economic uncertainty and fears of recession are also causing companies to retain existing workers longer, while reports from the UK and US reveal graduates are struggling to find work as entry-level positions disappear.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Want a secure, high-paying job? Don't expect university will get you there
I often debate with my university friends whether the debt and opportunity cost of going to university was worth it, especially now that the rise of non-degree workers is impossible to ignore. Recently, a friend I hadn't seen since high school pulled up to our running club in a brand-new Mercedes. No surprise, he went into real estate. Another casually mentioned dropping $500 on a night out at Crown. You guessed it, he's a sparky. It makes me wonder if I were finishing high school today, would a university degree offer the same clear-cut value proposition it did a decade ago? Why spend years studying when you can make six figures in construction straight out of school. In Australia, construction wages have outpaced the broader economy over the past decade as a result of increasing labour shortages, mirroring trends in the US, where blue-collar workers have seen significant wage gains post-pandemic. 'The median income of men in their 20s with a vocational qualification is higher than for those with a bachelor's degree,' says Andrew Norton, a professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School. Loading But he adds: 'Income growth in trades tends to stall in their 30s, while it continues for graduates.' According to The Wall Street Journal, young Americans are increasingly choosing trades over higher education, perceiving that they offer better job prospects in a future where artificial intelligence threatens white-collar graduate roles. Some employers are now offering highschoolers $US70,000 ($107,000) jobs to take up a trade. Increasing economic uncertainty and fears of recession are also causing companies to retain existing workers longer, while reports from the UK and US reveal graduates are struggling to find work as entry-level positions disappear.
Sydney Morning Herald
30-04-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
It's a Morrison slug so awful that Dr Evil would be proud. Labor won't touch it
Its stated intent was that by doubling the student fees for arts, communications and social science degrees, hiking by 28 per cent the cost of law and business degrees and halving the fees for science and engineering, it would provide a price signal to shift prospective students into courses whose graduates were in higher job-market demand. Loading University records show declining arts enrolments and increasing science and engineering enrolments were trends occurring before the changes were introduced. The review found the policy barely shifted a soul. While providing no discernible benefit to the national economy or higher education funding, it saddled arts students with debt disproportionate to their likely future earnings. 'The review finds that this deterrent approach did not work and is in fundamental conflict with the need to grow the number of people with higher education qualifications significantly to meet the nation's future skills needs,' the accord review concluded. Despite this, Labor is not promising to immediately scrap the changes if re-elected. Instead, the Albanese government is offering to wipe 20 per cent off all HECS debts, regardless of when you finished your degree, what you studied and how much you owe. The federal opposition, for reasons that would take a Jerry Springer episode to interrogate, is having none of it. It insists that reducing the debt of people with university degrees, even those working in relatively low-paying jobs, is elitist. Monash Business School professor of higher education policy Andrew Norton says unwinding the impact of the changes, both on the cost to students and funding for universities, requires complex, politically sensitive surgery. He notes that the structure of the policy, which he describes as 'conceptually, a very untidy package' makes it difficult to remove without unintended consequences. If Labor is re-elected, this future task will fall to the Albanese government's proposed Australian Tertiary Education Commission. Norton is cautious about what to expect from a government commission but says it is only fair for students and graduates at the sharp end of the fee hikes to get some relief in the meantime. Labor's approach to this fraught area of public policy is typically incremental and risk-averse. Nonetheless, it is difficult to see how a once-off offer to slice 20 per cent off government student loans can hurt its re-election prospects. Loading At the start of this week, this masthead's elegantly understated chief political correspondent David Crowe reported a series of figures that should make Tehan and his fellow Morrison-era survivors blanch. They show that a clutch of seats the Coalition must win to have any chance of forming government – Kooyong, Chisholm, Menzies and Goldstein in Victoria, Ryan in Queensland and Werriwa in NSW – are in the top dozen electorates nationally for people with HECS debts. In Kooyong, where Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer is trying to dislodge teal MP Monique Ryan, there are nearly 22,000 people under the age of 35 with HECS debts averaging $31,299. When you add parents or grandparents living in the electorate who don't want their kids lumbered with big debts at the start of their working lives, that is a sizeable chunk of voters. In Tehan's seat of Wannon, an electorate that stretches from the western edge of Greater Geelong all the way to the South Australian border, there are 13,920 voters with a combined HECS debt of $324 million. In a local contest where independent candidate Alex Dyson is pushing the Liberals to the brink, Tehan is opposing a policy that would instantly wipe $64 million off the debts of his electors.
The Age
30-04-2025
- Business
- The Age
It's a Morrison slug so awful that Dr Evil would be proud. Labor won't touch it
Its stated intent was that by doubling the student fees for arts, communications and social science degrees, hiking by 28 per cent the cost of law and business degrees and halving the fees for science and engineering, it would provide a price signal to shift prospective students into courses whose graduates were in higher job-market demand. Loading University records show declining arts enrolments and increasing science and engineering enrolments were trends occurring before the changes were introduced. The review found the policy barely shifted a soul. While providing no discernible benefit to the national economy or higher education funding, it saddled arts students with debt disproportionate to their likely future earnings. 'The review finds that this deterrent approach did not work and is in fundamental conflict with the need to grow the number of people with higher education qualifications significantly to meet the nation's future skills needs,' the accord review concluded. Despite this, Labor is not promising to immediately scrap the changes if re-elected. Instead, the Albanese government is offering to wipe 20 per cent off all HECS debts, regardless of when you finished your degree, what you studied and how much you owe. The federal opposition, for reasons that would take a Jerry Springer episode to interrogate, is having none of it. It insists that reducing the debt of people with university degrees, even those working in relatively low-paying jobs, is elitist. Monash Business School professor of higher education policy Andrew Norton says unwinding the impact of the changes, both on the cost to students and funding for universities, requires complex, politically sensitive surgery. He notes that the structure of the policy, which he describes as 'conceptually, a very untidy package' makes it difficult to remove without unintended consequences. If Labor is re-elected, this future task will fall to the Albanese government's proposed Australian Tertiary Education Commission. Norton is cautious about what to expect from a government commission but says it is only fair for students and graduates at the sharp end of the fee hikes to get some relief in the meantime. Labor's approach to this fraught area of public policy is typically incremental and risk-averse. Nonetheless, it is difficult to see how a once-off offer to slice 20 per cent off government student loans can hurt its re-election prospects. Loading At the start of this week, this masthead's elegantly understated chief political correspondent David Crowe reported a series of figures that should make Tehan and his fellow Morrison-era survivors blanch. They show that a clutch of seats the Coalition must win to have any chance of forming government – Kooyong, Chisholm, Menzies and Goldstein in Victoria, Ryan in Queensland and Werriwa in NSW – are in the top dozen electorates nationally for people with HECS debts. In Kooyong, where Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer is trying to dislodge teal MP Monique Ryan, there are nearly 22,000 people under the age of 35 with HECS debts averaging $31,299. When you add parents or grandparents living in the electorate who don't want their kids lumbered with big debts at the start of their working lives, that is a sizeable chunk of voters. In Tehan's seat of Wannon, an electorate that stretches from the western edge of Greater Geelong all the way to the South Australian border, there are 13,920 voters with a combined HECS debt of $324 million. In a local contest where independent candidate Alex Dyson is pushing the Liberals to the brink, Tehan is opposing a policy that would instantly wipe $64 million off the debts of his electors.
