Aussie Authors Slam Job-Ready Scheme: “Humanities Transform Lives”

The humanities are under attack in Australia, with funding cuts and course closures threatening the future of disciplines like history, literature, and philosophy. A groundswell of prominent Australians is pushing back, arguing that these fields are vital not only for personal enrichment but also for the health of the nation.

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A Call to Action from Leading Australians

More than 100 high-profile Australians, many of whom hold Bachelor of Arts degrees, have signed an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Spearheaded by the Australian Historical Association (AHA), the letter urges the government to dismantle the previous Morrison government’s controversial Job-Ready Graduates package and implement a fairer university fee system. The core argument is that the current system unfairly penalises students who choose to study humanities and social sciences.

Among the signatories are renowned writers such as Tim Winton, Nam Le, Helen Garner, Tim Flannery, and Kate Grenville. Grenville has stated that her humanities and history studies were “absolutely essential” to her writing. The list extends beyond the literary world, encompassing figures like Megan Davis, co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue and chair of Australian Studies at Harvard, and musician and former Labor minister Peter Garrett.

Winton expressed his frustration, stating that it was “utterly mystifying” that a Labor government would not act to rectify what he sees as a significant wrong. He highlighted the value of his arts degree, asserting that it has “created jobs and cultural value for over 40 years.”

The Job-Ready Graduates Package: An Attack on the Humanities

The Job-Ready Graduates package, implemented by the previous government, aimed to steer students toward fields deemed to be areas of national need, such as STEM, education, and nursing. It achieved this by reducing fees for these degrees while simultaneously increasing fees for other degrees, including those in the humanities. Philosophy, history, and literature experienced some of the most significant fee hikes.

The financial burden of an arts degree has now surpassed $50,000. History fees alone saw a staggering 117% increase when the policy came into effect. This has had a direct impact on student choices, with humanities enrolments plummeting to a ten-year low.

Michelle Arrow, AHA president, has described the situation as a “sustained political attack on the humanities.” She points out that this attack has persisted across two governments and three education ministers. The policy did not create more places in the cheaper degrees; it simply made it more difficult for students to pursue subjects with less obvious career paths. This sends a clear message that such choices are considered self-indulgent and economically irrational.

Universities Under Pressure: The Human Cost

Universities are facing increasing financial pressures due to rising costs and fluctuating revenue from international students. In this environment, humanities departments are often seen as easy targets for cost-cutting measures.

Examples of this disinvestment are occurring across the country:

• The University of Wollongong is cutting up to 124 full-time jobs as part of a $30 million cost-saving restructure, with significant losses in the humanities.
• Macquarie University is eliminating entire majors in sociology and politics.
• The University of Tasmania is shedding up to 13 arts and humanities roles.

These cuts are not isolated incidents but reflect a broader pattern of disinvestment. The humanities faculties are being restructured not because they are too expensive to run, but because they are perceived to offer too little economic return. Yet, the skills they cultivate – interpretive reasoning, ethical judgement, and historical understanding – are vital for a functioning democracy.

The Value of Slow Learning and Critical Thinking

The study of complex texts fosters not just critical thinking, but also a slower, more thoughtful approach to engagement. Novels like Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, and George Eliot’s Middlemarch encourage students to grapple with complex issues such as sovereignty, environmental stewardship, intergenerational trauma, and moral attention. These works cultivate patience, tolerance for ambiguity, and the ability to engage with contradictions.

The study of classic philosophical concepts such as Pascal’s Wager and the Ship of Theseus, provide frameworks for judgement and moral reasoning. Students are encouraged to engage in slow, rigorous, and open-ended learning, developing the capacity to think clearly even when there are no obvious answers.

The concept of “negative capability,” as described by John Keats, highlights the importance of remaining in “uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” This disposition is crucial in a world saturated with polarisation and misinformation.

This type of learning, which is slow and resists metrics of productivity, is essential for building ethical capacity in future lawyers, teachers, doctors, journalists, and citizens.

The Broader Impact: A Failure of Imagination

Despite the challenges facing the humanities, there is a clear public appetite for the skills and knowledge they provide. History podcasts are thriving, and philosophy books are shaping national conversations. Humanities graduates are employable across various sectors because of their ability to read closely, write clearly, and think critically.

Employers consistently cite communication, judgement, and adaptability as desirable graduate traits. These “soft skills” are essential in fields such as law, health, diplomacy, and policy, where decisions have significant moral implications. During crises, such as the pandemic, the skills required to weigh privacy against public safety or vaccine equity against speed were not just technical, but also interpretive, ethical, and human.

Indigenous-led campaigns for Voice, Treaty, and Truth have drawn not only on legal frameworks but also on storytelling traditions, cultural knowledge, and historical understanding – all core elements of the humanities.

The Universities Accord Final Report has acknowledged that the Job-Ready Graduates scheme “failed to meet its objectives” and recommended urgent reform. Some forms of knowledge are valuable because they deepen understanding, sharpen empathy, and expand imagination.

The erosion of the humanities is not just a policy failure; it is a failure of imagination. While it is important to prepare students for the job market, without the tools to think deeply, imagine ethically, and reason clearly, we risk leaving them fundamentally unfulfilled.