Higher education is at the core of the political challenges confronting the Albanese government, principally of boosting capital accumulation whilst safeguarding aspects of social reproduction. The Albanese government has prioritised skills training and an industry policy focusing on green energy, but this is at the expense of social reproduction including in areas of education.
The Accord is designed to support the production of ‘labour power’ via skill training and subsidisation of employers for job training but notably recognises that higher education is at the heart of the current social reproduction crises – evident in the shortages in trained employees in areas that are essential to ensure that labour is available for capital. Yet, at the same time, it shifts the cost of this to students - international and domestic- whilst remaining committed to fiscal austerity. The current student debt crisis speaks directly to this contradiction. By 2024 student debt is around $78 billion, ten times the figure of 2005, caused by governmental policies particularly three rounds of student contribution increases and the Coalition government’s student loan schemes, plus high inflation that is indexed into yearly HECS/HELP repayments, which has resulted in 3 million students in debt.
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