Australian sector review tipped to kill off ‘fail rule’

Expectations are growing that Australia will jettison its controversial “fail rule”, with a Department of Education official saying the move is under “active” consideration.

The rule, a late inclusion in the 2021 Job-ready Graduates (JRG) reforms, removes students’ access to government subsidies if they do not successfully complete at least half of their subjects. For bachelor’s students, it applies once they have attempted eight subjects in the same course at the same institution.

A Senate estimates committee heard that the measure, which came into force in 2022, had already forced 700 students at one university to be “de-enrolled”. Education department secretary Tony Cook said the Universities Accord panel, which is due to present its interim report within days, was looking at the issue “very closely”.

Mr Cook said the department had been collating information on the rule’s impacts for the panel. “We are waiting for…data to be verified and to come through,” he said.

Analysts worry that the students most affected are those from disadvantaged backgrounds – the very people the accord has been tasked with assisting. Kelly Pearce, first assistant secretary with the department’s higher education division, said the rule was not intended as a “blanket” exclusion.

“The aim…is to get universities to give as much support as possible to students who look like they are in trouble. They should not be cutting them off without some support.” This could include transferring students to other courses, she said.

Ms Pearce said data had so far been obtained from about 18 of Australia’s 42 universities. “Probably by the time we do the interim report, at the end of June, it will have enough of that data to be able to comment on this,” she said.

Ben Rimmer, deputy secretary of the higher education, research and international group at the Department of Education, said the accord panel’s members were “very exercised” about the rule. “It’s a matter that’s under pretty active consideration,” said Mr Rimmer, an ex-officio member of the panel. “There are some initial indications that there are pretty unfortunate outcomes from the application of the rule.”

There is also speculation that the government will expand a widely supported JRG reform – the 2021 uncapping of university places for indigenous people in regional and remote areas.

Most university groups have called for this arrangement to be extended to urban areas, a measure the department is thought to have modelled and costed. Advocates say it would be a relatively inexpensive move with major benefits for some of Australia’s most marginalised people.

Mr Cook declined to say whether the department had proposed an extension of demand-driven funding to all indigenous Australians, citing cabinet confidentiality, but said it had advised the government about measures to boost their access and participation.

Recently released Productivity Commission data show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait people constituted just 2.3 per cent of new bachelor’s students in 2021, despite comprising 3.2 per cent of the national population. Indigenous students are around 33 per cent less likely to complete degrees than their non-indigenous peers, and 80 per cent more likely to drop out in the first year.

Mr Rimmer said that education minister Jason Clare would decide “when and if” to publicly release the accord’s interim report when he received it by the end of June. Observers expect it to be released by 19 July, when Mr Clare is due to address the National Press Club.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com