On Friday the govt announced its plan to radically change uni fees, and the headlines rightfully focussed on those 110% hikes to humanities degrees.

But now the full plan is out and the real story is clear: this is a massive defunding of tertiary education. THREAD.

The government announced 39,000 new university places by 2023, but there's no new funding here (it's “budget neutral”). Those new places are paid for by cuts.

Let's look at some of those "good news stories” from last week.

Science degrees - now cheaper for students, yes. But they've also had govt contribution cut by $2760 per student per year. This is big, and it makes them harder to staff, resource, and teach for unis.

Engineering is also cheaper for students, but also has that $2760 cut. Overall, it's now $4758 LESS funding per student, per year to run engineering and science degrees.

What impact will this have on education outcomes? Will students get the degree they hope?

Nursing was a great news story last week. Students only pay $3700 per year! But the government increased their contribution by just a third of that.

Which means - yep - unis will get $1729 LESS per student per year to teach nursing degrees.

Agriculture was another big ticket item. Degrees that cost students $9k a year will now be just below $4k!

But, you guessed it - the government hasn't matched the cut, and unis will now have to figure out how to run degrees on $3444 LESS per student per year.

Maths. Overall reduction of $3513 per student, per year.

Teaching. Unis now have $1066 less per student, per year to run these degrees. There's a modest reduction for languages, too.

By a pure 'bank balance' criteria there are good news stories. Philosophy & History gets $2570 more per student, but that's off the back of students paying $7696 more per year - while govt only pays $1100. This is essentially a full-fee course now.

So what's the net result here? What's the takeaway?

At a time of unbelievable crisis, when the govt itself claims education will never be more important - they've cut funding from unis with one hand and announced 39,000 new places with another.

It's more with MUCH less.

The government has already excluded unis from JobKeeper. Casuals, admin, support staff, contractors, have ALREADY lost jobs. Unis are running redundancy schemes RIGHT NOW.

The response? Cut funding. Give unis less money, for fewer resources, fewer staff - and more students.

It's not, as maybe we thought on Friday, just Arts degrees that need saving, or STEM vs the Humanities.

It’s the entire university system being deliberately put under unbelievable pressure. It's worse for students, worse for unis, worse for everyone. Unbelievable.

So what can you do? These changes still need to pass the Senate. Folks like @JacquiLambie @Stirling_G @Senator_Patrick can still block this absolutely nightmarish plan from becoming a reality. Write to your local MP. Contact your state senators.

Stats and figures in this thread come from the govt's report https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/faqs_-_jrg_-_clusters_redesign.pdf and @garethjbryant's spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nMUDNkss9cpALRy_k-UVFlGAphAkVOW9XoXHVE0hSyk/edit?usp=sharing