Industry and states put pressure back on federal government over paid university placements

The Australian federal government is facing pressure to fund mandatory student placements. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

The federal government is facing mounting pressure to fund mandatory placements, with states, students and industry warning failure to act will worsen ongoing workforce shortages amid a cost-of-living crisis.

The Universities Accord report, released on Sunday, received “strong feedback” from students about the burden of unpaid internships and called on government and industry to fund stipends.

A range of vocational degrees including nursing, teaching, physiotherapy and counselling require up to 1,000 hours of unpaid placements – equivalent to six months’ work.

Under the recommendation, the commonwealth would work with universities and employers to introduce payments, with governments to fund nursing, care and teaching.

But the national president of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, Scott Willis, said if allied health practices were relied upon to fund placements, “there would be none at all”.

“If there was a reliability on practices to pay students, I can guarantee placements would cease immediately,” he said.

“Practices don’t get paid [for placements] and it requires a significant amount of energy and resources. The only ones that can [fund it] are the government.”

Prof Christine Morley from the school of public health and social work at Queensland University of Technology also pressed the federal government to foot the bill, contending allied health industries provided a “social service” to society.

“It’s not a private enterprise like engineers where you have corporate firms that can fund placements,” she said. “We’re a different kettle of fish.

“It’s a cleaner solution if just the federal government were involved – once states and the commonwealth are talking about who pays for what it can end up not happening.”

Isaac Wattenberg, who heads a group called Students Against Placement Poverty, said recommending employers pay for sectors other than nursing, teaching and care went against “direct recommendations” from students and academics, while the definition of what constituted “care” was also unclear.

“Research shows that relying on employer-funded placements increases competition by limiting the amount of organisations that are able to host placement students,” he said.

“Vocational placements are often difficult for students to secure and many fields already lack adequate numbers of placement opportunities to support the number of students required to undertake placement hours.”

State education ministers are still holding out for discussion with the education minister, but have placed the onus on the commonwealth.

The New South Wales deputy premier and education minister, Prue Car, said her government had already awarded a payrise to teachers, adding “higher education course funding is a commonwealth responsibility”.

The Queensland minister for education, Di Farmer, said paying students for compulsory placements was a “good idea” that would be a welcome cost-of-living support, but didn’t commit to contributing to it, while Victoria’s minister for skills and Tafe, Gayle Tierney, said the government was “closely reviewing” the accord’s recommendations.

The Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for education, Mehreen Faruqi, said no matter how it were legislated, paying students for mandatory placements must be an “immediate priority” for Labor, particularly amid a cost-of-living crisis.

“Unpaid placements are really taking a toll on students as they are pushed into poverty or forced to drop out,” Faruqi said.

Morley agreed. She said it was crucial funding was introduced in the May budget to address chronic workforce shortages, adding the stipend should be equivalent to the national minimum wage, not be means tested and include international students.

A survey of 1,000 social work students conducted by Morley in 2022 found 96.3% experienced challenges during placements, and a quarter lost up to 75% of their income.

“Everybody I speak to in the sector is desperately concerned at not being able to attract workers, particularly in regional and rural areas,” she said.

“This would be absolutely life-changing. I’ve had people contact me saying ‘when is this happening – I’ve been wanting to study for years and putting it off because I can’t afford to do the placements – if this comes in, I’m going to enrol tomorrow’.

“I can’t stress how urgent this is for the sector.”

The education minister, Jason Clare, was approached for comment.