Annual TAFE fees will rise by as much as $750 for students or more than $1500 for a qualification.
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The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal has released the draft fee recommendations for government-funded vocational eduction and training to apply from July 2014.
IPART Chairman Peter Boxall said he expected there to be concerns about the proposed fee increases. But he said the increases were necessary to ensure more government-subsidised places were available for students.
The draft recommendations propose base prices for each qualification based on the cost of providing the training, with the government funding 60% of the base price for courses and students paying the remaining 40 per cent.
This was designed to be more consistent with government and student contributions for university courses.
"We anticipate stakeholders will have concerns about fee increases," Mr Boxall said. "However, to set fees lower than 40 per cent will reduce the number of government-subsidised VET places that can be made available in NSW.
“For instance, without fee increases, we estimate that the NSW Government would provide around 61,000 fewer subsidised VET places in 2014/15, compared to if fees are increased as proposed," Dr Boxall said. "And we are interested in stakeholder views about whether this is the right balance between affordability and availability.”
Under the IPART proposal, a quarter of students would pay an extra $500 for their qualification - or an extra $250 per year. A further 37 per cent of students would face increases of $500 to $1500 for each qualification - $250 and $750 per year.
Around 22 per cent of students studying high-cost courses will pay an extra $1500 per qualification or around $750 per year.
About 16 per cent of students would see a decrease in standard fees.
Dr Boxall said the proposed approach seeks to balance affordability and availability of VET in NSW.
The IPART review recommends how the base price should be calculated for courses and qualifications on the NSW government's so-called Skills List.
The government has said it will only continue to subsidise courses that address skills shortages and will no longer subsidise creative arts and other courses.
For students receiving a concession, fees would range from $100 for a foundation course to $500 for a diploma or advanced diploma.
Transitional arrangements are recommended for apprentices, who make up a fifth of government-funded VET students. Fees for apprentices and new entrant trainees would be capped at a maximum of $3000 for each qualification in 2014/15.
This would amount to a maximum increase of around $379 per year for a qualification taking three and a half years to complete. Apprentices and trainees currently account for 20% of all government-funded VET students.
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