The education minister’s legislation to vary the cost of student contributions to degrees is on its way the House of Reps, backed by the coalition joint party room yesterday

Surprising as many as none, Nats MP, and junior minister for regional education Andrew Gee got his long-demanded way, with the bill being amended to reduce the cost to students of some social work and psychology degrees. There will be new disciplines of professional pathway psychology and professional pathway social work to reduce the student contribution for studying units as part of a pathway to professional qualifications. This change will set units at CGS cluster 2 (now $13,250) and student band 2 (now $7,950). To fund this student fees in the two lowest bands will rise by $250 per study-year.

The proposed $5000 incentive to study payment for RRR students  will now be for scholarships allocated by universities according to their “historic enrolments” of regional students. Smart politics, which should stop regional universities demanding more (insofar as that is possible). Yesterday the Regional Universities Network said, “it fully supports the timely passage of the bill.”

But the change that matters most is that the bill will, “establish a floor for the maximum basic grant amount for higher education courses to guarantee university funding legislation.”

This is a smart move, something universities have asked for, but they may not be the audience it is intended to. Mr Tehan is good at sticking to his script and in the coming weeks when anybody asks him about the legislation’s impact he will be able to reply universities basic teaching grant is guaranteed by law.  It’s a message meant for senators.