Five Diploma-level photography courses will no longer be supported with student loan assistance under the Federal Government’s proposed overhaul to the Vocational Educational and Training (VET) FEE-HELP program.

Minister Birmingham wants less photos and more of this. Source: Senatorbirmingham.com.au

The Rudd-Gilliard Government’s VET Fee-Help program will become VET Student Loans from January 1, 2017 provided the legislation passes. The new program is stricter and has eliminated fee assistance – taxpayer-funded student loans – for a large number of what it calls ‘creative courses’.

This includes the Diploma of Visual Communication, Advanced Diploma of Visual Communication, two Advanced Diplomas of Photography, and Graduate Diploma of Photography, which of each cost upwards of $5000. Meanwhile the Diploma of Photography and Photo Imaging will remain eligible for student loans.

‘Currently there are far too many courses that are being subsidised that are used simply to boost enrollments, or provide “lifestyle” choices, but don’t lead to work,’ said Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham. ‘To develop this list, the Turnbull Government has run a test over all of the different diploma-level and above qualifications that are out there to ensure they are on at least two state and territory skills needs list…’

Birmingham said that under the current program all diploma courses were automatically subsidised – some 800. This will be reduced to 347 following the reform. Around 60 that didn’t make the cut were what are described as art-based ‘lifestyle choice’ courses.

Photography Studies College (PSC) in Melbourne, which won the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) Australian Tertiary Photography Institution of the Year for the sixth consecutive year, will be affected by the proposed reform. It offers a two-year Advanced Diploma in Photography.

PSC director, Julie Moss (right), told ProCounter that 95 percent of full-time students studying this course seek VET-Fee Help. (Part-time students aren’t eligible for loans)

‘If they were in touch with the profession of photography, they wouldn’t have excluded the two Advanced Diploma of Photography courses that win photography industry awards in Australia from the new “course list”,’ she said. ‘Not only has our course been excluded, but so has the Advanced Diploma of Photography delivered at North Metropolitan Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in WA.

‘Both of our courses have been developed in close consultation with the photography industry. Both of our students achieve national recognition by the photography industry in the AIPP APPA’s for their work at silver, silver distinction and gold level and establishing vibrant careers within the photography industry.’

She added that a PSC graduate survey showed that 80 percent of respondents had ongoing employment within the industry, demonstrating the Diploma is a pathway to work.

The North Metropolitan TAFE in Perth has for years worked alongside the AIPP to ensure its photography course is relevant to the rapidly changing industry. Its Advanced Diploma of Photography is described as ‘developed with the assistance of the AIPP’.

According to current TAFE student James Gifford, speaking with The Age, the course is the last stepping stone and teaches fundamental business, marketing and communication techniques essential to running a professional photography business.

Steve Wise, a medical photographer at Royal Perth Hospital and AIPP WA council member, says the last thing the photographic industry needs is more unprepared and unprofessional photographers.

‘To say it will dilute what we consider to be a strong professional photographic industry within Western Australia, let alone the rest of Australia, is an understatement. The majority of students cannot afford to outlay between $8000 and $12,000 a year to study,’ he said. ‘With current and future technologies making it ever easier and affordable for anyone to pick up a decent camera and call themselves a (professional) photographer, the perception out there is that it’s getting harder for the public to find decent professional photography.

‘The raising level of complaints about the quality of work, dodgy business dealings… the industry is fighting hard against all of this by providing training, experience and support for those who wish to push and keep the profession of photography relevant and to the highest of standards as possible.’

Bachelor of Photography student Tayla Nuss-Soeharto won the 2016 AIPP Australian Photography Student of the Year. Source: PSC.

$2.9 billion blowout drives reform
The Government’s main motivation for reform is to target the widespread rorting of the VET system by sub-standard education institutes, which it says cost $2.9 billion in 2015.

Are any institutes offering photo courses actually part of this problem? It’s difficult to be sure.

But, if multiple accounts shared online are to believed, then the CATC Design School – with the slogan ‘Study Now, Pay Later’ – sits below average.

Criticisms levied at the institution by Whirlpool forum users, who are unhappy CATC students, varied from a lack of support and encouragement from staff, poor course structure, teachers resigning mid-semester, and inadequate teaching materials. Few recommended the course.

Some suggested it was not the fault of the teaching and faculty staff, but the Think Education Group which represents the institute.

Current and former Think Education Group employees wrote on Glass Door, a company employment review database, that a shareholder-driven environment which prioritises student enrollment numbers over everything else is a major downside to working for the firm. They expressed concern that it came at an expense to the students and staff.

The company was sold from Seek Ltd to Laureate International Universities in 2013, which owns educational institutes in every continent and trades on the stock market.

However the CATC Design School, with campuses in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, offers a Diploma of Photo Imaging which remains on the new eligible course list.

Moss is sceptical that the Government’s decision is based on quality control. The Diploma of Business, a course with enrollment ‘blowouts’ and with a completion rate below five percent, remains eligible for VET Student Loans.

‘The rational for the (new) “course list” was simple,’ she said. ‘If the course was funded by a minimum of two States, ie it was on a list of eligible funding in two or more States, it made its way onto the Government’s new list. If it wasn’t – then it was out!’

Her ultimate concern is that students will look to online courses.

‘The big risk for our photography industry is that we will potentially see a plethora of online Diploma of Photography and Photoimaging courses spring up with no facilities required, low support levels and even lower completion rates. The very thing the government says it wants to stop!’

Or worse still, they will earn their Diploma at the University of YouTube.