William Chen is finalising his choice on what degree to study at university.
The Year 12 student at St Pius X [["X" is pronounced "the Tenth" for the Latin number 10]] College in Sydney had planned to take on a double degree - commerce and arts.
But now that the price for those two degrees are potentially set to increase, he is having a rethink.
The federal government says it is overhauling the cost of university degrees to help graduates find jobs in industries it believes will see employment growth post COVID-19.
Under the policy, the cost of degrees will be changed to incentivise students to enter industries the government believes will drive job growth.
Pre-pandemic modelling has shown 62 per cent of jobs growth over the next five years will be in health care, science and technology, education and construction.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan says he wants to see an increase to the graduate employment rate of 72.2 per cent.
The cheaper course prices will be accessible to new - and currently enrolled - students from next year.
The increased course fees will not affect current students, who will have their fees frozen.
The federal government will be increasing the cap on university places, to allow for an extra 39-thousand university places for Australian students by 2023.
The COVID-19 travel restrictions and the slump in the labour market, means 2021 university enrolments are up, with an estimated 20-thousand year 12 students less likely to take a gap year.
Mr Tehan says the government has already seen a strong uptake of university short courses in nursing, teaching, counselling, IT and science - which have been discounted by up to 74 per cent to drive demand.The student fees for science and engineering degrees will drop by 20 per cent.
There will be a bigger reduction of 46 per cent for teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages degrees.
The biggest decrease of 62 per cent will apply to agriculture and maths degrees.
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, a collaboration of the maths departments from 41 Australian universities, has welcomed the change.
