Tasmanian Liberal federal representatives who have arts degrees are in favour of changes to university fees which will see the price of humanities degrees more than double.
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On Friday Education Minister Dan Tehan announced changes to university fees aimed at increasing job outcomes for graduates.
The changes would see fees for humanities courses increase 113 per cent while law and commerce degrees would cost 28 per cent more.
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The changes accommodate for decreases in fees for units involving teaching, nursing, agriculture, maths, English and languages, environmental science, health, architecture, IT and engineering.
A two year freeze on funding increases has also been lifted which will see university funding per student increase annually according to the consumer price index.
Four of the seven federal Tasmanian Liberal representatives obtained an arts degree as part of their university studies.
Bass MHR Bridget Archer and senators Jonathon Duniam, Claire Chandler and Eric Abetz all said they support the changes.
"The Minister for Education's announcement highlights the importance of having a job ready workforce, and I strongly support cutting costs for students undertaking degrees in priority areas where there is demand for skilled workers," senator Chandler said.
Senator Abetz said comparing courses to those studied 40 years ago was pointless.
He said given the current economic climate all government expenditure should be reconsidered.
"All study is beneficial. This is not the issue. The issue is the value and returns obtained by the taxpayer for the billions of dollars of their money going to universities each year," senator Abetz said.
"The question that needs to be asked is: is it fair to use tax dollars for degrees that do not provide a worthwhile return to the long-suffering taxpayer?"
Senator Duniam said he believed the package was good news.
"The package will ensure Tasmanians have the education they need for the jobs of the future by making degrees in areas of growth cheaper and by increasing the number of places available," he said.
"Around 60 per cent of students will see a reduction or no change to the cost of their study."
Bass MHR Bridget Archer said the government had identified industries which would have skills gap and the changes would incentivise people to fill those gaps.
On Friday, University of Tasmania Vice Chancellor Rufus Black said humanities degrees provided graduates 'exceptional' job outcomes.
National Tertiary Education Union Tasmanian secretary Kelvin Michael said it was hard to understand the government's decision.
He said they welcomed ending the funding freeze but further distortion to course prices was hard to fathom.
"[It] has underscored even further the government's antithesis towards arts degrees in general," Mr Michael said.
"If the intention is to try and put degrees in the humanities and law further out of the reach of all Australians then this certainly is a way to succeed."
Labor Lyons MHR Brain Mitchell said if all the government did was subsidise areas expected to have strong jobs growth there wouldn't have been push back.
He said the changes will discourage students from low socio-economic areas from pursuing arts degrees.
"This is going to make it harder for young people, who have all the academic aptitude, from low income areas [to do] the studies they want to do," Mr Mitchell said. "This is exactly the wrong time to make it more difficult for people to study at university."
