Newly released Australian Treasury modelling shows that one in four humanities students will take more than 25 years to repay their student loans, a consequence of the "Job Ready Graduates" (JRG) scheme introduced in 2021 under former prime minister Scott Morrison, which sharply raised fees for arts, law, and creative arts degrees to steer students toward fields like nursing and engineering. The data, obtained under freedom-of-information rules, also shows that nearly two-thirds of humanities and creative arts graduates will leave university with debts exceeding AU$50,000, while the total debt burden across the sector has grown by $800 million — only half of which the government expects to ever recover. Critics, including independent senator David Pocock and university leaders, are calling on the current Albanese Labor government to urgently reform the scheme, warning that decades of debt will make it harder for graduates — who often earn among the lowest salaries — to buy homes or start families, with no clear government timetable for reform yet announced.