A student union says Tony Abbott behaved cowardly by cancelling a university visit amid protests. Source: AAP
CONFUSION abounds over government plans to deregulate university fees after Prime Minister Tony Abbott contradicted his own budget.
But students who protested in Sydney and Melbourne are certain of one thing: they'll have to pay for the government's decisions and they're not happy.
Mr Abbott told ABC radio that only students who start studying in 2016 would face potentially higher fees when universities can charge what they like.
"If you start next year, your conditions of study won't change," he said.
But the budget papers clearly state that anyone who enrols after May 14 will face deregulated fees in 2016.
Only those who were already studying on budget day would continue to have their fees capped - and only if they finish their studies by 2020.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne reiterated this in a separate ABC radio interview after Mr Abbott's comments.
A mother asked him whether her daughter, already at university, would have to pay more.
"If that student stays in the course that she's doing, she'll continue under the rules that she started," he said.
"If she changes course, then quite rightly she will face the new measures."
A spokesman for Mr Pyne said the prime minister "may not have been as clear as he could have been".
Universities Australia told AAP it understands there's not been any change to policy.
It wants the government to take more time to look at any unintended consequences of the higher education changes before setting them in law.
Students were enrolling now to start in the second half of 2014 and universities had to be able to tell them what the costs would be from 2016.
"There is no time for universities to be able to cross the Ts and dot the Is to be able to advise students on what those fees might be," chief executive Belinda Robinson said.
National Union of Students president Deanna Taylor wasn't surprised by the confusion at high levels.
"I don't think the government really put a great deal of thought into their policy," she told AAP, saying it appeared to be very ideologically driven.
The union organised a national day of action on Wednesday with thousands of students protesting the changes.
In Melbourne, students clashed with police, while one activist was arrested in Sydney.
A police risk assessment before the protests forced Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne to cancel plans to visit a Geelong research facility at Deakin University.
Mr Abbott said students were looking for "a big rumble" and an excuse to riot.
Ms Taylor labelled the prime minister cowardly and said students weren't violent rabble-rousers out to cause trouble.
"They're trying to make us sound like spoiled little brats who don't know how good we've got it. They have a very clear agenda," she said.
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