{"id":77423,"date":"2025-07-02T00:03:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=77423"},"modified":"2025-07-02T00:03:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:03:26","slug":"a-new-prac-payment-has-just-kicked-in-but-it-ignores-many-uni-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-new-prac-payment-has-just-kicked-in-but-it-ignores-many-uni-students\/","title":{"rendered":"A new \u2018prac payment\u2019 has just kicked in. But it ignores many uni students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, some Australian university students got access to a new payment. The\u00a0Commonwealth Prac Payment<\/a>\u00a0is available to eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students.<\/p>\n

It will provide A$331.65 a week during compulsory professional placements, to help with living and study expenses. This could include travel, accommodation, uniforms and lost income from other employment.<\/p>\n

But while the payment is a much-needed step in the right direction, many students are still missing out.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s not covered?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The prac payment was a recommendation from the federal government\u2019s 2024\u00a0Universities Accord review<\/a>. It is designed to help students complete essential professional placements, so they can graduate and enter the workforce.<\/p>\n

But numerous other health degrees with time-consuming work placements\u00a0are excluded<\/a>\u00a0from the payment.<\/p>\n

This includes medicine, physiotherapy, dietetics, psychology, radiography and other allied health professions. Veterinary medicine students are also ineligible. Many of these professions are also\u00a0experiencing serious workforce shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The payment is also only available to teaching, nursing and social work students who already qualify for\u00a0Ausstudy<\/a>\u00a0(the income support payment for students and apprentices who are 25 and over).<\/p>\n

So this means the prac payment is\u00a0means tested<\/a>. It is also considered taxable income and paid at the rate of Austudy \u2013 which is not generous. The basic Austudy rate is\u00a0below the national poverty line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The payment is also only available to Australian domestic students, even though many international heath students end up\u00a0working in the Australian health system<\/a>\u00a0after graduating.<\/p>\n

Why is this an issue?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Researchers, including ourselves, use the term \u201cplacement poverty<\/a>\u201d to describe the impact mandatory placements can have on students. It can be a major barrier to students\u00a0completing their degrees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Students have\u00a0repeatedly described<\/a>\u00a0widespread impacts of doing up to 1,000 hours of unpaid work to graduate \u2013 taking a toll on their income and mental health.<\/p>\n

Kelly Lambert\u2019s 2024\u00a0research suggests<\/a>\u00a0health and teaching students can incur a further $12,500\u201315,000 to the cost of degrees during unpaid placements.<\/p>\n

Students\u00a0have explained<\/a>\u00a0the placement hours mean they can\u2019t work in their regular paid casual or part-time jobs \u2013 and may lose this work as a result.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for students?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In the short term, if students are not supported to complete their placements, they may not have enough money for\u00a0food or accommodation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0found 29% of teaching and allied health students regularly skip meals while on placement. Some students also described sleeping in cars or driving excessive distances due to limited or expensive accommodation options near their placements.<\/p>\n

If students are not supported in their placements,\u00a0research suggests<\/a>\u00a0they can experience burnout and may not finish their degrees. Or they may not even begin them in the first place.<\/p>\n

This is particularly the case for students from regional or rural communities (who may have further to travel), students with parenting or caring responsibilities, and students from low economic and otherwise disadvantaged backgrounds.<\/p>\n

We also know its important to support students to do placements in rural, regional and remote areas \u2013 students who complete placements in these communities\u00a0are more likely to return<\/a>\u00a0and work in those communities.<\/p>\n

What do we need to do instead?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As a first measure, the government should expand eligibility criteria for the current payment to include other health disciplines and those who don\u2019t currently meet the means testing threshold.<\/p>\n

Research\u00a0tells us<\/a>\u00a0financial hardship is not confined to students who qualify for Austudy, it is experienced across the board.<\/p>\n

Students have\u00a0also suggested<\/a>\u00a0interest-free short-term loans, subsidised parking (similar to hospital employees), and greater transparency about the costs associated with unpaid placements. International students have also said\u00a0public transport subsidies<\/a>\u00a0would help them complete their placements.<\/p>\n

Other, more significant changes could include apprenticeship-type compensation models for healthcare students, where students get paid to study as part of their training. These schemes are already\u00a0available<\/a>\u00a0in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we want to support more students to do health and teaching degrees to fill workforce gaps \u2013 not discourage them with high costs of studying.<\/p>\n

Author Bios: <\/strong>Kelly Lambert is Associate Professor Nutrition and Dietetics and Scott William is an Associate Research Fellow, Centre for Chronic and Complex Care Research both at the University of Wollongong<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, some Australian university students got access to a new payment. The\u00a0Commonwealth Prac Payment\u00a0is available to eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students. It will provide A$331.65 a week during compulsory professional placements, to help with living and study expenses. This could include travel, accommodation, uniforms and lost income from other employment. But […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[435412],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-77423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-practice-payments"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA new \u2018prac payment\u2019 has just kicked in. 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