However, by the time I left the University of Newcastle 20 years later, the sector was under great financial stress. This was because the rapid expansion of student places had not been matched by a corresponding increase in resources.

In 1989, the Hawke government introduced the HECS system, giving universities a new revenue stream. They argued that because the incomes of graduates are much higher than the Australian average, a contribution to their own tuition cost was fair. Student fees have continued to rise ever since.

Last week, the tuition fee structure went through another shakeup. However, this latest change is manifestly unfair.

The aim of federal Education Minister Dan Tehan's Job-ready Graduates Package is to incentivise students to take up courses that will qualify them with vocational skills that are needed in our economy. At first glance, this seems to be reasonable.

In the current recession, students will have a better chance of finding employment if they have skills that are in demand. Notably, it is argued if these are STEM skills. These changes mean, courses such as science, mathematics, and engineering will be cheaper, and humanities courses such as sociology, history and communications will be dearer. One outcome will be to move universities more towards a job factory model.

But there is a downside. This approach seems to assume that the humanities don't have an essential role in making students job-ready. The most productive university graduates to employers are those who have studied, what CP Snow (1959) called 'the two cultures', the sciences and the humanities.

At the UNSW in the 1960s, all science students were required to take a humanities course, and visa versa. Perhaps the best expression of this approach is the combined degrees, such as arts/law. Here two years of the humanities are followed by four years of vocational studies. Such graduates will have a well-rounded tertiary education and be well prepared for taking on the challenges of a rapidly evolving job market.

When the Australian university system began its rapid expansion 60 years ago, the study of the humanities was held in high regard. Prime minister Robert Menzies spoke eloquently of the importance of a broad education. "Let the scientists be touched and informed by the humanities. Let the humanists be touched and informed by the scientists," he said.

So why does the federal government seem to be bent on downgrading the humanities?

Joy Damousi, the president of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, has branded the reforms as "potentially the greatest hit to the sector in a century".

Is there more to the latest round of reforms than just a renewed focus on vocational skills?

Already there are complaints from the universities that the new government policy makes it more expensive to study the humanities, and in doing so, Minister Tehan has launched a counterattack in the escalating "culture wars".

There is indeed considerable disquiet in the Morrison government about how free speech, inquiry and the exchange of a diversity of views is being shut down by some university staff and students in the 'Great Awokening'. This is a mix of identity politics, illiberalism and 'cancel culture.' Such developments are the antithesis of what universities are meant to be as places for the free exchange of ideas between scholars.

In the world of business, the new changes have been broadly supported with some reservations. The CEO of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, favours the move to make education more jobs-oriented, yet emphasised "the importance of the humanities as part of the nation's skill mix".

President of the Academy of Social Sciences Professor Jane Hall agrees.

"It's been shown time and time again that employers place a high value on 'soft skills', including the ability to think critically and creatively, to solve problems and to work effectively in teams," she said.

Australia needs our universities to produce professionals who can think critically. These skills are most effectively taught through broad courses of study that incorporate the humanities alongside STEM subjects. This balance might be lost in the current round of university fee reforms that favour vocational education courses.