"If people are doing degrees that don't give them the skills to earn more than $50k pa, surely we need to look at no longer funding such degrees."
A lot drop out ....nothing to do with the degrees.
My Mrs is a prime example...she completed a year of accountancy and then dropped out.
We had a $4000 debt for years and to this day we didn't have to pay it back.
I paid it back because it annoyed me...to many holes in the system.
Maybe look at a severe discount for debt that is long term...some money is better than none at all.