Labor accused of avoiding promise to rein in controversial Morrison-era university fees scheme

Greens amendments to force new watchdog to scrutinise uni fees and the Jobs-Ready Graduates scheme rejected by federal government

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The federal government is being accused of dodging promised reforms to bring down soaring university fees, after rejecting efforts to have them scrutinised by a new watchdog.

On Monday, legislation to establish the independent Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) passed the Senate with a number of amendments, including to improve its resourcing and ensuring it had a focus on research.