The Federal Government wants to cut off student loans for those who fail more than half of their subjects.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has announced his latest tertiary education shake-up changes this week, outlining the latest ‘Job-Ready Graduates’ plans.

The reforms will cut off students who fail more than half of eight or more subjects in a bachelor course from Commonwealth supported places, HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP.

It is the latest bold idea since the last one, which was to hike fees for humanities subjects.

“These measures will ensure students can’t take on a study load they won’t complete, leaving them without a qualification but a large debt,” Mr Tehan said this week.

Education providers will still be able to give special consideration to students whose academic performance was affected by illness or bereavement, and students who transfer to another course may be given a second chance.

Mr Tehan claims the move will stop people from rorting the system.

“The lack of transparency of a student’s enrolment has allowed some non-genuine students to enrol and re-enrol at multiple providers at the same time,” he said.

There are already limits on the amount of debt students can accrue through the government’s HELP scheme.

But Mr Tehan says there are students who enrol at multiple providers, had very low pass rates and ballooning debts between $220,000 and $660,000.

“On average these students have passed just one in every five subjects they have attempted,” he said.

Universities Australia Chief Executive Catriona Jackson says the group wants to no more about the potential consequences of the measures.

“Sometimes students will take on some extra preparatory study and, or change to an entirely different area of study,” she said.

“It is important that these commonsense choices are supported by Commonwealth rules.”

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek says the government is trying to solve a problem that does not exist.

“The government is trying to pretend that there is this big problem with failing students,” she said.

“Of course students who are failing should be given the encouragement and opportunity to succeed at university.

“But the real problem is that at a time when thousands of people are joining the unemployment queues this government is locking people out of TAFE and out of universities and out of jobs.”

National Union of Students said Mr Tehan is making ideological moves.

“This package fails to account for the reasons why students don’t succeed at university,” president Molly Willmott said in a statement.

“Limited access to study, financial instability, education quality, disability, and the ongoing crisis of mental health in the student body are just some of the impediments to student success.

“It is punishment for students who the government unfairly deem as lazy and ill-equipped to access education without proper consideration for their experience, or right to study that degree.”