Bia Cândido, 19, is a Graphic Design student and painter from Wyndham in Melbourne’s west.

“I cannot really focus on anything. But with art, I will spend three hours just painting,” Bia says. “It’s like something I was born to do.”

But when it came to enrolling in the degree she would pursue at university, a Fine Arts course was not up for consideration.

Surging tuition fees, a perceived lack of employment opportunities, and stigma surrounding the value of arts, humanities, and communications degrees are pricing low-income students out of our creative industries.

And while Bia’s story is a personal one, it’s reflective of a broader trend emerging at Australian universities – a trend experts warn could further entrench educational inequity.