By Gareth Bryant
In 2025, the the School of Social and Political Sciences (SSPS) at the University of Sydney will offer the first unit of study focused on Universal Basic Income (UBI) to be taught at a university in Australasia.
This interdisciplinary unit critically examines UBI’s potential to tackle 21st-century challenges like inequality, economic insecurity, technological disruption and more frequent extreme weather events. It traces the historical, ethical, and political economic foundations of UBI from its origins in the French and American revolutions to contemporary trials, political campaigns and policy exemplars. Students will engage with a variety of research methods, including historical analysis, ethical argument, social scientific experiments, and computer-based microsimulations, to evaluate UBI’s potential merits and limitations.
The unit will be taught by Dr Troy Henderson, with guest lectures by leading Australian and international UBI experts. Dr Henderson is a Senior Research Officer at the Mental Wealth Initiative and a former Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney. He is Co-Director of the Australian Basic Income Lab and Co-Editor of the international journal Basic Income Studies. His research interests include Basic Income, alternative workweek schedules, social policy reform, labour market economics and heterodox economic theory.
In 2025, this unit will will be taught intensively across 4 days in May-June. It will be available to students enrolled in the Master of Political Economy, the Master of Public Policy, the Master of Social Justice, the Executive Master of Public Administration, and other postgraduate coursework degrees via special permission. There are plans to offer the unit more widely in future years.
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Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a policy proposal to provide all citizens or residents with a regular, unconditional cash payment, irrespective of their income or employment status. Advocates praise UBI for its simplicity and universality, seeing it as a tool to address systemic economic inequalities and enhance freedom. By eliminating bureaucratic hurdles for eligibility, UBI aims to reduce poverty, enhance financial security, and enable individuals to focus on education, entrepreneurship, caregiving, or other pursuits without the fear of income instability or destitution. It is also seen by many as a solution to challenges like automation and job displacement by providing a guaranteed baseline income to mitigate the effects of economic disruptions.
UBI has garnered support across a broad spectrum of thinkers, including libertarian economists, feminist scholars, Marxist sociologists, and social democrats, as well as artists, philanthropists and grassroots activists. However, its detractors are just as diverse. It is important to emphasise that UBI and its related ‘policy cousins’, such as Negative Income Tax (NIT) and Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI), are understood and interpreted in vastly different ways by various individuals and groups.
Critics of UBI question its affordability, arguing that implementing such a system would require massive government spending and much higher taxes. There is also concern that UBI might discourage work among low-income earners, reducing overall labour market participation, although research on this remains inconclusive. Critics further argue that universal payments may not be the most efficient and equitable use of resources, as high-income individuals would receive payments they do not need, and targeted welfare programs could deliver better outcomes for those who need it at a lower cost.
