Labor degrees plan to cost $2.25bn: Pyne

Education Minister Christopher Pyne says Labor's plan to write off the HECS debts of 100,000 science, engineering and maths students will cost more than $2.25 billion.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten announced in Thursday's budget reply speech that a Labor government could offer 20,000 awards every year for five years to science students, which would allow them to graduate HECS-debt free.

In a later TV interview, Mr Shorten costed the Jobs for the New Economy program at $353 million over four years.

"This is the sort of policy debacle and dodgy figures the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments were famous for," Mr Pyne said in a statement on Friday.