Gap year is a rite of passage for many school-leavers, but taking a year off to travel the world is an unexpected casualty of the Abbott government's first budget.

The plans of Imogen Smith, 18, from Balmain, are in disarray after Tuesday's budget. She had secured year-long employment at an international school in Guangzhou, the largest city in the Chinese province of Guandong.

Grounded: Ben O'Mara and Imogen Smith. Credit:James Brickwood

Like many other Year 12 students she had assumed she would be largely exempt from the deregulation of the university sector outlined in the budget.

On Tuesday night, the federal government revealed universities would set their own fees from 2016 and apply real interest to student debts for the first time.