Fact Sheet

Update March 2004

15. Higher Education Information Management System

• Contact Details

The introduction of a Student Learning Entitlement, scholarships and the increased range of loans that students can access, needs to be underpinned by a more sophisticated higher education information management system than currently operates. The Australian Government will provide students with a new student number (Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number) which will stay with the student throughout their academic life, allowing eligibility to Australian Government higher education assistance to be facilitated.

In an environment of greater diversity and specialisation between higher education providers, the information management system must be able to provide prospective students with detailed institutional and course information to help them make decisions and to give them information on their individual entitlements and financial obligations once their decisions are made. Introduction of performance-based funding for a number of programmes will require streamlined and rationalised reporting arrangements.

A new web-based system, the Higher Education Information Management System (HEIMS), will be established and will include a range of modules to:

HEIMS will provide students and parents with accessible information on the following:

• Institution specific information:

  o Performance of institutions on the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund;

  o Links to Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audit data;

  o Course Experience Questionnaire/Graduate Destination Survey aggregate data;

  o Scholarships available and eligibility information and requirements; and

  o Relevant information relating to universities.

• Course/unit specific:

  o Entrance requirements for the previous year and minimum entrance requirements for the current year for students, whether they be in a Commonwealth supported place or a full fee paying place; and

  o Indicative fee ranges, student contribution per course and the indicative Commonwealth contribution for a Commonwealth supported place.

• Student specific information:

  o Student Learning Entitlement usage;

  o Loan history (but not repayment information);

  o Break-down of loans (eg. HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, OS-HELP); and

  o Scholarships history.

The effective operation of HEIMS will require all existing and new students accessing Commonwealth supported places, Student Learning Entitlements, Commonwealth student loans and scholarships to be issued with a Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number (CHESSN) by the Department of Education, Science and Training. This number will be limited in its use to HEIMS and protected under Commonwealth privacy legislation. Students will be notified of their CHESSN by their institution after they have enrolled. Students will use their CHESSN to access a record of their Commonwealth higher education assistance on the HEIMS Student Private Portal.

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Contact Details

Media inquiries:

Virginia Cook
Department of Education, Science and Training
Telephone: 0412 971 323

Other inquiries:

Louise Hanlon
Director, HEIMS Unit
Higher Education Group
Department of Education, Science and Training
Telephone: 6240 9726

Email: Backing Australia's Future

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Any comments or queries should be sent to: highered@dest.gov.au
This page was last updated on Monday, 04 August 2008

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