Higher Education Support Act 2003 Guidelines
The HESA 2003 guidelines are delegated legislation authorised by the Act
and must be presented to both Houses of the Parliament. They can be
disallowed (vetoed) by a motion agreed to by either House of Parliament
within 15 sitting days of tabling.
Other Grants Guidelines - Higher Education Equity Support Program and
the Higher Education Disability Support Program
The HESA 2003 guidelines are delegated legislation authorised by the Act
and must be presented to both Houses of the Parliament. The Higher Education
Equity Support Program (ESP) and Disability Support Program (DSP) were
gazetted on 24 December 2004 and will be tabled in Parliament in February
2005. The guidelines can be disallowed (vetoed) by a motion agreed to by
either House of Parliament within 15 sitting days of tabling. The key
elements encapsulated in the Higher Education Equity Support Program and
Higher Education Disability Support Program Guidelines are as follows:
- The Government will identify the objectives and targets of national
higher education equity policy. Within this context, higher education
providers have the flexibility to determine their own objectives to suit
the demographics and circumstances of their student population and
catchment areas, and tailor their initiatives accordingly.
- The Additional Support for Students with Disabilities Program and
Higher Education Equity Program have been restructured and re-named as the
Disability Support and the Equity Support Programs, respectively. All
disability-related funding will be provided from the Disability Support
Program: assistance with educational support and equipment costs; the
Regional Disability Liaison Officer initiative; and performance-based
funding.
- The national priorities are to improve the participation of people
from low socio-economic status (low SES) backgrounds, people with
disabilities, people from rural and isolated areas and people from
non-English speaking backgrounds, and to assist in overcoming educational
disadvantage associated with gender. Higher education providers will
develop equity objectives targeting assistance to the identified groups,
consistent with the demographics of their catchment areas, and program
funds can be used for initiatives targeted to these groups.
- Equity Support funding is allocated to higher education providers
using the existing performance driven formula but based on the number of
low socio-economic status (SES) students with extra weighting given to low
SES students from rural and isolated areas. This formula acknowledges the
importance of low SES as a prevailing factor of disadvantage while
factoring in the additional disadvantage faced by low SES students from
rural and isolated areas.
- In order to receive Equity Support funding, providers must demonstrate
that they meet the eligibility criteria announced in 2003: that they run
outreach and support programs for disadvantaged students and that they
offer Commonwealth Learning Scholarships and their own equity
scholarships.
Download Guideline Documents
Contact: Robyn Martin (02) 6240 7490 or
robyn.martin@dest.gov.au
Note: You
need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the PDF files.
Free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software is available for downloading from the
Adobe website
Tools to help make PDF files accessible to the vision impaired are
available from
access.adobe.com/
Return to the top of the page |
