Newsletter 5

• Introduction

• Inside this Issue

Introduction

December 2003

The Higher Education Support Bill 2003 passed through the Senate on 4 December and the amendments to the bill were passed by the House of Representatives on 5 December 2003. The final stage of the legislative process is assent to the Bill by the Governor-General on behalf of the Queen. Once assented to, the Bill will become an Act of Parliament. It is anticipated that the Higher Education Support Bill 2003 will be given royal assent in the week of 15 December 2003.

Passage of the legislation in 2003 means that we can now move ahead with certainty and implementation of the reforms can commence as scheduled in 2004.

The amendments to the original Our Universities: Backing Australia’s Future package have enhanced the package to include several positive changes for the sector:

• Doubling the growth places from 1,400 to 2,800 in 2007.

• Introduction of a 20% loan fee to apply to loans for undergraduate courses under FEE-HELP and all loans under OS-HELP.

• The maximum student contribution amounts per place have been set at an amount equivalent to current HECS rates plus 25%.

• An increase to the repayment threshold at which students begin to repay their HECS and other loans to $35,000 in 2004-05. As is current practice this will be indexed to bring it up to $36,184 in 2005-06.

• An additional 7,500 Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarships by 2008.

• Commonwealth Learning Scholarships will not be subject to the social security income test.

• A review of cost adjustment factor indexation for Commonwealth funding of universities from 2007-08.

• Removing the interest charge on FEE-HELP and OS-HELP.

• Extending the learning entitlement to seven years while maintaining the capacity for extra years if necessary.

• Relaxation of the Workplace Relations requirements necessary to receive an increase in the basic grant amount under the Commonwealth Grant Scheme.

• A review of indexation must be completed prior to February 2005.

• A review of the impact on the higher education sector of the reforms enacted through the legislation must be commenced prior to 31 December 2006.

This edition of the newsletter summarises the measures as they now stand and the changes to the original package released on 13 May 2003.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their contributions in the consultation processes to date. We have another busy year coming up with implementation of the reforms and further consultations. I wish you all the best for Christmas and the new year.

Bill Burmester
Group Manager
Higher Education Group

top

Inside this Issue

• Introduction
   

• Summary of Measures
   

• Amendments to Original Package
   

• Contact

Full Copy of Newsletter 5 PDF (435KB)

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
 

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

Department of Education, Science and Training
Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia
DEST Web Site Privacy Statement
Disclaimer