EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Education, Science and Training

Subject:                Higher Education Support Act 2003

                             Administration Guidelines

Section 238-10 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (the Act) provides that the Minister may make guidelines for the purposes of the Act.  In particular, section 238-10 specifies that the Minister may make Administration Guidelines to give effect to matters set out in Chapter 5 of the Act.

The original Administration Guidelines commenced on 30 June 2004.  Subsequent Administration Guidelines commenced on 13 August 2004, 27 August 2004 and 18 May 2005.  The guidelines have now been amended to give higher education providers greater flexibility in publishing census dates and EFTSL values for units of study under subsection 169-25(3) of the Act; and to update requirements in relation to notices issued under section 169-5 of the Act.  The guidelines have also been reformatted, without material change to the effect of the provisions, to improve readability and to make references to the Act more exact.

Amendments to paragraph 2.5.25 of the guidelines and the addition of paragraph 2.5.27 have changed the disclaimer that higher education providers are required to include on notices issued under section 169-5 of the Act to reflect the current limited availability of information on students’ Student Learning Entitlement and FEE-HELP balances on the ‘Going to Uni’ website.  The amended paragraph 2.5.25 also requires the inclusion of a disclaimer that is specific to the type of Commonwealth assistance received by the student.

Paragraph 2.10.7 of the immediately preceding Administration Guidelines, which related to the issuing of notices by 28 April 2005, has been removed because it is redundant.

Chapters 3 and 4 of the immediately preceding Administration Guidelines, which contained provisions in relation to units of study that wholly consist of work experience in industry, have been consolidated into Chapter 3.

Chapter 4 contains the publication requirements for census dates and EFTSL values, which were formerly located in Chapter 5.  These publication requirements have been amended to allow higher education providers to publish census dates and EFTSL values twice per year, rather than once per year.  The amendments also allow providers to amend this published information in certain circumstances and within certain time limits.

Chapter 5 now contains the requirements for electronic communications, which were formerly located in chapter 6.

The changes to the publication requirements and the disclaimer were made following consultations with the higher education sector.  Consultations were not undertaken on the other amendments because these are minor in nature and immaterial to the effect of the provisions.

‘Chapter 1 – Introduction’ outlines the purpose of the guidelines and lists defined terms that appear in the guidelines.

‘Chapter 2 – Notice to students’ specifies the notices that a higher education provider must give to a person under section 169-5 of the Act; sets out the information that the notice must contain; and the period within which a notice must be given.

‘Chapter 3 – Work experience in industry’ specifies the requirements that must be met to determine that work is work experience in industry and the circumstances in which students are exempt students for units of study that wholly consist of work experience in industry.

‘Chapter 4 – Publication requirements for census dates and EFTSL values’ specifies the date by which, and the manner in which, census dates and EFTSL (equivalent full time student load) values must be published.  It also specifies the dates before which, and the circumstances in which, published census dates and EFTSL values can be varied and republished.

‘Chapter 5 – Electronic communication’ specifies requirements relating to information systems used by students to give documents to their higher education provider and for systems used by higher education providers to give notices to students.  This chapter also specifies the methods that may be used by students to identify themselves to their higher education provider and indicate their approval of electronic documents.

The Guidelines commence on the date that they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.  All previously made Administration Guidelines have been revoked.