DEST - Education

The Postgraduate Education Loans Scheme (PELS) now has the legislative authority to enable it to commence from 1 January 2002, following the passage of the Innovation and Education Legislation Amendment Bill (No.2) 2001 through Parliament on 30 August 2001. PELS was announced in January 2001 as part of the Government’s Backing Australia’s Ability policy.

PELS will provide loans to domestic fee-paying students enrolled in postgraduate non-research courses. Eligible students will be able to borrow up to the limit of the tuition fee for each semester for the duration of their postgraduate course. Unlike the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), universities, rather than the Government, will set the tuition price of courses for which PELS loans are available and there will be no public subsidy for the costs of tuition. The repayment arrangements are similar to HECS.

Tuition fees and other self education expenses may be tax deductible if the student is employed and is undertaking studies relevant to his or her employment. However fees paid with a loan from PELS will not be tax deductible. PELS will also not cover accommodation or other living costs.

More information on PELS, including the student information booklet PELS Your Questions Answered, is available at www.hecs.gov.au/pels.htm. Hard copies of the information booklet, PELS information leaflet and PELS Loan Request forms will be distributed to universities in October 2001. PELS advertisements highlighting information sources will also appear in the major metropolitan newspapers during the next few weeks.

Pre-seed fund for universities and public research agencies

The Government recently announced the broad program design for the Pre-Seed Fund initiative that will help Australian universities and Commonwealth public research agencies to develop commercially promising research and development ideas.

The Pre-Seed Fund was announced as part of the Government’s Backing Australia’s Ability policy and is intended to give institutions a viable route to market for their products or processes by supporting pre-seed activities such as development of prototypes, field testing, trailing, market assessment and patenting. The Fund has been allocated up to $79 million over five years.

It is envisaged that between four and six separate funds of between $10 million and $30 million each will be established. The funds will be managed by private companies with experience in the commercialisation of research and in venture capital investment at the pre-seed stage. It will be a condition that they are not majority owned or controlled by universities or public research agencies, though preference will be given to fund managers that establish joint ventures with universities and public research agencies.

Fund managers will make investments in individual projects, typically in the range $250 000 – $300 000, with an upper limit of around $1 million per project. Funds will be structured as 10 year closed end funds with the Commonwealth anticipating repayment of its capital to enable establishment of a revolving fund scheme similar to that which exists for the Innovation Investment Fund.

The program design announcement was made on 6 August by Senator, the Hon Nick Minchin, Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, whose portfolio is managing the initiative. The announcement is intended to allow potential fund managers to commence planning their applications. Full details of the program guidelines, the fund manager application process and selection criteria will be released shortly on
www.innovation.gov.au/.

Special Capital Funding for 2004

Universities have been allocated more than $40 million for special capital and infrastructure projects beginning in 2004. The Government has already committed over $120 million for capital projects for the 2001-2003 triennium, though the Capital Development Pool (CDP).

The CDP supports new campus developments in suburban growth areas and regional centres and innovative electronic infrastructure projects that lead to flexible, high quality services. While the fund is still available for traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ developments, the emphasis in recent years has been on flexible delivery of services. Recent CDP allocations have also reflected the Commonwealth’s priorities in relation to regional Australia and areas of high population growth and historically low levels of tertiary participation.

The 2004 CDP projects are an interesting mix of campus upgrades and expansions, IT infrastructure (including broadband communication developments) and e-learning campuses. The institutions and projects to be funded in 2004 are listed below. Further details on the funded projects can be found in the Minister’s 5 September Media Release available at www.dest.gov.au/ministers/kemp/sept01/k217_050901.htm.

Capital Funding Allocation 2004 by State and Recipient

Institution	Project	2004 $m
New South Wales
University of New England	Regional Access and ICT infrastructure	2.100
University of New South Wales	"From linked classrooms to a global campus"	0.805
The University of Sydney	Centre for Regional Education, Orange	2.000
University of Western Sydney	Advanced Campus Network	1.500
University of Wollongong	Flexible Delivery in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales	2.000
NSW Total		8.405

Victoria
Deakin University	Development of an e-campus	1.000
Monash University	Centre for Multimedia at Berwick campus	2.000
University of Ballarat	Camp Street Arts Precinct	0.750
University of Melbourne	ICT Infrastructure for the Institute of Land and Food Resources	3.000
Victoria University of Technology / Swinburne University of Technology	ICT to assist with a common student and course administration system	1.000
Victoria Total		7.750

Queensland
Central Queensland University	New building at Bundaberg campus	1.000
James Cook University	Health Sciences and Science precinct at the Cairns campus	3.000
Queensland University of Technology	ICT infrastructure for the Creative Industries Precinct	1.000
Queensland University of Technology	Caboolture multi-partner campus	2.000
University of Queensland	Stage 3, Ipswich campus	2.500
University of Southern Queensland	Wide Bay development	2.000
University of the Sunshine Coast	Stage 5 campus development - an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Resources Building	2.500
Queensland Total		14.000

Western Australia
Curtin University of Technology	Margaret River Centre for Wine Excellence	1.000
Edith Cowan University	Joondalup Science and Health Building	2.000
University of Notre Dame, Australia & other post-secondary institutions	Multi-partner library and IT infrastructure at Broome	0.700
Multi-partner	Geraldton Universities Centre	1.000
WA Total		4.700

South Australia
Flinders University of South Australia	Lincoln Marine Science Centre	1.000
University of Adelaide	Conservatorium of Music merger	2.000
SA Total		3.000

Tasmania
University of Tasmania	Infrastructure to support online course delivery and e-learning centres	1.000
Tasmania Total		1.000

Northern Territory
Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Educ	Community Study Centre Program	0.500
Northern Territory Total		0.500

Multi-state
Australian Catholic University	Stage 2 Banyo campus and IT infrastructure developments across campuses	1.800
Multi-State Total		1.800

Total Recommendations		41.155
TOTAL FUNDS AVAILABLE*		41.155
Unallocated		0.000

ICT Centre of Excellence

The Commonwealth Government has released guidelines to assist organisations seeking to apply for the proposed Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Centre of Excellence.

The Centre will be a focus for world class research and development in Australia and will help to build Australia’s international ICT reputation and profile. Funding of $129.5 million over five years has been earmarked for the Centre as part of the $2.9 billion Backing Australia’s Ability policy.

The guidelines have been developed by the ICT Centre of Excellence Advisory Panel, Chaired by Norman McCann, Managing Director, Hewlett-Packard Australia Ltd. The panel received expert advice from a number of senior ICT researchers internationally.

Prospective host organisations are required to lodge a Notification of Intent Form by 16 November 2001, with applications to close on 11 January 2002. Copies of the application guidelines, Notification of Intent and application forms can be obtained from the ICT Centre of Excellence website at www.noie.gov.au/ictcentre.

Further information is also available from the 11 September Joint Media Release of Dr David Kemp, Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs and Senator Richard Alston, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, which can be seen at www.dest.gov.au/ministers/kemp/sept01/kj212_110901.htm.

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e-news on higher education
issue number: enews-19
released 11 September 2001

e-news on higher education

Issue 19

Postgraduate Education Loans Scheme Introduced