EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES NO. 353
OVERSEAS STUDENTS CHARGE COLLECTION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
Section 9 of the Overseas Students Charge Collection Act 1979 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed and to provide for exemptions from, and remission of, the charge and payment of refunds of the charge.
Regulation 1 provides for the new amendments to come into operation on 1 January 1986.
Under existing sub-regulation 4(1) (f), in conjunction with regulation 2, the Minister for Education may authorise only officers of the Department of Education to issue a certificate that a student is a refugee or a stateless person. It is considered more appropriate that officers of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs should have this authority.
Regulation 2(a) will amend sub-regulation 4(1)(f)of the Overseas Students Charge Collection Regulations to enable the Minister for Education to authorise officers of the Department of immigration and Ethnic Affairs to issue a certificate that identifies a student who is a refugee or stateless person for the purposes of sub-regulation 4(1)(f).
Regulation 2(b) will amend existing sub-regulation 4(1) of the Overseas Students Charge Collection Regulations to exempt from the charge a student who undertakes a course of study for which the institution charges a fee equal to the whole of the cost of tuition in that course.