EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES NO. 286
OVERSEAS STUDENTS CHARGE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
(Issued by the authority of the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs)
Section 8 of the Overseas Students Charge Act 1979 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations, inter alia, for the purposes of section 6 of the Act.
Section 6 of the Act, as recently amended by the Overseas Students Charge Amendment Act 1983 (Act No. 60 - assented to 20 October 1983), specifies that the amount of the charge imposed by the Act in respect of the enrolment of an overseas student in a prescribed course for a year is such amount, not exceeding $2,900, as is applicable under the regulations to that enrolment.
Before its amendment sub-regulation 3(1) of the Overseas Students Charge Regulations fixed the amount of the charge at: $2,500 for a course of study the due completion of which entitles the student to a master’s degree or a doctorate; $2,350 for a course of study in medicine, veterinary science or dentistry; and $1,850 for all other courses.
Regulation 2, which gives effect to the new range of charges for 1984 that were announced in the Budget, amends sub-regulation 3(1) to provide that the amount of the charge is: $2,900 for a course of study the due completion of which entitles the student to a master’s degree or a doctorate; $2,700 for a course of study in medicine, veterinary science or dentistry; and $2,150 for all other courses. This adjustment of the charges is to recover part of the increasing costs involved in the education of overseas students in Australia.
Regulation 1 provides for the amendments to come into operation on 1 January 1984.