States Grants (Universities) Act 1956

STATES GRANTS (UNIVERSITIES).

No. 37 of 1956.

An Act to make provision for the grant of Financial Assistance to the States in connexion with Universities.

[Assented to 27th June, 1956.]

BE it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, for the purpose of appropriating the grant originated in the House of Representatives, as follows:—

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the States Grants (Universities) Act 1956.

Commencement.

2. This Act shall be deemed to have come into operation on the first day of January, One thousand nine hundred and fifty-six.

Interpretation.

3.—(1.) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—

“capital expenditure” means—

(a) expenditure on the erection of a new building; and

(b) expenditure, exceeding One thousand pounds, on the alteration of an existing building or for the purchase of, or otherwise in connexion with, a single item of equipment;

“fees” means tuition, examination, matriculation and other fees payable to a University by a student enrolled at, or applying for enrolment at, the University in connexion with his course of study or attendance at the University, and includes fees payable to the University in respect of the conferring of a degree or diploma, but does not include fees the payment of which is voluntary or fees payable to an organization of students;

“State grants” means moneys paid by a State to a University for university purposes, not being—

(a) moneys used for capital expenditure; or

(b) moneys paid in fulfilment of the conditions upon which a payment is made to the State under this Act;

“the Joint Engineering Board of Management” means the Joint Engineering Board of Management established under an agreement made on the first day of January, One thousand nine hundred and twenty-six, between the Minister for Education of the State of Tasmania and the Council of the University of Tasmania;

“University” means a University specified in the first column of the Schedule to this Act;

“university purposes” means the general teaching and research purposes of a University in connexion with courses of study at the University, and includes external tuition for courses of study at the University.

(2.) For the purposes of this Act, moneys paid by the State of Tasmania to the Joint Engineering Board of Management for the general teaching purposes of that Board in connexion with courses of study in chemistry and engineering conducted by that Board in the University of Tasmania and the Hobart Technical College shall be deemed to be moneys paid by that State to the University of Tasmania and to have been so paid for university purposes.

Financial assistance to States.

4.—(1.) Subject to this Act, if the sum of the fees and State grants received by a University during the year One thousand nine hundred and fifty-six exceeds the amount specified in the second column of the Schedule to this Act opposite to the name of that University, there is payable, in respect of that year, to the State in which the University is situated, for the purposes of financial assistance—

(a) an amount equal to one-third of the amount of that excess; and

(b) an amount equal to the amount specified in the third column of that Schedule opposite to the name of the University.

(2.) The maximum amount payable to a State under the last preceding sub-section in relation to a University is the amount specified in the fourth column of the Schedule to this Act opposite to the name of the University.

Conditions on which payments made.

5.—(1.) The financial assistance to a State under the last preceding section in relation to a University is granted on the conditions that—

(a) the State will, in the year in which a payment in respect of that financial assistance is received, pay to the University an amount equal to that payment; and

(b) the State will ensure that—

(i) a portion of the amounts so paid to the University, being a portion equal to the amount specified in the fifth column of the Schedule to this Act opposite to the name of the University, is applied by the University towards the teaching and administrative costs of the residential colleges of the University; and

(ii) the remaining portion of those amounts is applied by the University for expenditure, not being capital expenditure, on university purposes.

(2.) In addition to the conditions specified in the last preceding sub-section, an amount of financial assistance to a State under this Act is granted on the conditions that—

(a) if the Treasurer informs the Treasurer of the State that he is satisfied that the State has failed to fulfil the conditions applicable to that amount, the State will repay that amount to the Commonwealth; and

(b) if that amount exceeds the amount properly payable, the State will repay the excess to the Commonwealth.

Payment of financial assistance by Treasurer.

6. The Treasurer may, at such times as he thinks fit, make advances of such amounts as he thinks fit to a State on account of an amount that may become payable under this Act to the State.

Appropriation.

7. Payments under this Act shall be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is appropriated accordingly.

THE SCHEDULE.

Sections 3, 4 and 5.

AMOUNTS USED IN CALCULATION OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.