EXPLANATORY STATEMENT STATUTORY RULES 1985 NO 354
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Education
STUDENT ASSISTANCE ACT 1973
STUDENT ASSISTANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The Student Assistance Act 1973 (the Act) provides leglislative authority for the Tertiary Education Assistance Scheme (TEAS).
Section 36 of the Act empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for the purposes of the Act. Section 10 provides that approval for the grant of TEAS benefits is to be subject to and in accordance with the regulations.
The present Statutory Rules amend the Student Assistance Regulations (the Regulations) which give effect to the Act.
The amendments give effect to Cabinet Decision No 4035 of 30 July 1984, which directed that anomalies in the existing TEAS conditions of eligibility relating to academic progress and previous study be removed and the conditions of such progress and study relaxed. The decision was taken in the context of the 1984/85 Budget. The amendments also clarify existing provisions of the Regulations.
Contents of Amendments
In addition to minor drafting changes, the amendments make the following substantive changes to the Regulations:
(i) remove the test on the student’s overall academic progress,
(ii) remove the more difficult test on progress in the first year of study and substitute a uniform test, namely that the student must pass at least half the normal full-time workload each year,
(iii) remove from consideration, when assessing eligibility for assistance, any study the student may have undertaken in a course he or she discontinued more than ten years ago and any study in a completed course of technical and further education of one year’s duration or less,
(iv) where students transfer from one course to another, allow assistance to be continued immediately on transfer instead of first requiring the student to regain equivalent status in the new course,
(v) clarify that courses completed overseas by a student, that are considered by the International Relations Section of the Department of Education or the Committee on Overseas Professional Qualifications to correspond to Australian courses, should be taken into account when assessing the student’s eligibility for assistance, in the same way as courses completed in Australia are taken into account, and
(vi) clarify the existing provisions relating to the eligibility for assistance of students attempting Master’s qualifying courses.
Commencing Date
The amendments will come into operation on 1 January 1986.
Notes on Individual Regulations
Regulation 1 prescribes a commencing date.
Regulation 2 amends existing regulation 3 to provide a definition of State and Commonwealth advanced education authorities.
…/3
Regulation 3 amends existing regulation 7 to remove the definition of a “technical college” and replace it with a definition of a “technical and further education institution” (the former title has largely fallen into disuse).
Regulation 4 amends existing regulation 29 to provide a definition of a “Master’s qualifying course”.
Regulation 5 makes the following amendments to existing regulation 34 -
(a) provides that the eligibility rules relating to previous study take into consideration the proposed clarification of the levels of courses completed overseas, the rules relating to eligibility for Master’s qualifying courses and the relocation of the concession currently provided in regulation 34D to proposed paragraph 34(13)(r),
(b) deletes paragraph (1)(b) that prescribes the conditions of eligibility of students attempting Master’s qualifying courses (the conditions are now prescribed in new regulation 34C),
(c) deletes paragraphs (1)(e), (f), (g) and (h) and substitutes paragraphs that -
• substitute in sub-regulations (e) and (f) the description “course of the same level” for “equivalent to an approved course” (in practice, “equivalence” has proved difficult to establish),
• in paragraphs (g) and (h) delete the existing rules relating to overall progress and to progress in the most recent year of study and substitute rules (g), (h), (ha), (hb) and (hc) that provide a uniform test for each year, taking into account progress in any other course of the same level attempted by the student,
(d) substitutes in paragraph (1)(k) the phrase “course of the same level” for “equivalent to an approved course”,
(e) substitutes in paragraph (1)(l) the phrase “course of the same level and in the same field of study” for “equivalent to that other approved course”,
(f) deletes paragraph (1)(m) to remove the existing rule that requires students who transfer course to regain equivalent status before assistance is resumed, and substitutes the rule that assistance is payable immediately on transfer and is continued until such time as the total years of study in both courses equal or exceed the normal duration of the course to which the student transfers,
(g) deletes sub-regulation (3), which prescribes the levels of courses, and substitutes a new sub-regulation which extends the provision to include courses not previously covered,
(h) clarifies the type of courses to which sub-regulation (5) applies,
(j) aligns sub-regulation (5A) with the new transfer provisions,
(k) deletes sub-regulation (5B), consequential to the new transfer provisions,
(m) substitutes in paragraph (5C)(b) the words “Master’s qualifying course” (for which these regulations now provide a definition) for the existing description of such study,
(n) removes an error in the existing wording of paragraph (5C)(c) and clarifies the scope of the concession that allows assistance to be granted to students who are attempting an honours year or a Master’s qualifying course, having already completed a postgraduate diploma,
(o) inserts two new sub-regulations, namely:-
• (5D) that prescribes the duration of a Master’s qualifying course for the purposes of paragraphs 34(1)(k) and (m), and
• (5E) that allows study in a course discontinued more than ten years ago to be disregarded for the purposes of the progress and transfer rules,
(p) deletes sub-regulation (7) and substitutes a new sub-regulation, to clarify its meaning,
(q) provides that a “repeat year”, as defined in sub-regulation (11), also covers study completed in another course, and
(r) • deletes sub-regulation (12) which relates to the concession regarding failure for reasons beyond the student’s control, and substitutes a new sub-regulation consistent with the new transfer rule (1)(m),
• inserts a new sub-regulation, (13), to prescribe for the purposes of the new transfer rule (1)(m) both the method of calculating the amount of previous study the student has attempted and the kinds of work that should be disregarded in that calculation, and
• inserts a new sub-regulation, (14), to provide for work completed by the student in a course of technical and further education that is one year or less in duration, to be disregarded in assessing the student’s eligibility for assistance for another TAFE course.
Regulation 6 inserts a new regulation, 34A, prescribing that the levels of courses completed overseas be determined by the International Relations Section of the Department of Education or the Committee on Overseas Professional Qualifications.
Regulation 7 substitutes in existing paragraph 34B (7) (b) the description “technical and further education institution” for “technical college”.
Regulation 8 inserts a new regulation, 34C, that in place of paragraph 34(1) (b), which is deleted, prescribes conditions of eligibility for assistance of students attempting Master’s qualifying courses.
Regulation 9 repeals existing regulation 34D, the provisions of which have been relocated to proposed paragraph 34(13) (r).
Regulations 10 and 11 substitute “technical and further education institution” for “technical college’ in existing regulation 48 and in Schedule 3 to the Regulations.