Consultation on the reallocation of Commonwealth supported places for enabling, sub-bachelor and postgraduate courses

The Government is committed to a world-class higher education system that provides appropriate support for students, removes barriers for under-represented groups and is sustainable for current and future generations. To this end, the Government is seeking to ensure there is a robust rationale and framework for Government investment in enabling, sub‑bachelor and postgraduate places that provides capacity to respond to changing demands and priorities.

The proposed new arrangements aim to ensure Government support is directed to courses that meet the needs of students and deliver graduates for the changing workforce.

In 2019, the Department of Education and Training released a consultation paper that set out options for a new mechanism for Government allocation of enabling, sub-bachelor and postgraduate courses. It sought feedback from stakeholders on which courses should be funded and why. The new arrangements came into effect from 2020.

Issues for feedback

The consultation paper sought input from stakeholders on the proposed allocation process. This included:

• the scope of the re-distribution
• the number of places involved for each course level (enabling, sub-bachelor and postgraduate)
• the suggested reallocation criteria and 
• timeframes for future reallocation rounds.

Submissions

Public submissions to the Consultation Paper were accepted until 15 February 2019. The department received 46 submissions in total. All submissions are available to view, with the exception of one submission as the author requested it be withheld from publishing.