As part of the 2024 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), the Australian Government has quadrupled the Disability Support Fund (DSF) to increase support for students with disability in higher education, commencing payment in 2025. New activities have also been made eligible, including staffing costs, implementation of Universal Design Learning (UDL) and the purchase of bulk IT licenses for the benefit of students with disability. Further details can be found in the Higher Education Support (Other Grants) Amendment (Disability Support Programs) Guidelines 2025 and the DSF Factsheet.
Other Grants Guidelines Amendment
The DSP is an ongoing program that provides funding to eligible higher education providers (Table A universities) to assist with supporting students with disability to access, participate and succeed in higher education.
There are three current components of the DSP:
- Disability Support Fund (DSF)
- Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET)
- Capacity Building Fund (CBF)
The Disability Support Fund (DSF)
The DSF provides supplementary funding to eligible (Table A) universities to support students with disability to access, participate, and succeed in higher education.
Program funding is payable to providers in two components under the DSF:
- 55% of DSF funding is allocated to providers based on enrolment numbers of students with disability. Providers may use this funding for staffing, staff training and for modifications to course content, teaching materials and delivery methods.
- 45% of DSF funding provides partial reimbursement to providers for the costs of educational support and equipment for individual students with disability where those costs are higher than $5,000 per year.
Additional information on the objectives of the DSF, the conditions applied to its grants, and the calculation of grant allocations can be found in the Higher Education Support (Other Grants) Guidelines 2022 (sections 36 to 41).
The Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET)
The DSP provides funding to ADCET, a website hosted by the University of Tasmania that provides information, advice and online resources to disability practitioners, teachers and students with disability on inclusive teaching and learning practices within the higher education sector.
Additional information can be found at the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training website.
The Capacity Building Fund (CBF)
The CBF will provide capacity and capability building support to Table A universities to assist them in strengthening their internal skills, abilities, processes and resources to support students with disability to access, participate and succeed in higher education.
For further information, please email disability@education.gov.au