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Education, Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio

The Hon Julia Gillard MP

Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations

Minister for Social Inclusion. Deputy Prime Minister

11 December, 2008

Media Release

Funding boost lets universities focus on their strengths

The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, today announced funding of $111.5 million to encourage greater specialisation among higher education providers and promote diversity across the sector.

More than 30 universities will receive funding for 49 projects through the latest round of the Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund.

Successful projects will help the higher education sector better respond to student and employer demand and assist universities in developing their distinctive missions.

Projects will promote innovative arrangements with partners in higher education and in vocational education and training, to create new pathways for students across the tertiary sector.

Many of the projects will also promote access to universities for students from low socio-economic status backgrounds, regional and remote Australia and Indigenous students.

As part of the Education Revolution the Rudd Government has already increased investment in universities and taken action to ensure Australians are able to access a world-class tertiary education.

In the first twelve months, the Rudd Government has:

• Invested $500 million through the Better Universities Renewal Fund to help Australian universities rebuild their campus infrastructure.

• Provided new funding for capital expenditure, and renewal and refurbishment to Australia’s higher education and vocational education and training institutions through the Education Investment Fund.

• Phased out domestic full fee undergraduate degrees at public universities, ensuring Australian students gain entry to university on merit, not ability to pay.

• Injected $238 million to increase the number of higher education graduates in areas of skills shortage. This will double the number of students receiving Commonwealth Scholarships to 88,000 by 2012.

• Announced a range of measures to rebuild student services and amenities, new representation and advocacy protocols, enabling providers to charge a services and amenities fee and a HECs style loan for the payment of the fee.

• Provided funding of $779.2 million over four years to help new students studying the critical disciplines of maths and science as well as the priority areas of early childhood education and nursing.

• Commissioned a major review of the higher education sector that will help shape the higher education policy agenda for the decade ahead. The expert panel leading the review will deliver its final report to Government this month.

A full list of successful projects is below and further information on the Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund is available at www.deewr.gov.au/dsa

2008 Competitive Round of the Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund Successful Projects

Lead Organisation

Project Title

Project Total $

University Total $

Australian National University

The Engineering 'Hubs And Spokes' Project

3,800,000

 

 

The Health ‘Hubs And Spokes’ Project    

3,200,000

 

 

 

 

7,000,000

Central Queensland University

Place-Based Education Pathways - Gladstone

991,000

 

 

Place-Based Education Pathways - Mackay

991,000

 

 

 

 

1,982,000

Charles Darwin University

Achieving Best Practice Flexible Provision At CDU

2,867,000

 

 

 

 

2,867,000

Charles Sturt University

Building Capacity For Early Childhood Education

2,108,000

 

 

 

 

2,108,000

Curtin University of Technology

Building Cultural Safety For Health Services

1,200,000

 

 

 

 

1,200,000

Deakin University

Deakin At Your Doorstep

8,213,000

 

 

 

 

8,213,000

Edith Cowan University

Strategic Initiatives To Address Teacher Shortages

930,000

 

 

 

 

930,000

Flinders University of South Australia

Enhancing Engineering Choices For S.A. Students

340,000

 

 

Southern Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Program.

3,254,000

 

 

 

 

3,594,000

James Cook University

Australia's University For The Tropics

2,800,000

 

 

The Cairns Institute: Establishment Phase

5,184,000

 

 

 

 

7,984,000

La Trobe University

Integrated Rural Health Workforce Development-Vic

3,162,000

 

 

 

 

3,162,000

Macquarie University

Curriculum Based Participation & Engagement Model

2,250,000

 

 

 

 

2,250,000

Monash University

Increasing Regional Student Participation

1,701,000

 

 

 

 

1,701,000

Murdoch University

Addressing Labour Market And Regional Needs

240,000

 

 

Development Studies Professional Practicum

390,000

 

 

 

 

630,000

Queensland University of Technology

Caboolture Region Healthcare Simulation Centre

230,000

 

 

Social Inclusion (low-SES)-aspiration/philanthropy

1,154,000

 

 

Teacher Education Done Differently 

1,450,000

 

 

 

 

2,834,000

 

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Global Green Car Learning Clusters

441,000

 

 

 

 

441,000

Swinburne University of Technology

Associate Degree In Engineering

802,000

 

 

 

 

802,000

University of Adelaide

Underpinning The Precision Greentech Revolution

580,000

 

 

 

 

580,000

University of Canberra

Entry Pathways To Enhance Regional Participation

800,000

 

 

Work Integrated Learning: A Collaborative Model

830,000

 

 

 

 

1,630,000

University of Melbourne

A New Generation: The Clinical Teaching Model

7,960,000

 

 

The Community Clinical School Model    

6,566,000

 

 

 

 

14,526,000

University of New England

Dehub: Innovation In Distance Learning

3,544,000

 

 

 

 

3,544,000

University of New South Wales

ASPIRE

339,000

 

 

 

 

339,000

University of Newcastle

Agreement For Reciprocal Credit (ARC)

210,000

 

 

 

 

210,000

University of Queensland

Providing Languages Other Than English In Brisbane

2,271,000

 

 

 

 

2,271,000

University of South Australia

Closing The Gap: Developing An Inclusion Framework

3,969,000

 

 

Student Employability Skills & Community Service

1,922,000

 

 

 

 

5,891,000

University of Southern Queensland

Integrated Articulation And Credit Transfer

1,594,000

 

 

 

 

1,594,000

University of Sydney

Graduate School of the Brain & Mind Sciences

2,365,000

 

 

Increasing Student Diversity In Higher Education

3,549,000

 

 

 

 

5,914,000

University of Tasmania

Australian National Network In Marine Science

3,430,000

 

 

Integrated Tasmanian Creative Arts Education

2,520,000

 

 

Primary Industry Centre For Science Education

3,601,000

 

 

Unlocking Talent: The New Regional Campus

2,000,000

 

 

 

 

11,551,000

University of Technology, Sydney

National Support For Laboratory Resource Sharing

2,120,000

 

 

Power Engineering Centres Of Excellence (Final)

325,000

 

 

 

 

2,445,000

University of Western Australia

Aspire UWA

2,456,000

 

 

 

 

2,456,000

University of Western Sydney

Embedding An Indigenous Graduate Attribute

900,000

 

 

Parramatta Community Justice Centre

448,000

 

 

UWS  Nirimba - Creating A New Student Experience

5,700,000

 

 

 

 

7,048,000

University of Wollongong

Networked Solution To Educational Workforce Needs

3,347,000

 

 

 

 

3,347,000

Victoria University

National Work Integrated Learning Portal

402,000

 

 

 

 

402,000

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