Information about the Inquiry
On 12 February
2009, the Senate referred the provisions of the Higher Education
Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities, and Other Measures)
Bill 2009 to the Senate Standing Committee on
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for report by
10 March 2009.
The purpose of
the bill is to ensure the availability of quality student services. This
is required following the loss of revenue from compulsory student levies
previously in force. The bill will amend the Higher Education Support Act
2003 to provide universities with the option to implement a services fee
from 1 July 2009. To ensure the fee is not a burden on students the bill
provides for the establishment of a new component of the Higher Education
Loan Program – Services and Amenities (SA HELP). It will recognise the
roles and responsibilities of Tertiary Admissions Centres and will allow
for future expansion of the VET FEE-HELP scheme.
The bill may be
accessed at:
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbillhome%2Fr4049%22
The committee
invites written submissions which can be lodged electronically through the
submissions section on the inquiry homepage. Hard copy submissions should
be sent to:
Committee
Secretary
Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
The closing date for submissions is
Friday,
20 February 2009.
The committee
requests that where possible, submissions should be provided preferably in
MS Word or RTF format documents. Notes to assist in preparing submissions
are available from the website
https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm.
Once the
committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential committee
document. Release of your submission without the committee's permission
will remove the protection of parliamentary privilege. The committee
normally makes submissions public. Please indicate if you want your
submission to be kept confidential.
Inquiries from
hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to the Parliament
House TTY number (02 6277 7799). Adobe also provides tools for the
visually impaired to access PDF documents. These tools are available at:
http://access.adobe.com/. If
you require any special arrangements in order to enable you to participate
in a committee inquiry, please contact the secretary.
For further information, contact:
Mr John Carter
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia