These guidelines are subject to any changes made by Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to its “Commonwealth Scholarships Guidelines”.
What are Commonwealth Scholarships (CS)?
In 2004 the Federal Government established the Commonwealth Scholarships (CS) program. The program aims to facilitate choice in higher education and to increase higher education participation by students from low socio-economic backgrounds, particularly Indigenous students and students from regional and remote areas. CS are available to commencing and continuing students.
Types of scholarships
The Commonwealth Scholarships program consists of three types of scholarships:
Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarships (CAS)
To assist with accommodation costs for students from regional backgrounds. The CAS is valued at $4,324 per year (2008 value; indexed annually) and paid in two instalments per year for a maximum period of four years
Commonwealth Educational Costs Scholarships (CECS)
To assist with general education costs. The CECS is valued at $2,162 per year (2008 value; indexed annually) and paid in two instalments per year for a maximum period of four years.
Indigenous Access Scholarships (IAS)
To assist Indigenous students to undertake an undergraduate course. The IAS is valued at $4,080 (2008 value; indexed annually), is paid in two instalments, and is a once-only scholarship payment. Students who are eligible for the IAS will automatically receive the CECS as well, and may also be eligible for the CAS.
CS income is 'exempt'
Commonwealth Scholarship income is 'exempt income' for the purposes of the Social Security Act. CS recipients' scholarship income is not taken into account when applying the Personal Income Test for Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY, or the primary payment of students receiving a Pensioner Education Supplement.
The Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship is not taken into account when calculating Rent Assistance entitlement. Rent Assistance is calculated on the amount of rent paid by the student, without discounting it by the scholarship amount.
More Information
More information on Centrelink benefits or rent allowance is on these Commonwealth Government websites:
- Australian Taxation Office (opens an external site)
- Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (opens an external site)
Further information and guidelines about the Commonwealth Scholarships are available from: Department of Education, Science and Training (opens an external site).
CECS eligibility requirements
To be eligible to receive a CECS, a student must satisfy all of the following criteria. A student must:
be an Australian citizen or holder of a permanent humanitarian visa, AND
be enrolled as a Commonwealth supported student, AND
be enrolled in an any undergraduate course of study, or a graduate diploma in a National Priority area, or equivalent, AND
demonstrate financial disadvantage, either by being in receipt of a means-tested Commonwealth Income Support payment or by providing documentation as required in the 'Exceptional Financial Hardship' section of the UAC Equity Scholarships application form, AND
be enrolled full-time (18 credit points or more) at UTS unless exceptional circumstances apply. Exceptional circumstances are considered on the basis of a medical condition or disability, significant family care responsibilities, Indigenous community responsibilities, and course constraints outside a student's control.
Students enrolled in 'work experience in industry' subjects or subjects undertaken at other universities (eg. for an International Studies degree) to fulfil a UTS undergraduate course requirement are entitled to continue receiving CS payments if their load is full-time equivalent, AND
not have already completed an Australian bachelor's award (or equivalent), unless each such award is a prerequisite to the current undergraduate course of study or to the graduate diploma in an area of National Priority, and there is no alternative pathway into that course of study at UTS.
CAS eligibility requirements
To be eligible to receive a CAS, a student must satisfy all of the CECS eligibility requirements, and must also satisfy all of the following criteria:
within the four years immediately preceding the commencement of higher education study a student must have either:
- lived in a regional or remote area of Australia for at least three years; OR
- completed the final two years of schooling in a high school or college in a regional or remote area; OR
- found it necessary to move away from their regional or remote home to complete the whole or the majority of their secondary schooling in a major city; AND
it was necessary for the student to move from the regional or remote area in order to undertake higher education study, AND
as a result of (b) the student will incur additional accommodation costs; AND
the student is enrolled as an internal student at UTS. An internal student is one who attends a UTS campus for the majority of subjects in the course of study.
Regional or remote is defined as any locality not belonging to the Major Cities of Australia classification by the ASGC Remoteness Areas classification (as described in the AIHW 2004 publication 'Rural, Regional and Remote Health: A Guide to Remoteness Classification'). The classifications are:
- Major cities
- Inner Regional Australia
- Outer Regional Australia
- Remote Australia
- Very Remote Australia
IAS eligibility requirements
To be eligible to receive an IAS, must satisfy both of the following criteria:
- be an Australian citizen, AND
- be an Indigenous person (i.e. be an Australian of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, and be accepted as such by the Indigenous community).
In addition, an Indigenous student must satisfy the CS eligibility requirements, however, financial need will be assessed in relation to a broad range of disadvantages that may affect their immediate financial status, eg. geographical isolation, stability of financial status, and family circumstances such as illness or bereavement.
A student who is eligible to receive an IAS will also automatically receive a CECS. Furthermore, if the student had to relocate from a regional or remote area to undertake university study, he / she will also receive a CAS.
Application process
Prospective and enrolled UTS students can apply for CS by submitting the UAC Equity Scholarships application form.
For students planning to enrol in Autumn semester, main round scholarship applications open the previous year in August and must be received by the closing date in late November. Consult the UAC website for the exact closing date.
For students planning to enrol mid-year, in Spring semester, applications open in April and must be received by the closing date in early June. Consult the UAC website for the exact closing date.
Application forms can be downloaded from the web: www.uac.edu.au/equity/equityschols.html (opens an external site).
Selection Process
All CS recipients must meet the basic eligibility requirements and provide supporting documents for specific criteria, including financial disadvantage, regional or remote background (if applying for a CAS) and, where relevant, additional criteria such as Indigenous background, sole parenthood, carer responsibilities, medical condition, disability, or English language difficulty.
Before a CS payment is made, students must be enrolled full-time (or part-time on the basis of exceptional circumstances) at the time of the first census date (i.e. 31 March for Autumn semester or 31 August for Spring semester). Subsequent CAS or CECS payments are contingent on eligibility checks for continuing enrolment status and continuing financial disadvantage.
Unless exceptional circumstances apply, eligible non-Indigenous students will be awarded either a CECS or a CAS, but not both. Applicants eligible for both a CECS and a CAS will be considered for a CAS first, and reconsidered for a CECS if they are not offered a CAS.
Students in receipt of other substantial scholarships will only be offered a CECS or a CAS in exceptional circumstances.
If there are eligible applicants of equal standing, the selection process will firstly target long-term financial disadvantage, then demonstrated multiple disadvantages.
Offer process
All CS applicants who are currently enrolled students or who receive an offer of a place at UTS will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application.
For students planning to enrol in Autumn semester, main round CS offers are made in January, within a week of the UAC main round offers for course places.
For students planning to enrol in Spring semester, mid-year CS offers are made in July, within a week of the UAC mid-year offers for course places.
Successful CS applicants will receive an Acceptance of Offer letter containing information about CS conditions of acceptance. The letter, signed by the student, will be stored in the student's file.
CS Recipients will receive a commemorative certificate in a form approved by the Minister for Education.
Payment arrangements
CS are paid by bank transfer to the scholarship holder after the census date of the relevant scholarship payment period.
A scholarship payment period is a six-month period from 1 January - 30 June or from 1 July - 31 December.
A CS recipient will receive one payment totalling 50% of the annual value of the CS in each six-month period. The first payment will be made within six weeks of the student's first census date for study being undertaken in that scholarship payment period.
In Autumn semester the payment will be made in late April or early May.
In Spring semester the payment will be made in late August or early September.
Ongoing eligibility requirements
In order to maintain ongoing eligibility for a CS, the scholarship holder:
must continue to meet the eligibility requirements as set out in Part 5. 6 or 7 of these Guidelines;
must comply with University Rules of conduct. Where a scholarship holder is found guilty of serious misconduct and as a result of disciplinary proceedings is no longer a full-time student, the University will terminate the scholarship;
may transfer to another undergraduate program at UTS, but must remain a continuously enrolled student of UTS;
has the responsibility to advise the Scholarships Officer in the Student Administration Unit of any changes to their circumstances that would make them ineligible for the CS;
must maintain satisfactory academic progress.
The University will verify the ongoing eligibility status of CS scholarship recipients after each semester census date.
Recipients who have provided a Centrelink Reference Number will have their ongoing financial disadvantage automatically verified via a confidential Centrelink status check.
Recipients who have not provided a Centrelink Reference Number will be asked to provide documentary evidence of continuing financial disadvantage to confirm their ongoing eligibility.
Leave
The scholarship holder cannot retain a CS place while on leave or deferred from study unless exceptional circumstances apply. Students who have taken leave or deferred by the relevant census date will have their scholarship terminated.
A scholarship holder who takes leave or defers can re-apply in the relevant application round to receive the remainder of the scholarship. He or she will be considered in the pool of new applicants and will be assessed on the basis of demonstrated disadvantage.
Termination
The scholarship holder’s CS will be terminated:
if the scholarship holder ceases to meet the ongoing eligibility criteria, OR
when the full value of the scholarship has been paid, ie. the recipient has received payment for the maximum number of scholarship periods (being eight scholarship payment periods, or four years).
UTS will advise students by letter when their CS has been terminated, and provide an opportunity for students to query the termination.
Transfer of Scholarships
If a student who received a CS at another university transfers to study at UTS, the previously awarded scholarship will not be honoured at UTS. A student who holds a CS from another university may apply again in order to be considered in the pool of new applicants. Applications will be assessed on the basis of demonstrated disadvantage.
A student who previously received a CS at another university, who transfers to UTS and is successful in re-applying for a CS will be awarded a CS only for the remainder of their unused scholarship payment periods. Students who have received part of a CS at another institution must declare any previous CS support they have received and the duration of that support.
Confidentiality
All information provided by applicants will be treated as confidential and in accordance with University Policy on the Privacy of Student Records. This policy is on the UTS website: www.uts.edu.au/div/publications/policies/select/privsr.html
Student’s personal information can only be released in special circumstances, where the law requires, or where students give permission.
Application information from successful CS applicants will be stored in those students' files. The application information from unsuccessful CS applicants will be destroyed one year after assessment.
Provision of false information
Applicants who provide false or misleading information will have their application reassessed or cancelled. In addition, in accordance with the Commonwealth of Australia Commonwealth Scholarships Guidelines, UTS will notify DEEWR of the suspected offence and provide a copy of the application and any other relevant information requested by DEEWR.
Grievance procedures
Grievances will be resolved in accordance with the University's policies and procedures for handling grievances. This policy is on the UTS website: www.grievancehandling.uts.edu.au/handling/policies.html#GHPolicy.
CS Administration
The award, termination and reporting mechanisms for CS are administered by the CS Steering Group that includes representatives of the Student Administration Unit, Equity & Diversity Unit, Student Services Unit, and Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning.
