Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines 2020 [F2020l01609] [2021] AUPJCHR 6 (3 February 2021)

• Legislative instruments
• Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines 2020 [F2020L01609]1
• Increasing the cost of student contribution amounts for certain disciplines
• International human rights legal advice
• Right to education
• Committee view

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Legislative instruments
Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines 2020 [F2020L01609]^[1]

Purpose	This instrument re-makes the Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines 2012, including specifying which units of higher education study will be included in each funding cluster.
Portfolio	Education, Skills and Employment
Authorising legislation	Higher Education Support Act 2003
Last day to disallow	15 sitting days after tabling (tabled in the Senate and the House of Representatives on 2 February 2021). Notice of motion to disallow must be given by 18 March 2021[2]
Rights	Education

Increasing the cost of student contribution amounts for certain disciplines

1.110 Chapter 5 of the guidelines specifies which of the four higher education funding clusters (or part of those clusters) a unit of study will be included in.^[3] As the explanatory statement notes, these changes are primarily intended to give effect to amendments made by the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Act 2020.^[4] By establishing which funding cluster a unit of study falls within, the instrument establishes the cost to a Commonwealth-supported student for a place within that unit of study.^[5]

International human rights legal advice

Right to education

1.111 In specifying which funding cluster (or part of a cluster) a unit of study will be included in, and thereby establishing how much that unit of study will cost a Commonwealth-supported student, this instrument largely raises the same human rights issues as those raised with respect to the bill that became the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Act 2020.^[6] As such, the advice provided in relation to that bill in Report 11 of 2020,^[7] and Report 13 of 2020^[8] is reiterated in relation to this instrument.

Committee view

1.112 The committee notes that this instrument specifies which units of higher education study will be included in each funding clusters, and that this has the effect of establishing how much that unit of study will cost a Commonwealth-supported student.

1.113 The committee notes that these changes are primarily intended to give effect to amendments made by the Higher Education Support Amendment

(Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Act 2020. The committee assessed the human rights compatibility of the bill that became that Act in Report 13 of 2020,^[9] including the human rights implications of amending the maximum student contribution amounts for a place in a unit of study.

1.114 As such, the committee refers the minister and parliamentarians to that report in relation to the assessment of the human rights compatibility of this instrument.

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[1] This entry can be cited as: Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines 2020 [F2020L01609], Report 1 of 2021; [2021] AUPJCHR 6.

[2] In the event of any change to the Senate or House's sitting days, the last day for the notice would change accordingly.

[3] For the purposes of section 33-35 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003.

[4] Explanatory statement, p. 1.

[5] For example, the maximum student contribution amount for a place in a unit of study within funding cluster 1 (Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, Communications, Society and Culture) is $14,500. See, Higher Education Support Act 2003, section 93-10.

[6] The bill passed both houses of Parliament on 19 October 2020.

[7] Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Report 11 of 2020 (24 September 2020),

pp. 48–59.

[8] Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Report 13 of 2020 (13 November 2020),

pp. 91–109.

[9] Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Report 13 of 2020 (13 November 2020),

pp. 91–109.