Sch o lar sh ip co n d it io n s an d t er m s o f en r o lm en t
13.1. Sch o lar sh ip co n d it io n s an d t er m s o f en r o lm en t
13.1.1. Scholarships are awarded to recipients to obtain specified qualifications in order to contribute to development outcomes in their home country. The proposed course and the length of the scholarship are agreed by DFAT and in some instances, the partner government, following advice from institutions. The terms of the Australia Awards Scholarship, and enrolment at the Australian institution, are then agreed to by the recipient by signing the letter of offer and contract with the Commonwealth of Australia.
13.1.2. Variations to the awardee’s terms of enrolment which affect the basis on which the scholarship was granted (e.g. change to field of study), will only be considered if it is the only option available to enable the awardee to successfully complete their program of study. All variations must be approved by DFAT.
13.1.3. The types of variations that will be considered by DFAT are detailed
separately in this chapter.
13.1.4. Awardees are advised that variations to the terms of their enrolment will be
considered in light of the scholarship’s aim of contributing to the A development of the awardee’s home country, and that the awardee’s
tertiary education is intended to provide skills valuable to this aim. An awardee’s personal aspirations are of secondary importance.
13.1.5. All variations are managed and processed in OASIS by the Program Area and the institution. The only exceptions to this are for terminations and for
scholarship variations for Australian Leadership Awardees who commenced prior to 2012. These variations are approved by the Scholarships and Alumni Branch. Program Areas will determine if partner government approval is required for a variation and should only approve variations in accordance with the relevant policy and in accordance with financial delegation.
13.1.6. Institutions must seek approval from Program Areas as variations
frequently involve the commitment of new funds. In some cases variations will require Program Areas to negotiate with other parties, such as partner governments.
13.1.7. Institutions must lodge variation requests as early as practical in OASIS. Unless unavoidable, institutions must lodge variation requests at least six weeks before the scholarship completion date if the awardee is in the last semester of their scholarship.
13.1.8. Institutions are to keep awardee’s OASIS records up-to-date, particularly when seeking variations (e.g. details of dependants, passport details etc.).
13.1.9. When deciding if a variation is necessary, the institution should assess the options available to produce the most effective outcome. Before submitting a variation in
OASIS relating to academic failure, institutions must ensure they have investigated and reported the following to DFAT (using the OASIS journal notes facility):
i. the scope of the academic difficulty: what is the specific academic issue (e.g. statistics, essay writing, exams, attendance, research or time management)
ii. the reasons for the failure, for example family stress, academic stress or health issues
iii. what is being or will be done by both the awardee and institution to address the issues (e.g. if an awardee is suffering financial stress, what counselling and financial management plans have been put in place. If the issue is research skills, what extra academic support has the awardee attended and what are the outcomes of that support). This should take the form of an action plan to address the lack of academic progress
iv. how realistic is it that the awardee will successfully complete the current course v. if there is an option to downgrade the academic award, and is this being
considered.