A very stable set of issues features prominently and consistently each time there is consultation on or review of issues around the RTS, scholarships and student income support.253 Relevant programs supported by the Australian Government include Industry Australian Postgraduate Awards [APA(I)], the International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS) and the Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA).254 These issues featured prominently in the House of Representatives Inquiry and were repeated in responses to both the Meeting Australia’s Research Workforce Needs and Defining Quality consultation papers.255 Scholarship programs also featured prominently among issues raised in the development of the Research Workforce Strategy. These issues included extending the duration of the APA to more realistically reflect the requirements of the degree; the need for improved access to support for part-time study; removing restrictions on the amount of additional income candidates are able to earn; review of enrolment status during thesis examination; exempting part-time scholarships from taxation; and increasing the APA stipend rate.
Small changes to schemes like the APA tend to have a big impact among stakeholders and significant follow-on effects though the incentives they encourage, not just in relation to stipend rates but also through the conditions of award and associated policy settings.
APA Award rate
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249 Higher Education Standards Panel, 2013. 250 Luca and Wolski, 2012.
251 Higher Education Standards Panel, 2013. 252 Higher Education Standards Panel, 2013, p.2.
253 In Australia the terms scholarship and stipend are typically used interchangeably. A scholarship can be support for tuition, or a living allowance, or both.
254 DIISR, 2011c.
255 Public submissions in response to the Defining Quality consultation paper are available at
http://www.innovation.gov.au/Research/ResearchWorkforceIssues/Pages/ResearchTrainingQualityPaperSubmissions.as px. For a summary of issues raised in the House of Representatives Inquiry see Palmer, 2008.
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The Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) is the benchmark living allowance stipend scheme for research higher degrees in Australia. The majority of scholarships provided by institutions are tied in one way or another to the APA conditions of award, including the stipend rate. In 2008, the
Scholarships for a Competitive Future initiative included an increase in the number of APAs from 1,580 to
3,500 between 2008 and 2012. The 2009 Budget saw further reforms to the APA including a 10 per cent increase in the stipend rate and improved annual indexation arrangements.256 These were important steps. There remain, however, opportunities for further reform.
In its final report, the House of Representatives Committee recommended increasing the value of the APA stipend rate by 50 per cent.257 The Australian Government responded with a 10 per cent
adjustment, comprised of a 7.9 per cent upward adjustment over and above an average annual increase of 2.1 per cent between 1992 and 2009.258
Figure 1. Australian Postgraduate Award Stipend Rate (FT) as a proportion of the Henderson Poverty line 1992-2012 (with projections to 2016)
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The Poverty Line comparison above is for income after tax for a single individual, inclusive of housing costs. For rates for parents and couples see Poverty Lines Australia: December Quarter 2012
.
259The APA stipend rate relative to the Poverty Line for a single individual is illustrated in Figure 2 above. Projections to 2016 highlight the positive effect of the adjustment in 2010, and the impact of an improved annual indexation rate. The stipend rate increased by 3.8 per cent in 2012 and 3.9 per cent in 2013, compared with a previous average annual increase of 2.1 per cent. Despite these improvements, a further upward adjustment in the range of 12-20 per cent is required if the stipend rate is to support candidates at or above the Henderson Poverty Line.
APA Award duration
Currently the APA is funded for masters degrees to the maximum duration of candidature: two years. However, this is not the case for the maximum four years of doctoral study. Research shows that four years roughly equates with the average duration, in equivalent full-time terms, required to complete a
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256 Australian Government, 2009a; Australian Government, 2009b. 257 House of Representatives, 2008, p.78.
258 Australian Government, 2009a, p.37.
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quality PhD.260 With the APA currently funded to three years plus a possible six-month extension, the current policy settings underestimate the time it takes to complete a quality PhD.
In 2005, the Senate Inquiry into Student Income Support found the most glaring weakness in financial support for doctoral candidates to be the gap between the average time a student takes to complete and the duration of an Australian Postgraduate Award. The Committee concluded that the
arrangements for scholarships served to hinder rather than encourage timely completions.261 In 2008, this mismatch was again noted, in the House of Representatives Inquiry. The final report
recommended that the total duration of all federal PhD stipend awards be increased to four and a half years (full-time equivalent).262 The duration of the APA also featured prominently among issues raised in responses to both the Meeting Australia’s Research Workforce Needs and Defining Quality consultation papers. Possibilities raised then included funding fewer APAs for longer periods of time, extending the duration of the award in lieu of additional requirements, and simply extending the duration of the award to match candidature provisions and more effectively reflect existing requirements for the degree.
APA Provisions for part-time candidates
About 46 per cent of domestic research students are enrolled part-time. Rates of part-time enrolment vary significantly by discipline area, ranging from 31 per cent in engineering to 75 per cent in
education.263 Evidence from Pearson and colleagues suggests that many candidates actively use changes in enrolment status to assist them in successfully completing their degree, and that enrolment status is a less static category for research candidates than many may assume.264 Despite this, full-time scholarship holders must conform to a very narrow set of conditions in order to be able to go part- time. Candidates are only eligible for an APA on a part-time basis if they meet strict Student Eligibility Requirements under the APA Guidelines. Currently those conditions require demonstrating
extenuating carer responsibilities, or proof of a serious medical condition.265
The need for candidates to be able to move freely between full- and part-time study has been a consistent theme in stakeholder feedback and in research in this area. Flexibility is seen as particularly beneficial where students are managing complex research projects, or where their research design or data collection does not easily conform to a three-year time frame.266
Recommendation 23 of Building Australia’s Research Capacity was that the Commonwealth Scholarship Guidelines should be amended to give award recipients greater flexibility in undertaking all or part of a higher degree by research on a part-time basis.267 Meeting Australia’s Research Workforce Needs also saw greater flexibility for part-time HDR study as generating potential productivity benefits, noting this could help to attract an expanded pool of candidates to HDR study.268 This proposal was picked up as Priority 7.1 of the Research Workforce Strategy. The Strategy recognised that flexibility to undertake studies on a part-time basis may be a key determinant of individuals’ capacity to engage in a research degree, especially in the cases of women and Indigenous Australians seeking to balance study with family, professional and community responsibilities.269
The current policy settings provide an immediate opportunity to improve the productivity and retention of its HDR candidates by amending the scholarship guidelines to remove provisions that unduly restrict part-time candidature. This would give institutions more autonomy to put in place practices tailored to individual training programs, while allowing students greater freedom to negotiate modes of HDR study that meet their needs, circumstances and specific research.
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260 Bourke, Holbrook and Lovat, 2007.
261 Senate Employment Workplace Relations and Education References Committee, 2005, p.40. 262 House of Representatives, 2008, p.75.
263 Palmer, 2011.
264 Pearson, Cumming, Evans, Macauley and Ryland, 2008. 265 DIISR, 2010a, p.10.
266 Pearson, Cumming, Evans, Macauley and Ryland, 2008; Palmer, 2010; Jonas and Croker, 2012. 267 House of Representatives, 2008, p.92.
268 DIISR, 2010c, p.28. 269 DIISR, 2011b, p.38.
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Income support and taxation
Candidates able to meet current eligibility requirements for transferring to a part-time APA must balance a range of pressures and responsibilities in seeking to complete their degree. Yet they risk losing access to other support measures, such as disability and carer benefits. They also must pay tax on their stipend. Full-time awards are tax-exempt; part-time awards are not.
The 2005 Senate Inquiry into Student Income Support concluded that there is a ‘serious inequity’ in the income support system in part-time APA scholarships being subject to income tax.270 The
Committee recommended that (then) DEST undertake an analysis of the costs and benefits associated with exempting university-funded scholarships and scholarships funded by benefactors and
philanthropists from the social security personal income test. Prior to this, the Taxation Laws Amendment (Part-Time Students) Bill introduced by the Australian Democrats was referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee for consideration in 1998. That Committee Report found that exempting part-time scholarships from taxation would have marginal implications for
Commonwealth revenue, at worst having a ‘very minor influence’.271 Despite this, the Bill has been adjourned at the second reading stage since 30 October 1997.
In 2008, the House of Representatives Committee again recommended that postgraduate research scholarships be exempt from assessable income for taxation, including part-time awards. The Federal Government chose not to support this recommendation. It again referred the matter, this time to the Taxation Review conducted by former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry. The Henry Review Panel recommended that all income support and supplementary payments should be tax-exempt, and Government payments such as scholarships should be exempt from tax to align their treatment with that of income support.272
In 2009, the Social Security and Other Legislations Amendment (Income Support for Students) Bill 2009 was introduced to exempt scholarships from the income test under social security legislation.273 The government again ignored calls to adjust the scope of the amendments to address problems for postgraduate scholarship recipients who also receive supplementary income support payments such as disability or carer benefits, and other matters associated with including scholarships as assessable income. It is remarkable that a series of governments have failed to respond to consistent
recommendations on this minor matter, recommendations that would have such a positive effect for students most disadvantaged, at negligible additional cost.
Enrolment status at examination
Under current provisions, research students cease to be considered as enrolled the moment they submit their thesis for examination. However, at submission their course of study is incomplete. Once candidates cease to be enrolled they also become ineligible to receive any remaining scholarship entitlement. Students typically invest significant time and resources in getting to this final stage. It is also likely they have been out of the full-time workforce for some time, often with limited engagement with prospective employers. Many also accrue debt in the course of their degree. Recommendation 17 of Building Australia’s Research Capacity was for candidature to be nominally extended beyond thesis submission until candidates are informed that they will be awarded their degree.274 A ‘bridge’ at this point in the form of financial support would address a range of problems and would not only foster incentives to complete on time, it would also support engagement in professional development activities such as conference presentations and publications. It would represent a built-in completion award, supporting valuable academic and professional development opportunities for early career researchers, and development of skills and experience increasingly valued by employers.275
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270 Under ss.51-10 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. 271 Senate Economics Legislation Committee, 1998.
272 Recommendation 4, Henry, Harmer, Piggott, Ridout and Smith, 2010, p.28. 273 The Hon. Julia Gillard MP, 2009.
274 House of Representatives, 2008, p.82. 275 DIISR, 2011b, p.22.
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Improvements to scholarship programs and related policy settings are likely to reduce attrition, to improve completion rates, to enhance the productivity benefits associated with the Research Training Scheme and hence to maximise the payoffs associated with government investment in this area. Reforms that allow candidates additional flexibility can also better fit the needs of both students and employers, particularly greater flexibility for part-time enrolment and better support during the
concluding phases of the degree. All of these improvements are consistent with the original aims of the Research Training Scheme.