Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 98.1

NEW SOUTH WALES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Dear Mr Rees

I refer to your fax of 29 May, 1998 in which you raised additional questions concerning the material presented at the hearing on Thursday 28 May, 1998. The following information is provided to answer the questions and clarify the points raised.

1 What proportion of NSW TAFE's revenues are received from commercial activity?

The income revenue figure is based on the following commercial activity categories undertaken in 1996/1997

• Commercial activity focused on course provision
• Commercial activity associated with licencing
• Overseas Students
• English Language Centre provision and
• Commercial activity associated with various projects.

Government funded tenders won by TAFE NSW have not been included as discussed.

The income revenue generated from commercial activity under the above categories for 1996/1997 was $40.865m which represents 4.86% of the core TAFE budget of $839.996m.

2 How many school age young people arc enrolled in your HSC and Tertiary Prep courses? Are these included in the 29,861 Educational Preparation enrolments for 1996 in your statistics publication.

All school age young people are included in the figure of ~9,681. HSC enrolments comprised 8,261 students of which 3,363 fell between the ages of 15 to 18 years.

The Tertiary Preparation courses enrolled 2,450 students of which 350 were also in the l5 to I8 years group.

3 Is the $17m in concessions across NSW adjusted across the system or is it borne most heavily by the Institutes or campuses with the highest proportions of students receiving concessions?

The concessions from the Administration Charge are borne by each institute and vary depending on the number and level of exemptions granted as revenue or cost incurred.

The Administration Charge is set by the Corporate centre as part of an Institutes budget allocation under the net appropriation process - Total allocation = Budget allocation plus estimated revenue. In setting estimated revenue as per the administration charge component, the Corporate centre looks at the historical income and enrolment statistics for each Institute to develop a ratio to apply to budgeted enrolments. To a certain limit, non fee paying students have been taken into account as part of the budget allocation, however if the Institute does not meet the estimated level or exceeds the level, then it incurs revenue or must bear the loss as part of its core allocation.

4 Has TAFE NSW experienced a decrease in international students this year and give an indication of the 1997/1998 figures?

In semester 1, 1993 international student enro1ments reached 1,424 compared to 1,387 during the same period in 1997. This has yielded a 2.6% increase. During 1997 over 18,000 enquiries were received by the Internatiomt1 Students Unit requesting information on TAFE NSW courses for 1998. Many of these were multiple enquiries where students were clarifying course status and procedures. In comparison, the central TAFE information Centre received over 200,000 enquiries for enrolment and re-enrolment in courses for 1998 serving approximately 274,000 semester l enrolments.

5 Question on notice - What has been the reduction in international student numbers in Elicos Centres due to what is happening in South East Asia? (Hansard-EET 706)

The students attending ELICOS are counted separately to the overall international student numbers. Overseas students often study English at an ELICOS centre as a prerequisite to entering TAFE or university. Low numbers at the start of the academic year usually accord with TAFE or university starting dates and as these courses run in 5 week blocks it is difficult to ascertain how many students will attend from the commencement of the year.

Countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan Vietnam, Thailand and Japan have been our main providers of students applying to the TAPE ELJCOS centres. Korea has been an excellent market in the past but has now glen away, along with a dramatic decline in student numbers from Indonesia. This has been attributed to the economic situation in the South East Asian countries.

Comparisons with the January to June period in 1997 and 1998 have shown a decrease of approximately 25% in student numbers.

Yours sincerely

Bob Puffett
Assistant Director-General (TAFE)
12 June 1998

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