27Method by which the amount of grants under the program are determined for a provider

27 Method by which the amount of grants under the program are determined for a provider

Average student load (1) A grant under the Regional Loading Program for each eligible provider is to be calculated using the most recent Commonwealth supported student load data for the reporting years as verified by the provider through the HESDC, as accepted by the Department. (2) The average student load for the purposes of this section is the EFTSL of the Commonwealth supported student load, as expressed as an average for the most recent three years for which HESDC full year student load data is available.

Note: This means that the calculation of average student load will be updated annually as new HESDC full year student load data becomes available.

RLP Remoteness Categories (3) A grant is calculated for a provider for each campus and depends upon the remoteness category of each of the provider’s eligible campuses (as provided for in subsections (4), (5) and (6)). (4) The remoteness category for a campus is determined by where the campus is physically located by reference to the ABS Remoteness Structure. (5) The loading (expressed as L in the formula in subsection (7)) for the remoteness categories is as follows:

(6) For purposes of this section, the Darwin region is defined as the area of the Northern Territory that is not classified as remote or very remote in the ABS Remoteness Structure. Formula (7) Grant amounts for eligible providers are to be calculated by applying the following formula: A formula to work out the grant amount for an eligible provider under the Regional Loading Program Where: Image unavailable in extracted text is the grant for a provider (p) under the Regional Loading Program; Image unavailable in extracted text is the loading for the location of a provider’s campus as referred to in subsection (5); Image unavailable in extracted text is the average student load, expressed as EFTSL, of the internal and multi-modal Commonwealth supported students enrolled at the relevant eligible campus (c); Image unavailable in extracted text is the loading for the location of a provider’s main campus as referred to in subsection (5); is the average student load based on the EFTSL of a provider’s (p) external Commonwealth supported student load; is the variation required to ensure the expenditure is within the RLP grant made for that calendar year. Detailed explanation of the formula (8) The formula in subsection (7) has two components—the first is based on the EFTSL of the internal and multi-modal Commonwealth supported student load of each of a provider’s eligible campuses, the second is based on the provider’s external Commonwealth supported student load. (9) The first component of the formula for a provider is calculated by multiplying the average student load of a provider’s internal and multi-modal Commonwealth supported student load for each eligible campus by the remoteness loading for the physical location of that eligible campus—the totals for each of a provider’s eligible campuses are added together to calculate the grant amount for the provider. (10) The second component of the formula for a provider is calculated by multiplying 50 per cent of the average student load of a provider’s external Commonwealth supported student load by the remoteness loading for the provider’s main campus—for this purpose a provider’s main campus is the campus that has the highest average student load based on the EFTSL of the average internal and multi-modal Commonwealth supported student load. (11) The amount of funding available under the Regional Loading Program is capped for each calendar year—to ensure that this total funding is not exceeded for a year, the following process is used to adjust the final amount of the grant to be paid to each eligible provider in a calendar year: