The Response - UWA Staff - The University of Western Australia

specifically (inter)nationalising our research training. For example, cooperative research training is something our
partners in China are keen on (though it brings with it certain difficulties yet to be overcome); small discipline
groups in Australian Universities could well be encouraged to take a national approach to PhD training.
Cooperative research training need not be restricted to postgraduate study
of course.’
‘I suggest that there should be more collaboration with universities in our region in addition to China, such as
Singapore, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan as I believe that such collaboration would likely be in line with
Ken Henry’s forthcoming Asian Century document.’
4. Community
‘We tend to be tolerated by the local community rather than embraced, supported and celebrated. We should be
aiming at a generally accepted view that “Nedlands is UWA”, rather than seeing “UWA in Nedlands” ’.
Proposal 11: That the University review its scholarship and bursary schemes in light of possible funding
and market changes to the Australian higher education sector to ensure they will continue to support the
equity and access goals of the University.
‘As a student from regional WA, I know how distant a concept a tertiary education is for the majority of country
students….For every success story, a beacon is lit for dozens of others. It is both a State and local responsibility
to foster talent.’
‘I am delighted with Proposal 11 and hope the review looks into the following areas:
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Establishment of scholarships: The current twenty-five step process for the establishment of scholarships is
both time consuming and inefficient.
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Timely payment of scholarship funds to scholarship recipients: I am aware that some of the scholarship
recipients did not receive their scholarship funds until early to mid- May. For some of these scholarships, the
selection criterion was financial hardship. If a student is experiencing financial hardship, then that student will
require the funds at the start of the semester rather than towards the end of it.
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Timely selection of scholarship recipients: I am aware that the Undergraduate Scholarships Committee is
meeting only on 12 September to endorse the selection for scholarships which closed on 3 August 2012….
To ensure timely payments of scholarship funds, perhaps UWA could consider advertising scholarships earlier
than they are now…. There also need to be more regular meetings of the various scholarship committees
which have responsibility for endorsing successful scholarship applicants.
The standardisation of scholarship conditions: Staff at the Development and Alumni Relations Office can
find themselves in a difficult position at times because donors wish to look at the conditions of a proposed
scholarship before committing to funding. However the view of the Scholarships Office and Academic Policy
Services is that scholarship conditions are between the University and the scholarship recipient…. One way
ahead would be to have a number of standard scholarship conditions to suit various scenarios with the donor
selecting the one which is most appropriate.
Annual reports to scholarship donors: Reports should include a reconciliation of the funds received and spent,
to ensure transparency and accountability.
The need to advertise the value of scholarships: An effort should be made to give an approximation of the value
of the scholarship as guidance to applicants, especially for scholarships where financial hardship is a criterion.
Statements such as “The value of the scholarship is the annual income on the fund after capitalisation in
accordance with Senate policy” are unhelpful for students.
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