Short course funding for Australian universities 2021

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment has published the 2021-23 university funding contracts. Most contain details on the funding for short courses (both undergraduate and graduate certificates) universities are offering in 2021.

As at 16 March 2021 the funding agreements for the following universities had not been updated to include details on short course funding: Flinders University, RMIT, Southern Cross University, the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne, the University of Notre Dame Australia (now a Table A university), the University of Queensland, University of Canberra and University of South Australia.

James Cook University’s funding agreement includes funding for 263 undergraduate certificate places but the specific funding amount for these enrolments is not separately documented.

Of the remaining 29 universities:

• 2 do not have any short course funding allocated (University of Western Australia and Murdoch University)
• 7 have at least $10 million allocated for short courses, of which Curtin University has the largest allocation ($27.3 million)
• Central Queensland University, Curtin University and the University of Tasmania each have more than 10% of their 2021 base funding funding allocated to short courses

If/when short course funding details are included in updated contracts for the nine universities where they are currently missing, the table below will be updated. The table also included hyperlinks to each university’s full funding agreement.

University short course funding as a proportion of base funding (2021)

	Short course funding	Total Maximum Base Grant Amount	Short course funding as a % of MBGA
Australian Catholic University	$3,467,500	$243,857,997	1%
Central Queensland University	$16,128,750	$132,320,460	12%
Charles Darwin University	$5,200,000	$63,552,342	8%
Charles Sturt University	$12,090,625	$179,830,586	7%
Curtin University	$27,296,250	$275,370,847	10%
Deakin University	$7,156,050	$273,169,829	3%
Edith Cowan University	$6,892,500	$158,479,038	4%
Federation University Australia	$2,473,000	$84,459,993	3%
Flinders University	n/a	$134,516,848	n/a
Griffith University	$5,438,375	$257,773,351	2%
James Cook University	(263 places but no specified funding allocation)	$109,357,531	n/a
La Trobe University	$4,731,875	$235,506,045	2%
Macquarie University	$4,963,125	$175,045,761	3%
Monash University	$11,695,000	$303,575,707	4%
Murdoch University	$0	$90,914,809	0%
Queensland University of Technology	$3,821,875	$281,646,227	1%
RMIT University	n/a	$253,144,311	n/a
Southern Cross University	n/a	$79,857,484	n/a
Swinburne University of Technology	$692,500	$164,446,765	0%
The Australian National University	$5,128,125	$74,895,409	7%
The University of Adelaide	n/a	$147,992,488	n/a
The University of Melbourne	n/a	$255,315,067	n/a
The University of Newcastle	$9,895,500	$220,292,131	4%
The University of New England	$4,106,250	$104,906,784	4%
The University of Notre Dame Australia	n/a	$77,186,839	n/a
The University of Queensland	n/a	$270,717,619	n/a
The University of Sydney	$1,312,500	$280,897,099	0%
The University of Western Australia	$0	$140,677,067	0%
University of Canberra	n/a	$87,937,476	n/a
University of New South Wales	$5,042,500	$252,178,851	2%
University of South Australia	n/a	$184,948,608	n/a
University of Southern Queensland	$3,483,750	$132,944,997	3%
University of Technology Sydney	$2,738,125	$211,657,789	1%
University of the Sunshine Coast	$3,099,250	$137,141,707	2%
University of Tasmania	$21,913,500	$217,287,096	10%
University of Wollongong	$8,640,000	$148,638,431	6%
Victoria University	$12,453,125	$135,368,275	9%
Western Sydney University	$12,456,125	$295,663,399	4%