Investment plan follow through
To: The FOI Contact Officer
Department of Tertiary Education
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
FOI Request
.......................
We read, June 2018, the investment plan for the Higher Education Participation Program the Tertiary Education Department has here
https://docs.education.gov.au/node/50831 but our colleagues have not gotten invites for projects.
Could you please send through
(i) Anything to show the Minister's approval, and/or rejection, of any specific grants for projects following the 2018 investment plan.
(ii) Failing i above, anything to show the Minister was asked to approve any grants following the 2018 investment plan, and to list the grants
(iii) Failing ii above, anything to show the Minister approved the department to send invites for grants following the 2018 investment plan.
(iv) Failing iii above, anything to show the projects (general or specified) the department wants the Minister to invite applications for.
Likely it will save time to search first for iv. If Tertiary Education hasn't yet figured what to ask the Minister, there will be no documents iv, iii, ii, i.
Thank you,
P. Gale (Mrs)
V. Wilson
October 10th, 2016.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson
We refer to your email below seeking access under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the following documents:
(i) Anything to show the Minister's approval, and/or rejection, of any
specific grants for projects following the 2018 investment plan.
(ii) Failing i above, anything to show the Minister was asked to approve
any grants following the 2018 investment plan, and to list the grants
(iii) Failing ii above, anything to show the Minister approved the
department to send invites for grants following the 2018 investment plan.
(iv) Failing iii above, anything to show the projects (general or
specified) the department wants the Minister to invite applications for.
The Department of Education and Training has received your request and
will process it in accordance with the FOI Act.
If you have any questions about your request, please contact us via email:
[1][email address]
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education and Training
E: [2][Department of Education request email]
Opportunity through learning
[3]www.education.gov.au
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson
Please find attached correspondence regarding your freedom of information
request.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education and Training
E: [1][Department of Education request email]
Opportunity through learning
[2]www.education.gov.au
Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Local
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Department of Education request email]
2. http://www.education.gov.au/
To: The FOI Contact Officer
Department of Education
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
I refer to your email of October 30th, 2018. Your search for documents is appreciated.
We note you invite us to respond to your charge assessment. From the terms of our letter of request, document(s) will be in only one of four groups in our request. If they are in groups (ii) request to approve grants, (iii) approval to send invites, or (iv) project information, likely we will pay the assessed fee. If documents are in category i - Minister approved actual grants - we may desire to contend that the fee should be waived or reduced.
We would be very grateful for your advise re the category of the located 28 pages so we can make a decision in re the fee.
Thank you,
P. Gale (Mrs.)
November 6th, 2018.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson,
We refer to your email of 6 November 2018.
We are advised that the identified documents fall into two categories. 11 pages fall into category (i) and 17 pages fall into category (ii).
Regards
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education and Training
Opportunity through learning
www.education.gov.au
To: The FOI Contact Officer
Department of Tertiary Education
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
FOI Request
.......................
We think that the charge is excessive and also that it should not be imposed.
You have said there are documents in our category i () and also our category ii (). We tried to explain in our request, but maybe not clearly, that we're only looking for category ii documents if there's no category i documents. This means there really only are 11 relevant pages (category i documents). That is a reason for believing that the calculated charge is excessive.
Also, we do not think any consultation time need be involved. To be clear, we are looking for information about who got grants, how much money, and what they got the grants for. We're not looking or details of every university that applied for a grant. That seems also like a reason for thinking the charge is excessive.
But your own website makes it obvious you think it is in the public interest to be transparent and open about who got grants, how much they got, and what for. You published that information in previous years. All we're looking for is the same information for 2018. Our colleagues who invest a lot in trying to improve student equity, and who didn't even hear about the grants, definitely think they deserve some openess from Tertiary Education. We think you should not impose a charge at all. We think you should release the information as you've done previously.
Thank you for the opportunity to put our case.
P. Gale (Mrs)
V. Wilson
November 27th, 2018.
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson
Please find attached correspondence regarding your Freedom of Information
request.
Kind regards,
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education and Training
Opportunity through learning
[1]www.education.gov.au
Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.education.gov.au/
To: The FOI Contact Officer
Department of Tertiary Education
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
FOI Request
.......................
On October 11th 2018 we wrote to you to ask you to release some information about grants under the Higher Education Participation Program. You told us we'd have to pay various charges for you to process the FOI request. Now were writing (i) to ask you to release the information we asked for under adminstrative arrangements instead of under FOI (we'll explain why in a moment), or, (ii) if you aren't willing to release the information under administrative arrangements then to request an internal review of the charging decision you told us about in your email of December 21st.
Why release the information under administrative arrangements
-------------------------------------------------------------
You've told us if you are to release the information we asked for under FOI, you'll need to do some consultation and various other things. We understand that the consultation is required by the FOI Act and the other review aspects are probably also required. But you've clearly released the same information in the past (it's published on your website) and we know that you didn't consult with all the impacted people. We know that because some of our impacted colleagues (people who have gotten grants in the past) did not get consulted before you published the information. So, to remove the obstacle of consultation and other costly adminstrative things, we ask that you just do the right thing this time and release the information administratively.
Internal review
---------------
If, as an initial decision maker, you don't want to release the information administratively, then please pass this email to the person who does internal reviews. We would like a new person to consider the reasons we've put previously for not imposing charges.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/i...
We believe that this email is still within the allowed period to make the internal review request, the actual due date having been on the weekend.
Thank you,
P. Gale (Mrs)
V. Wilson
You have contacted the Freedom of Information Team at the Commonwealth
Department of Education. If your email relates to an FOI application made
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth), the department will
respond as soon as possible.
This email address is only for applications for documents under the FOI
Act. The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related enquiries
sent to this email address, and accordingly, emails sent to this email
address which are not FOI related will not be responded to or forwarded.
If you have a non-FOI related enquiry for the department, you can contact
the department by using the [1]online enquiry form.
Regards,
Freedom of Information Team
Commonwealth Department of Education and Training
Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.education.gov.au/node/2600
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson,
Thank you for your email dated 21 January 2019.
On 11 October 2018, you requested the follow documents from the Department
of Education and Training (‘the department’) under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (‘FOI Act’):
(i) Anything to show the Minister's approval, and/or rejection, of any
specific grants for projects following the 2018 investment plan.
(ii) Failing i above, anything to show the Minister was asked to approve
any grants following the 2018 investment plan, and to list the grants
(iii) Failing ii above, anything to show the Minister approved the
department to send invites for grants following the 2018 investment plan.
(iv) Failing iii above, anything to show the projects (general or
specified) the department wants the Minister to invite applications for.
I note that in processing this FOI request for you, I decided (as an
authorised decision maker under the FOI Act) that you are liable to pay a
revised charge of $41.75 to process this request.
You have now requested that the department release this information, with
respect to the 2018 Investment Plan, administratively. Alternatively, if
the department does not release the information under an administrative
arrangement, you indicated that you wish to seek internal review of my
decision to impose a charge under the FOI framework.
In support of your view that the material should be released to you
administratively, you stated that the department had released “the same
information in the past” and we have presumed that you are referring to
the announcement of past projects funded under previous years’ Investment
Plans.
However, I have consulted with my colleagues in the Governance Quality and
Access Branch and for the reasons outlined below, I have been advised that
this information is not yet available.
With respect to the 2018 Investment Plan, I have been advised that the
department is seeking expressions of interest (EOIs) from Table A
Universities for projects commissioned under the 2018 National Priorities
Pool component of the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships
Program (HEPPP).
I have been advised that the timeframe for receiving EOIs ends on 21
February 2019, and that the department will then conduct an evaluation
process to assess the EOI submissions. The department expects to announce
successful applicants by June 2019. However, I have been advised that this
timing may be impacted by the upcoming federal election.
I also have been advised that once Conditions of Grant have been executed
with successful applicants, details of the projects, grant amounts and
recipients will be published on the department’s website as they have been
in previous years.
Further, I have been advised that in November 2018, the department
provided the following information to Table A Universities regarding
projects under the 2018 Investment Plan:
“The Department of Education and Training is pleased to announce a number
of upcoming expressions of interest (EOI) for projects commissioned under
the 2018 National Priorities Pool component of the Higher Education
participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP).
These projects accord with the [1]2018 Investment Plan.
All eligible Table A providers will be sent an invitation in early
December to submit a National Priorities Pool EOI (closing in February)
for the following commissioned projects:
* Effects of cumulative factors of disadvantage.
* Low SES student deferrals.
* Success from the perspective of the successful: low SES students,
success and completion in higher.
* Admission and success for low SES university students.
* International Literature Review: Equity in Higher Education
Further information on the HEPPP Evaluation Framework, and the Widening
Participation Longitudinal Study will be provided at a later date.
We are pleased to announce that the National Centre for Student Equity in
Higher Education (NCSEHE) will continue to be hosted at Curtin University,
with the Australian Government providing funding for the ongoing work of
the Centre between 2019 and 2021. The Centre will also continue to provide
the Secretariat for the department’s Equity Research and Innovation Panel.
In addition, the following competitive grant rounds will be conducted
through the NCSEHE:
* Equity Fellows Program (including a priority focus on emerging
regional and remote issues).
* Higher education careers and pathways advice for low socioeconomic
status (SES) students, low SES Indigenous students and low SES
regional students.
* Key influencers of low SES students low SES regional and remote, and
low SES Indigenous students towards higher education study options and
career choices.
Timing for these grants will be announced by the NCSEHE shortly.”
Given the above, at this point in time, the department is not in a
position to announce or provide administrative access to information on
any specific grants for projects under the 2018 Investment Plan as the
timeframe for receiving EOIs has not yet closed.
In light of this further information now provided to you, which I also
note the department has sent to its relevant stakeholders in the higher
education sector in the time since you lodged your FOI request, you may
wish to consider withdrawing your FOI request. As stated previously, when
this further information regarding the 2018 Investment Plan is available,
the department intends to publish the details of the projects, grant
amounts and recipients on the department’s website.
Please let the department know by COB Friday 8 February 2019 if you wish
to withdraw your FOI request. Otherwise the authorised decision maker will
proceed to make an internal review decision on my decision to impose a
charge for processing your FOI request.
Kind regards,
Eleanor
A/g Senior Government Lawyer
Schools, Childcare and Corporate Legal Branch
Department of Education and Training
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson,
Please find attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request.
Kind regards,
Freedom of Information Team
Schools, Childcare and Corporate Legal Branch
Department of Education and Training
Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.