2023 student services and amenities fee allocation process

2023 SSAF Allocation Process

Swinburne University of Technology collects student amenities fees from domestic higher education students. In 2023, the total revenue from these fees is expected to be in the order of A$5,975,000.

Under the “Higher Education Support (Student Services, Amenities, Representation and Advocacy) Guidelines 2022”, Universities are required to have a formal process of consultation with democratically elected student representatives and representatives from major student organisations regarding the specific uses of the fee.

This consultation must include: 

• Publishing identified priorities for proposed fee expenditure and allowing opportunities to comment on those priorities by students as well as student associations and organisations; and
• Meeting with democratically elected student representatives and representatives from major student organisations at the university to consider priorities for use of the fee. 
   

It is proposed that the following steps are taken to allow opportunities for student groups to comment on the priorities for 2023:

• Feedback was sought from Swinburne Student Life, Swinburne Student Union and the Swinburne Representative Council through consultative meetings with Swinburne Executive on the proposed priorities by Friday 28 October 2022.

• Proposed priorities are published on this web page for feedback by the broader student population. Students were invited to contact the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education, Experience & Employability) via eee@swin.edu.au; the Student Representative Council via swinsrc@swin.edu.au; or the Swinburne Student Union via president@ssu.org.au with their feedback by Friday 28 October 2022.
• All feedback was considered by the Vice-Chancellor and a decision made on the SSAF allocation for 2023 in November 2022.
  
  

Priorities for expenditure for 2023

The table below outlines how SSAF is proposed to be allocated in 2023, addressing some of the issues and ideas raised by students in the recent Student Experience workshops and Student Citizen's Assembly, and from student representative bodies:

• Student health and wellbeing remains a key area of need for Swinburne
• Campus activation and events throughout the year to create a sense of belonging
• Move to a single Student Voice model with one student representative body
• Continue expanding the delivery of all student services to be available to our online student community, and offer all students hybrid service options
• Careers and Employment services remains a key priority
• A student platform/better websites to let students know what activities and opportunities are available to them
• Additional informal hang-out spaces
• A university-wide approach to facilitate student and staff partnerships to inform, develop and deliver student programs and services
• Students also outlined the need for additional recreation spaces and for space to be improved to provide increased disability support
• The positive and constructive work of Swinburne Student Life is recognised and it is proposed that the funding levels for this group to remain similar to 2022
• The positive and constructive work of the Swinburne Student Union is recognised and it is proposed that the funding levels for this group to remain similar in 2023
• The positive and constructive work of the Swinburne Representative Council is also acknowledged.
  
  

Proposed allocation for 2023

The proposed allocation for 2023 is as follows: 

¹The split of SSAF funding for Swinburne on-campus and online student support remains at 55 per cent for on-campus services and 45 per cent for online services. Following the move to online service provision due to COVID-19, almost all Swinburne student support services are offered both on campus and online. 

Note: This proposed allocation table may change in early 2023 upon finalising the 2022 end of year SSAF reporting to align with the new SSAF reporting requirement under section 19(5) of the Higher Education Support (Student Services, Amenities, Representation and Advocacy) Guidelines 2022.