Understanding Australian Government Reporting
This section discusses the government departments that require higher education reporting.
In order to generate required government reports, in addition to the setup covered in the topics specific to Australian government reporting, you must set up these tables:
Field of Study AUS
Field of Education AUS
Discipline Group Table AUS
AOU Code Table AUS
Program Code Table AUS
Program Type Table AUS
Level/Load Rules Table
See Setting Up Reporting Codes.
The Australia Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE) requires all institutions in Australia that receive funding from the Commonwealth government to provide statistical reports about programs offered, student enrollments and academic load, student liabilities under the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), Commonwealth scholarships, enrollment and program completions, and application data.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) also requires institutions to provide information about students and their HELP debts that are to be recovered through the taxation system. In a simple process for institutions, all returns are forwarded to DIISRTE, which forwards the necessary information to the ATO.
Centrelink, an Australian Government Statutory Agency, requires institutions to provide continuous reporting about a student's study circumstances for all students in receipt of a Centrelink Payment.
Note: The use of the "DIISRTE" acronym throughout the topics related to Australian government reporting largely replaces the "DEST" and "DEEWR" acronyms. However, there are still some page names, field labels, and system object names that use "DEST" and "DEEWR". When you see instances of "DEST" and "DEEWR" in the system, you can assume these refer to functionality related to the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE). "DEST" and "DEEWR" are acronyms of predecessor agencies of DIISRTE.