EXPLANATORY NOTES AND DEFINITIONS
INTRODUCTION
UNISTATS
contains student, staff and financial statistics for UWA. The tables are
compiled using definitions developed to reflect the specific nature of
this University's activities. Most conform to the definitions used in the
Department of Education
data collections. Any differences between these statistics and the Department’s are explained in section 1.1 below:
1. STUDENT STATISTICS
An
enrolment is counted for each student enrolled in a course in a given year on
at least one census date during that year.
Student
activity is measured by
·
Numbers of enrolments
·
Student load measured in Equivalent Full-Time
Student Load (EFTSL)
1.1 Differences
from Government Statistics
Student
enrolment statistics in this publication continue to use the pre-2005 government
semester one (31 March) definition. This is a snapshot of student enrolments (for
the year) at the 31 March census date. This approach maintains enrolment
statistics that are comparable with previous years.
Student
load statistics in this publication on the other hand conform to the current government
scope or definition, which uses calendar year. This means the student load figures
presented are for the full year; i.e for all semesters that occurred up to the
end of the year when the figures were compiled.
It should
be noted that previous editions of Unistats (prior to 2008) used loads recorded
at 31 March rather than full-year loads.
The scope
and definitions used for the data in this publication also vary from those used
in the government Higher
(a) Student Enrolments:
The
following student enrolments are included in this publication but are excluded
from government enrolment statistics:
· Students enrolled
in units at this institution for credit towards award courses of other
institutions; i.e. cross-institution enrolments.
· Incoming
exchange students.
· Enrolments
of students who have no student load credited to this University for the
semester concerned e.g. students undertaking units at another institution (on a
cross-institution basis) and students enrolled for second semester only or only
in non-standard semesters.
(b) Student Load:
Unistats
includes the student load for incoming exchange students, whereas these are
excluded from government statistics.
1.2 Definitions
The
definitions used in the preparation of student statistics are shown below:
Attendance
Type
A student
is classified as having an attendance-type of full-time or other than
full-time. A student is classified as full-time if he/she undertakes at
least seventy-five percent of the year's workload normally prescribed for a
full-time student, or where that is not prescribed, at least seventy-five percent
of the workload normally undertaken by a full-time student.
The census
date for figures in this publication is 31 March (30 April prior to 1989)
unless otherwise stated.
Combined
Degree Course
A
course that has been designed to meet the requirements of more than one award;
e.g. the BA/LLB course. Enrolments of students in combined degree
courses are counted only once based on the vocational emphasis of the course. For consistency, they are included under the
Faculty in the following order: Law; Engineering, Computing & Mathematics;
Natural & Agricultural Sciences; Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences;
Commencing
Student
A student commencing
a course for the first time in the current year is considered to be commencing.. Thus commencing students are those who have commenced
their courses between 1 January and 31 December of the current year.
However
students who start a specialised programme of study after completing a common
initial year of a general programme are not considered to be commencing.
Commonwealth-Supported
Student
A student
enrolled in a Commonwealth-Supported place in a course. These students are domestic students (i.e Australian
or NZ citizens or permanent visa holders).
The Commonwealth government subsidies these enrolments in the form of
annual grants and prescribes the maximum contributions that these students are
required to pay towards their tuition.
Course
A course
is a programme of study usually leading to a degree or diploma. However, a
preparatory programme or a programme leading to an award of another institution
is also defined as a course. On the other hand, courses in this publication
exclude University Extension and Continuing Education classes.
Courses
can be classified according to the following course types:
·
Higher Degree by Research courses,
including doctorate by research and master's by research degrees;
·
Postgraduate Coursework courses, including
doctorate by coursework, master's by coursework, graduate diplomas, graduate
certificates, postgraduate cross-institution and higher degree preliminary courses;
and
·
Undergraduate courses comprising
- Bachelor's
degree
courses, including all bachelor graduate-entry, honours and pass degrees; and
- Miscellaneous
courses,
including diplomas, enabling courses, non-award courses and cross-institution
enrolments
Course
Completion
Successful
completion of all the academic requirements of a degree or award course,
including any required attendance, assignments, examinations, assessments,
dissertations, practical experience and work experience in industry.
Course
Completions tables are derived from the course completions file submitted to the Department of Education
each year. Prior to 2005, the scope of the past course completions was 1 January
to 31 December for Higher Degree Research courses and 1 April to 31 March for
coursework courses. With the introduction of a new computer system it has been
necessary to align these two scopes, and use a common 1 April and 31 March
scope for reporting all completions. As an interim step, the scope for higher
degree research students for 2005 covered 15 months from 1 Jan 2005 to 31 March
2006. But all coursework students continue to be covered under a 1 April to 31
March scope.
There
are three significant differences between course completions statistics and
awards conferred statistics:
· A course
completion is recorded for the completion of a higher degree preliminary
course, whereas an award is not conferred.
· A student
completing a pass degree in a given
year and an honours degree in the following year is counted as having
two course completions; one completion for the pass degree and another for the
honours degree in the successive year. However, only one award (i.e. the
honours degree) will normally be conferred
· Completion
of a combined course is counted as one completion even though two
degrees are conferred.
Course
Type
See course.
Cross-Institution
Enrolment
Cross-institution
enrolments relate to enrolments of students undertaking units of study at this
University as part of their award courses at other institutions.
Degrees
and Awards Conferred
The
statistics on degrees and awards conferred refer to students who had degrees or
awards conferred in the year ending 31 December. Most Bachelor's degrees or
Master's degrees by coursework are conferred in the year following the
completion of the course, whereas many Doctorates or Master's degrees by
research are conferred in the same year as the courses are completed. The
conferring of the award for a course is not synonymous with and should not be
substituted for course completion as some students may complete all the
academic requirements of the course but choose to apply for their awards in a
later year. It should also be noted that students completing combined courses
are conferred with two awards. Also see Course Completion.
Government
Time-Limit Student
A student
who has exceeded the maximum time for enrolment in a place funded under the government's
Research Training Scheme is referred to as a time-limit student. For
students who commenced their course from 2001 onwards, the maximum time limits
for full-time attendance (or the part-time equivalence) are 4.0 EFTSL for a
Doctorate and 2.0 EFTSL for a Master's degree by research..
Time-limits
only apply to domestic students because only domestic students can access an
RTS place. HDR students enrolled on a fee-paying basis are not subject to
external time-limits.
Domestic
Fee-Paying Student
A
domestic student who meets the citizenship requirements (i.e. Australian or NZ
citizen or permanent visa holder) and is paying fees for a course rather than
accessing a Commonwealth-Supported place. See Commonwealth-Supported Students.
Dual
Enrolment
A student
who is enrolled in more than one course at the census date is considered to
have a dual enrolment.
Enrolment
An
enrolment exists when a person
· Has been
admitted to a course,
· Is still
entitled to continue with their studies at the census date, and
· Has not
indicated before the census date an intention to withdraw from their studies.
In
the summary statistics, enrolment aggregates are given as either gross
enrolments or net enrolments. The gross enrolment figures represent the
total numbers of course enrolments, whereas the net enrolment figures
represent the number of students enrolled in courses; i.e. the net enrolments
are derived from the gross enrolments by subtracting the number of dual
enrolments of students enrolled in multiple courses. Also see Student.
Faculties
Academic
organisational units (i.e. Schools and Centres) are grouped into the Faculty structure
that was adopted in 2002 unless otherwise stated.
Combined
degree course enrolments are only shown once under the Faculty (e.g. Table 3.4)
based on the vocational emphasis of the course.
For consistency, they are included under the Faculty in the following
order: Law; Engineering, Computing & Mathematics; Natural &
Agricultural Sciences; Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences;
FFM-Weighted
Load
The Faculty Funding
Model (FFM) weighted load is derived by multiplying the student load (EFTSL)
for each course type and field of education by the respective course type and
field of education weights used in the University's budget model. The FFM-weighted load only relates to
coursework component of the University budget model so the FFM-weighted load
for HDR load is shown as zero. Separate
Research Weighted Loads are calculated for the Research and Research Training
component of the University budget model.
See RWL-Research Weighted Load.
Funding
Source
Enrolments and load
have been grouped by their source of funds:
· Commonwealth-Supported
& RTS students: This group comprises Commonwealth-Supported
students and students funded under the Research Training Scheme.
· Domestic
Fee-Paying students: This group comprises all domestic students
in fee-paying courses.
· Onshore
International Fee-Paying students: International students enrolled on a
fee-paying basis including private and foreign-aid programme enrolments who are
studying at a UWA campus in
· Offshore
International Fee-Paying students: International students enrolled on a
fee-paying basis including private and foreign-aid programme enrolments who are
studying a UWA course overseas at an offshore campus.
· Time-Limit
and Non-Award: Students who are beyond the government time-limits for
research degrees (see government time-limit students) and Australian
students enrolled in non-award courses.
International
Fee-Paying Student
An
international student in respect of whom a fee is paid to the institution for
providing tuition and related services and facilities. This fee
can be paid privately by the student, or by a government or non-government
organisation.
International
Student
A student
who is not one of the following:
· An
Australian citizen; or
· A citizen
of
· The holder
of a permanent entry permit.
Non-Award
Course
A
programme of study that does not lead to an award and which comprises a unit or
units of study from an award course or courses at the institution.
Research
Training Scheme (RTS)
In 2001
the Commonwealth Government transferred the funding for local higher degree by
research enrolments from the operating grant to the Research Training Scheme
(RTS). Students who are allocated an RTS
place enrol on an HECS-exempt and fee-exempt basis for the duration of an
accredited HDR course, up to the specified government time-limit. Also see Government time-limit students.
RWL-Research
Weighted Load
The
Research Weighted Load has been derived by multiplying the higher degree
research student load (EFTSL) for each field of education by the weight used in
the Research and Research Training component of the University budget model.
Student
A
person whose enrolment is current at the census date. An enrolment is current only if the student
is entitled, under the University's various regulations, to receive tuition in
the course, courses or units of study at that time. Postgraduate students who
have submitted theses for examination are not "enrolled" in this
sense unless they are also validly enrolled in another course.
Student
Load
A
measure expressing student enrolments as a proportion of the standard
Unit
of Study
The
basic unit of a course that a student may undertake to gain credit towards the
completion of the course. The unit enrolments presented in this
publication represents the actual enrolments recorded for each unit as at the
31 March census date.
2. STAFF STATISTICS
The staff tables are produced
from data collected for the government Higher
The tables
in this publication relate to staff who had a
full-time or fractional full-time work contract (appointment) at 31 March,
including those who were wholly or partly funded from outside sources. The
tables include persons absent on paid leave, certain visiting or exchange
staff, conjoint appointments and seconded staff. Particular groups excluded
from the tables are persons on unpaid leave, and private contractors and their
staff such as cleaners and caterers.
The student/staff
ratio tables are
derived by dividing student load by the full-time equivalence (FTE) of
(full-time and fractional full-time) staff with a function of teaching-and-research
staff or teaching only plus the FTE of casual teaching staff (for the previous
calendar year).
3. FINANCE STATISTICS
The
income and expenditure tables in this publication have been derived from data
supplied to the Department of Education under the streamlined financial reporting arrangements.