Destination Australia Program

What is the Destination Australia Program?

The Destination Australia Program is a grant opportunity that provides grants to Australian tertiary education providers in regional areas to provide scholarships to domestic and international students, promote those scholarships for students, and promote tertiary education in regional Australia. It helps achieve the International Education Support Outcome by facilitating study in regional Australia for international and domestic students.

Background

The Destination Australia Program (the program) was announced as part of the Planning for Australia’s Future Population on 20 March 2019. The program aligns with the National Strategy for International Education 2025.

The Destination Australia Program is funded under the department’s Outcome 2.7 – International Education Support, which supports the sustainable growth of Australia’s high quality international education, training and research.

Objectives

The objectives of the Destination Australia Program are to:

support higher education and Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers in regional Australia to provide scholarships to domestic and international students to study in regional Australia
facilitate domestic and international students completing an Australian qualification at a higher education or VET provider in regional Australia.

The intended outcomes of the grant opportunity are:

the sustainability and growth of tertiary education providers and communities in regional Australia.
scholarship students consider and decide to live and work in regional Australia post-study.
regions share in the social, cultural, and economic benefits of our international education sector.

Funding

The total funding available for the Destination Australia Program 2022 (Round 3) is approximately $25.32 million (GST exclusive) over 4 years.

The grant opportunity will provide approximately:

$6.33 million in funding available during 2021–22
$6.33 million in funding available during 2022–23
$6.33 million in funding available during 2023–24
$6.33 million in funding available during 2024–25.

This equates to approximately 380 scholarships.

The total grant funding awarded to each grantee will be calculated on the basis of:

the number of students the provider will support
the duration for which they will support them.

The value of grants awarded under this grant opportunity cannot exceed the total available funds.

Grantees will receive:

$15,000 per year, per student in scholarship funding to be paid directly to the scholarship student in accordance with section 5.3 of the guidelines
$1,500 per year, per student for the tertiary education provider to promote and administer scholarships.

Eligible Projects

Grantees must only spend the grant on eligible expenditure incurred on eligible grant activities.

Eligible expenditure items are:

scholarship funds – paid per section 5.3 to scholarship students who meet the criteria in section 5.1.1
administrative and promotional costs – $1,500 per year as described in section 5.1.2.

Grantees must incur the expenditure on their grant activities between the commencement date and completion date of their grant agreement for it to be eligible.

Eligible Applicants

You are eligible to apply for this grant opportunity if you can demonstrate that you meet all of the following criteria.

You are a registered Australian tertiary education provider.
If you intend to provide scholarships to international students – you are currently registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).
Your campus location at which scholarship students will study is entirely or in part in a regional area.

Please refer to section 4 of the guidelines for more info on program eligibility.

Timing

Applications close 15 June 2021.

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