Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

It is up to universities as to how they distribute the funds across the discipline clusters. As I said, the changes will only affect students who commence studying at higher education providers after 1 January 2008. There is a transition fund to compensate universities for students who continue under the existing arrangements. In four years time, when the transition fund is no longer applicable, all students will be operating under the same conditions. As I say, the higher salaries that graduates of accounting, administration, economics and commerce receive over their lifetime and the competitive nature of the labour market for these skills made it appropriate to align both the capital grants scheme and the student contribution level with that of law.

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