Education Internet Guide

Australia: Official Sources For Education Information

Many official Australian education sources not yet available on the Internet are described in:
Christabel Wescombe & Geoffrey Sherington, Education in New South Wales: A Guide to State & Commonwealth Sources 1788-1992. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1993. (192pp.).

Guides to Government Information

Government Internet Guide

An extensive and annotated guide containing links to government sites in Australia and overseas which contain texts (e.g. parliamentary publications, policy documents) and/or which have links to other government bodies (e.g. United Nations, Australian government departments). (R. Penn, University of Sydney Library).

Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia

Includes detail and wide ranging information about and on parliamentary matters, information arranged: Information available from departments of the Australian Parliament; and Index to Australian Parliamentary information available from the Australian Parliament and other sites. (Consult for parliamentary information on education administered by the Commonwealth of Australia).

National Library of Australia Home Page

Includes an extensive guide and links to Australian government information on the Internet. (Also includes information about and from the governments of countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Pacific and the United States).

New South Wales Parliament

Includes access to a wide range of information about the structure, role and functions of the Parliament of New South Wales and its Members. Arranged: Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, and General Information (includes Hansard). (Consult for parliamentary information on education in New South Wales).

Law Internet Guide

Contains links to key legal sites (Australian and overseas) which provide full text legal and related information and/or which index legal resources. (J. Goasdoue, University of Sydney Library).

Commonwealth and State Departments

The Commonwealth and various state Education portfolios issue an extensive range of publications which include descriptive and statistical information on schools, higher education, and TAFE (technical and further education).

Directories

Australia. Commonwealth Government Entry Point

Australian Education Departments on the WWW (oz-TeacherNet)

Departments

• Australia. Department of Education, Science and Training
  The main Commonwealth Department for employment, education and training matters. Works in partnership with other portfolio and Commonwealth agencies, State Government agencies, employer and union bodies, educational institutions and local government and community organisations.

• Australia. Australian Research Council
• Australian National Training Authority
• New South Wales. Board of Adult and Community Education
• New South Wales. Board of Studies.
  The Board of Studies serves the educational community of New South Wales, Australia, including over 100,000 teachers and over one million students. The Board was established in 1990 to "serve government and non-government schools in the development of school education for Years K-12. It provides educational leadership by developing quality curriculum and awarding secondary school credentials, the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate.
• New South Wales. Department of Education and Training: Network for Education: School Education
  Provides 13 years of primary and secondary schooling for more than 750,000 students who are taught by nearly 50,000 teachers in 2,200 schools. In addition, there are nearly 16,000 administrative staff in schools and in DSE offices throughout the State. The Department of Education and Training is a "government education system that is not only the largest and most progressive in Australia but one that has 150 years of experience behind it. It is a system which fosters partnerships with parents, communities, business and industry, and other education bodies."
• New South Wales. Department of Education and Training
  The general site for the Department which includes links to many sites in the portfolio. Involved in a wide-range of education and training issues at both national and state levels.
• New South Wales. TAFE:NSW
• Northern Territory. Department of Education
• Queensland. Department of Education: Education Queensland
• South Australia. Department for Education and Children's Services
• Tasmania. Department of Education Community and Cultural Development
• Victoria. Department of Education, Employment and Training see also: Sofweb (an initiative of the Department of Education, Employment and Training).
• Western Australia. Department of Education.

Budget

The budget is the principal source for information on financial resources allocated to and within the education system. State and Commonwealth budget papers taken together provide information on the amount of money allocated to educational institutions, staff, courses and amenities. Areas covered include: allocations to universities; and amounts appropriated to programmes, buildings, administration and salaries, for both the TAFE (technical and further education) and schools sectors.

• Australia. Department of the Treasury. 2001/2002 Budget
• Budget 2001-DETYA; Budget 1998-DETYA; Budget 1997-DETYA; Budget 1996-DETYA.
• Australia. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Higher Education Report for the 2001 to 2003 Triennium;
• Australia. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Higher Education. Universities: Payments to Institutions
  • Under the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 Commonwealth funds are allocated to higher education institutions for operating, capital development and research purposes. Site provides details.
• Australian Taxation Office
  • The Australian Taxation Office offers a variety of taxation information on the Internet including information on the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS).
• New South Wales. Treasury-Budget Papers: 1999-2000; 1998-1999: (Summary Education); 1997-1998; 1996-1997; 1995-1996

Note: Sources for the internal budgets of Australian tertiary institutions are their Annual Reports and Financial Statements. Many institutions make the information in these publications available on the Internet. See under the names of individual institutions accessible through Universities, Colleges, TAFE, Courses, Personnel/Researchers, Schools.

Legislation

Acts of Parliament, together with government reports (accessible through the Parliamentary papers site noted below) provide official information on the aims, structure, functions and policies of the education system and its institutions.

Australasian Law on Australasian Legal Information Institute

Parliamentary Debates

Parliamentary debates (Hansard) provide a verbatim account of what is actually spoken in Parliament, and therefore provide a permanent record of both the government's and opposition's opinions, policies and programmes, in Education and all other policy areas.

Australia. Parliament.

Includes Hansard from 1991 to the present. (Also includes: selected committee transcripts; Senate journals; votes and proceedings; notice papers; bills; political party documents; standing orders; press releases; biographies; journal indexes; library publications, etc.).

New South Wales. Parliament. Legislative Assembly. Hansard 2000 +, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996--

New South Wales. Parliament. Legislative Council. Hansard 2000 +, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996--

Statistics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' publications are rich sources for descriptive and statistical information on the education system and its institutions, at national, State and Territory levels. ABS publications cover statistics on human, financial and institutional resources, including: the number and characteristics of students, the types of courses they undertake and the institutions they attend; the level of education attained; the number of tertiary graduates; the distribution of workforce skills; the amount of research generated by an institution, and so on.

Australian Bureau of Statistics. ABS WWW Site.

The Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs' Higher Education Division "with the cooperation of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, has responsibility for the collection and dissemination of statistics relating to the provision of higher education in all Australian universities to which funding is provided by the Australian Government." The Division manages a comprehensive set of statistics collections referred to as the Higher Education Statistics Collection.
Data included in the Higher Education Statistics Collection relate to: courses conducted by higher education institutions; numbers and characteristics of students undertaking courses; student load; completion of units of study and courses; students' liabilities under the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS); numbers and characteristics of staff in higher education institutions; income and expenditure for higher education institutions; research activity; and the educational profiles of higher education institutions.

Australia. Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Statistics Relating to Higher Education (Includes the Higher Education Statistics Collections).

The New South Wales Department of Education and Training is the major source for statistical information on school enrolments (k-12) in New South Wales.

New South Wales. Department of Education and Training. Statistics and Information.

University of Sydney. Statistics Unit.
Site includes statistical information about the university's students, staff, and funding. Only source for Statistics Supplement which includes information on students and staff at a departmental level.
Note:University Statistics, (Statistics Unit, Planning Support Office), University of Sydney, (annual).

Note: Sources for the internal statistics of Australian tertiary institutions are their individual Annual Reports and (often) separately published statistical volumes. Many institutions make the information in these publications available on the Internet. See under the names of individual institutions accessible through Universities, Colleges, TAFE, Courses, Personnel/Researchers, Schools.

See also Selected Areas of Study (L - Z): Statistics for further sources of education statistics.

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