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Proposal Updates

FAQ's

1. Definitions for the purposes of the RFP:

  • a clinical placement day is defined as 8 hours for medicine and 7 hours for all other disciplines.
  • the unit for counting students is 'head count' not 'EFTSL'

2. A separate excel template must be submitted for each university and for each discipline. This is to avoid duplication in head count for growth in students.

3. Configuring Proposals and Completing the required documentation

Responses to the RFP require partnerships between higher education providers who are proposing an increase in student numbers and the clinical training providers who are providing the supporting clinical placements for that student growth.

HWA is not mandating either how those partnerships are formed or which of the partners should be nominated as the lead agency. All proposals, however, must ensure that each party to the proposal signs and authorises their organisation’s participation, (however organisationally structured)for the purposes of entering into a Service Level agreement with HWA.

As outlined in Section 1.7 of the RFP, an excel response template must be completed for each higher education course in which an increase in students is proposed. The total clinical placement requirements for the proposed additional students must also be detailed in that schedule.

This requirement is to provide a complete picture of the proposed growth for that course and avoid difficulties such as double-counting of students. If this is not done, the existence of duplicate proposals for the same individual course across multiple bids could put at risk the compliance of each proposal and the ability of HWA to assess the application.

Where proposals are linked and students from different courses may benefit from shared use of things such as facilities, student accommodation, etc, the Response Schedule at Section 3 of the RFP should detail this, including the nature of the shared resources. An excel response template for each higher education course is required to be completed and attached to the proposal outlining the number of students and the total clinical placements requirements to support that student growth.

Where shared infrastructure and establishment costs are proposed, this can be included on only one of the excel response templates, providing the covering Response Schedule outlines how these costs relate to the support for all the students contained in the attached individual excel response templates.

4. Calculating the student baseline

Proposal Eligibility

All proposals for eligible courses that demonstrate net student growth and commensurate growth in clinical training placements will be considered.

The establishment of a 2009 baseline for the purposes of counting growth in student numbers is consistent with the NPA and decisions of Health Ministers.

HWA notes however, that this may unfairly disadvantage some higher education and partner clinical training providers due to such issues as the timing of the implementation of growth places arising from previous COAG decisions, course reconfigurations, the extent of outer year placement requirements of courses of greater length of other matters that may have impacted on enrolment numbers or placement activity in the designated baseline years.

If organisations wishing to submit a proposal consider this the case, they are encouraged to submit a proposal detailing the impacting the circumstances so that HWA can assess them on the criteria of student numbers and placement activity, as well as the other selection criteria.

Discontinuing Students

The reference to discontinuing students is to ensure that students who commenced but did not continue in a particular academic year are not included in the student count. The number of students for a particular year is the number of students in study as reported to DEEWR as at the following March 31 census date.

5. Format of Proposal Documents

Respondents should submit the excel template(s) in excel format.

The Response Schedule section of the proposal should be submitted in both 'word' and 'pdf' format.

6. Are you required to complete one schedule per course code?

This question has been asked in various forms for a variety of reasons, such as submitting 2 options for the same course.

Given the variety of ways it was asked and the reasons, it is possible that the responses provided can be interpreted in different ways and may have created some confusion.

In assessing the proposals, HWA needs to understand student numbers and proposed growth for each discipline. The schedule is structured to provide that information. As per instructions provided on page 35 of the RFP:

"Higher education providers may choose to submit a proposal for all campuses, or may choose to complete an excel template for each campus."

In either option, this allows multiple courses for that profession to be recorded on the one template.

7. I am unable to access the field for Description of Capital Project on the Capital Infrastructure Budget worksheet

If you cannot access this field, please include the details in a Word document, reference the field on the worksheet the information relates to and ensure you attach it to the proposal you are submitting.

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