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Scholarships and Prizes Procedure

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Section 1 - Purpose and Objectives

(1) This document outlines the Procedure for financial management of scholarships to ensure that scholarships and prize income and expenditure is identified and recorded appropriately within the University’s financial management system.

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Section 2 - Definitions, Terms, Acronyms

Term Definition
CPI Consumer Price Index
HERDC Higher Education Research Data Collection
HDR Higher Degree by Research
UQ R&I UQ Research & Innovation
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Section 3 - Procedure Scope/Coverage

(2) This Procedure applies to any scholarship or prize received or given by the University.

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Section 4 - Procedure Statement

(3) For the purposes of scholarships and prizes, the office responsible for scholarship administration is determined by the nature of the award and can include the UQ Graduate School, the Academic Services Division, UQ International or the organisational unit.

(4) Scholarship projects are created by the Contract and Grants Accounting section within the Finance and Business Services Division (FBS) and are required where the income and expenditure needs to be separately identified.

(5) Certified financial statements required or requested by donors are prepared by Contract and Grants Accounting section within FBS.

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Section 5 - Project Creation and Closeout

Project Creation

(6) Contract and Grants Accounting section within FBS is responsible for the creation and closeout of all projects.

Research Scholarship

(7) Scholarship income received from external grantors for postgraduate research is included in the University HERDC return. For these postgraduate research scholarships, please forward a signed contract/agreement to your faculty’s Professional Services advisory team, which will then initiate a project setup via UniFi Project Request – Non-Fund 4 form.

Non Research Scholarship

(8) Non research scholarships that require the income and expenditure to be separately identified require the creation of a project. The organisational unit completes the UniFi Project Request – Non-Fund 4 form and forwards it to Contract and Grants Accounting section within FBS with the supporting contract/agreement documentation.

Project Maintenance

Scholarship Project Maintenance

(9) After a scholarship project is created, the organisational unit can request changes such as project descriptions, dates, budget holders and fund codes via the Project Change Request Form.

Project Closeout

(10) Project closeout applies to all projects. When the project end date is reached, the project status will be changed to "Preliminary Close" and Closeout Reports will be sent to the organisational unit to clear any outstanding commitments or to transfer assets. The project status will then be changed to "Final Close" to prevent any further transactions. See linked project lifecycle workflow.

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Section 6 - Scholarship Management

Higher Degree by Research Scholarships

Responsibility

(11) All externally-funded postgraduate research or HDR scholarships are reviewed by the UQ Graduate School. Refer to UQ and RTP Research Scholarships Policy.

Financial Management

(12) The organisational unit is responsible for the management of scholarship income and expenditure.

Senate-awarded Scholarships and Prizes

Responsibility

(13) Scholarships and bursaries for postgraduate coursework and undergraduate study, as well as prizes, are administered by the Scholarships Officer in the Academic Services Division.

(14) Official University awards are formally approved by Senate and the rules and conditions are detailed in the Senate Rules. A proposal for a new award should be forwarded to the Scholarships Officer in the Academic Services Division who will arrange for formal approval of the new award.

Financial Management

(15) There are two principal methods by which these awards are financed:

  1. by annual donation;
  2. by return on investment; the scholarship or prize is funded from the income earned on the investment.

(16) Recommendations for the award of scholarships and prizes to students should be forwarded to an officer with authority to approve the award. Once approval has been obtained, payments are normally arranged by that officer.

Other Scholarships

Responsibility

(17) Depending on the nature of the scholarship, other scholarships are managed by the organisational unit, UQ International or the Academic Services Division.

Financial Management

(18) The organisational unit is responsible for the management of scholarship income and expenditure.

Financial Reporting

Financial Statements

(19) Contract and Grants Accounting section within FBS is responsible for the preparation of all certified financial statements in accordance with the conditions specified for all externally-granted projects. Refer to the Financial Reporting and Disclosure Policy