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Resource Planning

This team leads the development and execution of ECU’s budgets and income allocation as well as the ECU fee setting processes and ECU Costing Model.

Services

  • Lead the development of the Student Load Plan which underpins the budget and other key planning functions across ECU and provide student load performance reporting.
  • Provide support on the specific Tableau student load reports (budget student load plans, International Scholarships, Student Load Dashboard and Year End Forecast).
  • Lead the development and execution of ECU's budgets and income allocation.
  • Provide training and user support for the ECU Planning budget system, the ECU Student Load Planning system and other TM1 models.
  • Run the Income Allocation Model, including monthly income allocation journals.
  • Reporting on University Central Funds, including processing of journals.
  • Lead the development of the ECU Costing Model including regulatory reporting requirements.
  • Lead the ECU fee setting processes.
  • Administer the University Services Charge policy.

University Service Charge (USC)

Staff involved in the tendering and pricing of goods and services (including research) provided by ECU, or who are in receipt of certain grant funding, must refer to the University Services Charge Policy.

Where ECU receives external funding for activities, the charge is intended to contribute to funding the activity’s indirect costs and to support compliance with Competitive Neutrality principles.

USC Frequently Asked Questions

The charge is 15% of gross revenue, or as determined from time to time by the Vice-Chancellor. The charge is debited to the project receiving the revenue and is distributed as follows:

  • 10% to central ECU funds to contribute to funding central and indirect ECU costs; and
  • 5% to schools under which the project is located – to contribute to school indirect costs.

ECU is a registered Research Provider under the Industry Research and Development Act 1986. To comply with registration requirements, we commit to basing our pricing on 'ordinary commercial terms' requiring full cost recovery and no government subsidisation.

In the case of Australian Competitive Grant Funding, the Commonwealth funds indirect research costs through the Research Infrastructure Block Grant Schemes. In these cases, University Service Charges are not permitted.

Exemptions are granted in exceptional circumstances only. An exemption application needs the support of the Dean/Director. In addition, research projects require the endorsement of the Director of Research Services. Once an exemption is granted, the income will not attract the charge. In certain cases, your school or centre may exempt the 5% which funds the school indirect costs. For guidelines, please refer to your Finance Team.

Please download the USC Calculator in the See Also section on this page.

Yes. It is a broad-based charge to contribute to ECU and school indirect costs. Your project or initiative should be fully costed. In that way if you need to recover costs over and above the standard rate you’re able to do so. Your Finance Team or Finance Business Partner can help with the appropriate way to do this as it will vary according to different funding guidelines.

ECU Budget

For more information about ECU’s budget please refer to the Downloads section.

Related Information

ECU staff should refer to the following pages for up-to-date information regarding:

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