The Strategic Education Grants program is a competitive scheme to fund educational innovation and targeted curriculum development to deliver enhanced student learning outcomes across the University. The program offers funding of up to $12000 and up to $35000 depending on the project size and scope. Since its introduction in 2014, the program has funded a wide variety of highly successful initiatives in 2015 and 2014 across the institution in undergraduate, postgraduate and open online courses.
Funding for 2016 was divided between round 2 of 2015 and the mid-2016 scheme. In the latter, the scheme was widened from that available in 2015 to fund the development of the innovative learning designs in the Strategic Plan 2016-20, such as the Open Learning Environment for undergraduate and higher degree by research students. Grants totalling $850,000 were awarded to 33 different projects across the University in 2016 with over 100 applications received. This funding is in addition to around $750,000 awarded in the 2015 round 2 for projects developed in 2016.
The current round covers the whole of 2017. To reflect this and to support the strategic priority of delivering a distinctive Sydney education through the transformation of the undergraduate curriculum and of the learning experience, it is hoped that the present scheme will fund a significantly larger number of projects.
In addition to the move to a single funding round, the other major changes in this round are the introduction of a new category of funding for project-based units and the opening up of funding to non-faculty groups. Funding is available for 4 types of initiatives:
- Educational Innovation (up to $35,000)
- Open Learning Environment units (up to $35,000)
- Sydney Research Seminars (Up to $12,000)
- Project-based units (up to $35,000)
- Consult the Information pack for applicants, the set of frequently asked questions and other resources on the grant website.
- Talk early and often to the members of the Educational Innovation team dedicated to supporting your faculty or unit.
- Attend the workshop for applicants on 20 October 2016.
- Contact your Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) or equivalent for advice on any local processes or procedures in your faculty.
