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Student Services and Amenities Fee
- What is the SSAF?
- What are SSAF funds used for?
What are SSAF funds used for?
SSAF funds are used to support:
- student advice and advocacy services
- legal services
- publications
- student orientation and Welcome Program activities
- sports and recreational activities
- careers and employment advice
- student representative organisations, clubs and societies.
Before annual allocations are made, formal consultation and endorsement by student organisation representatives occurs via the SSAF Student Consultation Group.
2025 SSAF allocation
The estimated SSAF income for 2025 is approximately $23.7 million. The funding is separated into:
- base funding (approx. $18.6M), which is recurrent funding provided to the four student representative organisations, the Careers Centre, and the Office of Student Life.
- contestable funding (approx. $5M), available to student representative organisations, the Careers Centre, Student Life, and the University Library.
Student consultation
The SSAF Student Consultation Group provides the formal consultation mechanism with student representatives regarding the SSAF. The membership of the SSAF Student Consultation Group includes the following:
- Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), as chair
- President, Students' Representative Council (SRC)
- President, Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA)
- President, University of Sydney Union (USU)
- Nominated student representative, Sydney University Sport & Fitness (SUSF)
- Undergraduate and Postgraduate Student Senate Fellows
- Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Life)
At the July meeting of the SSAF Student Consultation Group, student organisation representatives submitted priority areas for funding. These priority areas, along with the results from the annual SSAF Student Survey held in May, provided the list of key student priorities for allocating 2025 SSAF funds. You can access the full list of priorities.
In September – October, applications for 2025 base and contestable funding were submitted. These applications were tabled at the October meeting of the SSAF Student Consultation Group. Members and attendees were invited to speak to their applications and discuss proposals for funding. The 2025 SSAF budget was also tabled this meeting for endorsement.
2024 SSAF allocation
The estimated SSAF income for 2024 is approximately $21.9 million. The funding is separated into:
- base funding (approx. $17.9M), which is recurrent funding provided to the four student representative organisations, the Careers Centre, and the Office of Student Life
- contestable funding (approx. $3.9M), available to student representative organisations, faculties, and professional service units for one-off services or amenities projects, with an additional $523K allocated to ‘runner-up’ contestable projects after the census date in Semester 1.
Student consultation
The 2024 SSAF budget was tabled at the September meeting of the UE Education Committee for endorsement. Representatives from the University’s four student representative organisations were invited to provide feedback on the proposal at the meeting, which provides a formal consultation point regarding the 2024 SSAF.
Applications for base and contestable funding were submitted in October 2023. All applications must include information about how the proposal aligns with the student priorities in the SSAF Student Survey, which is a key aspect of the University’s consultation with students about the SSAF.
Base and contestable funding applications were endorsed at the November UE Education Committee meeting. The combined base and contestable funding for 2024 by recipient and priority area can be viewed in the tables below. The Committee also endorsed an additional shortlist of contestable projects totalling $523,030, which was allocated following the Semester 1, 2024 census.
Additionally, at this meeting, a proposal to form a new SSAF Student Consultation Group was endorsed, which will provide the formal consultation point with student representatives regarding the SSAF going forward.
2024 SSAF by recipient
The following table shows the allocation of the 2024 SSAF funding by recipient:
| Students' Representative Council (SRC) | $2,901,249 |
| Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) | $2,927,820 |
| Sydney University Sport & Fitness (SUSF) | $6,846,172 |
| University of Sydney Union (USU) | $8,504,772 |
| Student Support Services (Careers Centre) | $400,305 |
| Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Student Life) | $449,868 |
| Faculty of Engineering | $40,000 |
| Faculty of Science | $70,237 |
| Sydney Law School | $39,320 |
| University Library | $62,077 |
| Sydney Business School | $22,936 |
| Total | $22,264,756 |
2024 SSAF by key area
The following table shows the allocation of the 2024 SSAF funding by the service and amenity key area:
| 1. Health Services | $1,088,966 | |
| 2. Clubs or other associations |
a. Sporting | $6,167,615 |
| b. Internal student politics and advocating students’ interests | $3,254,215 | |
| c. Gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, or nationality-based | $235,820 | |
| d. Areas-of-study related e.g. law | $0 | |
| e. Other activities e.g. music, debate, chess, art | $798,207 | |
| f. Other | $3,633,311 | |
| 3. Employment/career services | $650,305 | |
| 4. Legal aid | $659,616 | |
| 5. Food or drink services | $661,230 | |
| 6. Helping students secure accommodation | $194,515 | |
| 7. Financial or insurance advice for students | $20,000 | |
| 8. Libraries and reading rooms | $62,077 | |
| 9. Study skills | $80,875 | |
| 10. Advising on matters arising under the University’s rules | $1,437,299 | |
| 11. Student Orientation and Welcome activities | $1,451,596 | |
| 12. Helping to meet the specific needs of overseas students | $483,608 | |
| 13. Student produced media | $1,385,501 | |
| 14. Childcare services | $0 | |
| Total | $22,264,756 | |
2023 SSAF allocation
In 2023, the SSAF supported the delivery of a variety of campus life activities, food and drink services, student-produced media, career advising services, sporting and recreational activities, legal aid, health services, and student clubs and societies.
The SSAF was separated into:
- base funding, which is recurrent funding provided to student representative organisations, the Careers Centre, and the Office of Student Life
- contestable funding, available to student representative organisations, faculties, and professional service units for one-off services or amenities projects
- the capital sinking fund, available to student representative organisations, faculties, and professional service units for infrastructure projects.
In July 2022, the DVC (Education) Portfolio held a consultation session with representatives from the University’s student organisations regarding the 2022 acquittal and 2023 budget allocation process, including information on updated Commonwealth reporting requirements.
In August-September 2022, the SSAF Student Survey was held. The survey identified student priorities for funding and was provided to SSAF recipients to link funding applications with the survey outcomes.
In October 2022, the 2023 SSAF budget and allocation process was endorsed by the UE Education Committee. The budget paper included a proposal to increase the portion allocated to base funding, which was also endorsed. Representatives from the University’s student organisations were involved in the Committee discussion about the budget, allocation process, and base uplift, providing a formal consultation point regarding the 2023 SSAF.
Following review by the SSAF Budget Allocation Committee, applications for base funding were provided to the December meeting of the UE Education Committee for endorsement. At this meeting, two additional items regarding SSAF infrastructure funding were discussed with student organisation representatives.
At the July 2023 meeting of the UE Education Committee, the SSAF Budget Allocation Committee proposed a list of contestable funding applications for consideration and endorsement. The item also included a discussion regarding the 2024 SSAF budget. Student organisation representatives, as members or attendees at the UE Education Committee meeting, participated in the discussion.
You can find more information about the SSAF in 2023 in the SSAF 2023 allocation report(pdf, 272KB).
SSAF student survey
Each year, the University conducts the SSAF Student Survey to receive student feedback about how the SSAF can best support students. The outcomes of the survey are provided to SSAF recipients, who are required to highlight how each of their proposed services or amenities align with the survey results as part of their funding application.
Find out more information about the results of the 2022 (pdf, 817KB), 2023 (pdf, 216KB) and 2024 (pdf, 446KB) SSAF student surveys.
Last updated: 19 December 2024
