WA universities win $138m in fed funding

Western Australia's universities have received a total of $138.4 million from the federal government as part of its investment in higher education research.

Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator Kim Carr today said that a total of $1.42 billion will be spread among 41 universities Australia-wide in 2010.

Included in the funding package is $610 million for the Research Training Scheme, which will meet the cost of tuition for PhD and Masters students and $164 million for Australian Postgraduate Awards that supports research students.

In WA, the University of WA received the largest allocation of federal government funds with $77.8 million, followed by Curtin University with $31.6 million, Murdoch University with $19.1 million, Edith Cowan University at $8.8 million and Notre Dame University at $963,209.

On a state by state basis, New South Wales received $431.3 million, Victoria pocketed $378.9 million, Queensland netted $221.8 million and South Australia received $117.9 million.

The $1.42 billion package is part of the Rudd government's $3.1 billion funding boost for research and innovation, announced in last year's budget.