Legislation changes impacting fees

No discount for students eligible to defer their student contribution to HECS-HELP but make upfront payments.

Introduction of a HECS‑HELP discount.

From 1 January 2021, if you are in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) and you are eligible to defer your student contribution to a HECS-HELP loan but make upfront payments of $500 or more before the relevant census date, you will receive a 10 per cent discount* on your upfront payment.

The discount is expected to cease from 1 January 2023, subject to the passage of legislation.

*This discount does not apply to Permanent Residents or New Zealand citizens in CSP courses. You will still be required to pay your student contribution amounts 100 per cent upfront to the University by the relevant payment due dates.

Arts units are generally classified under the lowest student contribution amounts. No difference in the designated bands for continuing and commencing students.

Changes to Student Contribution amounts and introduction of grandfathering of fees.

From 1 January 2021, there will be changes to student contribution bands. The student contribution amount you pay will depend on what band a unit falls under. Bands are associated with unit/s depending on the specific area of study of a unit.  Find the student contribution and band amounts for:

• undergraduate students
• postgraduate students.

As a result of units changing their designated bands, some units will now be charged more in 2021 than previously. To ensure the new legislation does not disadvantage continuing students, the Government has introduced ‘grandfathering’. This means that a continuing student will continue to pay student contribution amounts equal to the band that the units would have been under, had there been no legislative changes.

• If you were enrolled before 1 January 2021 and are continuing units in disciplines with increased student contribution amounts, you will continue paying at the same band as you would have, had these reforms not been implemented.
• If you passed the census date of a unit of study in a CSP in 2020 or earlier, and you did not complete the course before 31 December 2020, you will pay the previous rates as a continuing student.
• Continuing students enrolled in units that will be subject to a lower student contribution amount under the new design will pay the new lower student contribution, regardless of when they commenced their course.
• Students commencing courses in 2021 will be subject to the new rates. If you deferred your CSP course in 2020 and commence in 2021, you will be classified as a new commencing student. No grandfathering will apply.
• If you did not complete your original course before 31 December 2020 and change to a different course in 2021 you will pay the new rates for your course.

The biggest changes in student contribution amounts are for students enrolled in maths and education units as you will be charged lower rates from 2021 and students enrolled in communications, society, history and culture units will be charged higher rates than previous years.

Does not exist at universities.

Students may be eligible to apply for the Tertiary Access Payment (TAP).

The TAP will be available for school leavers who are:

• from an outer-regional, remote or very remote area (as per the ASGS remoteness classifications)
• enrolled in a Certificate IV or above qualification, with a duration of at least one year
• relocating to study at an institution at least 90 minutes by public transport from their home (either in another regional location or a metropolitan location)
• enrolled in at least 75 per cent of a fulltime study load over a 12 month period
• accessing tertiary study in the year immediately following their completion of Year 12 or equivalent (or the first available semester of their chosen course if the course has a mid-year start).

This payment will be means-tested. Students will need to be below a parental income threshold of $250,000 to receive this payment.

The TAP will be made in two installments:

1. a $3000 payment toward the beginning of the year, to assist with upfront costs
2. a $2000 payment toward the end of the first year.

The exact timing of payments will depend on institutions’ census dates. This payment will only be available in the student’s first year of study – no further payments are made in the second year of study or beyond.

Students receiving the TAP can also be eligible to apply for Youth Allowance/ABSTUDY.

For more information see more opportunities for regional Australia.

Currently students eligible to defer their fees to HELP debts are assigned a CHESSN to keep track of their HELP debt.

Introduction of Unique Student Identifier (USI)

The USI is your individual education identifier for life. It also creates an online record of your training attainments in Australia. Students will need a USI in order to receive commonwealth financial assistance (HELP), as well as to obtain their qualification or statement of attainment.

You must create your own USI.

Prior to 2020, there was only a limit on FEE-HELP usage and this was not replenishable.

Combined HELP limit.

From 2020, there is a new combined HELP limit for students using HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, and VET FEE-HELP. Once a student reaches this limit, they can no longer defer any fees. They will be required to pay upfront. However, students can reborrow up to the limit, after they have paid off some of their debt.

The combined HELP limit in 2021 will be $155,448 for MD students at Macquarie and $108,232 for all other students.

Voluntary repayments you make will credit your HELP balance when the ATO notifies the Department of Education about your repayments.

Any compulsory repayments will credit your HELP balance once:

• you have completed your tax return,
• have been issued a notice of assessment, and
• the ATO notifies the department of any repayments you made on your HELP debt.

Your fortnightly PAYG repayments will not credit your HELP balance until your completed tax return has been processed by the ATO.

In 2020, the Government introduced short courses (undergraduate certificates) in engineering, IT and science which were subsidised due to COVID-19.

Subsidised fees for short online courses.

From 1 January 2021, short course fees will no longer be discounted. The fees were either $312 or $625 (depending on the band). Undergraduate certificate courses will be charged under the grandfathered student contribution amounts and bands for 2021.

Repayment threshold for 2018–2019 is $51,957 with a two per cent repayment rate.

A new set of repayment thresholds.

From 1 July 2019, the new minimum HELP repayment threshold will be $45,881 with a one per cent repayment rate.

For information on the new repayment thresholds, see how to pay back your loan.

There is only a limit on FEE-HELP, VET FEE-HELP and VET students loans.

Combined HELP Limit for 2020.

From 1 January 2020 there will be a combined HELP limit for students using HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, VET FEE-HELP and VET students loans.

The FEE-HELP limit in 2019 is $104,440 for all courses except medicine which has a limit of $150,000.

New HELP limits in 2020.

In 2020 there will be a combined HELP limit of $106,319 for all courses except for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science students whose limit will be $152,700.

No limit on the amount of HECS-HELP you can borrow.

For students using FEE-HELP, once you have reached your limit you can no longer defer any fees to a FEE-HELP loan.

Combined, renewable HELP loan limit.

Combined HELP loan limit

From 1 January 2020, a combined HELP loan limit will replace the FEE-HELP limit. There will now also be a limit on the amount you can borrow for HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, VET FEE-HELP and VET students loans.

Only new HECS-HELP loans incurred from 1 January 2020 will be counted towards the limit.

Any existing FEE-HELP or student loans borrowed before 2020 will count towards your new HELP balance.

Renewable HELP balance

From 1 January 2020, you can top up your HELP loan balance by making repayments towards your debt.

Repayments starting from the 2019-20 financial year will top up your HELP balance.

Compulsory or voluntary repayments can be re-borrowed in the future, up to the current HELP loan limit.

Repayments do not provide you access to further FEE-HELP loans. Once you exceed your limit, you must pay all tuition fees fully upfront.

Repayments will credit your new HELP balance.

Voluntary repayments you make will credit your HELP balance when the ATO notifies the Department of Education about your repayments.

Any compulsory repayments will credit your HELP balance once:

• you have completed your tax return
• have been issued a notice of assessment; and
• the ATO notifies the department of any repayments you made on your HELP debt.

Your fortnightly PAYG repayments will not credit your HELP balance until your completed tax return has been processed by the ATO.

MQ currently does not have any UG courses which attract the 25 per cent loan fee (but we did in the past).

Removal of FEE-HELP loan fee.

From 1 January 2019, students studying an undergraduate domestic fee paying course (non-Commonwealth supported) will no longer be charged the 25 per cent FEE-HELP loan fee.

This only applies to units of study with a census date on or after 1 January 2019.

You can check your HELP debt via MyUniAssist.

New portal to view your debt.

To keep tabs on your HELP balance, you can use the myHELPbalance portal. This will replace the MyUniAssist portal from 1 January 2020.

The MyUniAssist portal will continue to run until the end of 2019 and then have a redirect to the myHELPbalance portal.