This page describes the higher education provider application fee for providers seeking approval to offer FEE-HELP and the higher education provider annual charge.
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The Australian Government introduced two Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) charges for higher education providers in the 2019-20 Federal Budget:
- an application fee for higher education providers seeking approval to offer FEE-HELP under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 . This will recover the Commonwealth's full costs of administering and assessing applications
- an annual charge for all higher education providers whose students are entitled to HECS‑HELP and/or FEE-HELP assistance. This will partially recover the costs incurred by the Commonwealth in administering these programs.
The application fee commenced from 1 January 2020, with the annual charge commencing from 1 January 2021. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the annual charge was delayed and commenced on 1 January 2022 with invoicing of the charges to commence in 2023. These charges will help cover the Commonwealth's Government cost of administering the HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP programs. Legislation for these two charges received passage in Parliament on 15 October 2019.