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Higher Education legislation passed by the Parliament
The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 was passed by the Parliament on 26 November 2024.
The Bill includes five measures:
- HELP indexation 2024–25 Budget measure
- Student Services and Amenities Fee 2024–25 Budget measure
- FEE-FREE Uni Ready 2024–25 Budget measure
- Commonwealth Prac Payment 2024–25 Budget measure
- Adelaide University merger
The indexation changes are in line with recommendation 16d of the Australian Universities Accord to set the HELP indexation rate to the lower of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index (WPI).
The ATO is responsible for applying credits for indexation from 2023 and 2024 and will commence doing so as soon as practicable.
Further information about the credit is available at Study and training loans – what's new.
November announcements to make HELP fairer
On 2 November 2024, the Australian Government announced that from 1 July 2025 the minimum repayment threshold will increase. It is proposed to change from $54,435 in 2024–25 to $67,000 in 2025–26, subject to the passage of legislation.
A new marginal repayment system will also be introduced, so that compulsory student loan repayments will be calculated on just the income above the new $67,000 threshold, rather than having it based on total annual income.
This new repayment system means that people will make smaller compulsory repayments, and they will earn more before they begin to repay.
The repayment changes are in line with recommendation 16b of the Australian Universities Accord to reduce repayments for lower income earners by moving to a system of marginal repayment rates.
On 3 November 2024, the Government announced it will reduce all current HELP and other student loan debt by 20%. Subject to the passage of legislation, the debt reduction will be applied by the Australian Taxation Office and will be given effect from 1 June 2025, prior to the application of indexation.
Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) 40% minimum guidance
As part of the Universities Accord Bill, from 1 January 2025, higher education providers who charge a SSAF will be required to allocate 40% of their SSAF revenue to student-led organisations.
The Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HESA) specifies what is considered a student-led organisation for the purposes of allocating the 40% and requirements for eligible student-led organisations to receive funding are set out in the Higher Education Support (Student Services, Amenities, Representation and Advocacy) Guidelines 2022 (SSARA Guidelines).
Amendments to the HESA allow providers to apply for transition arrangements to meet the requirements over a three or five year period depending on institution type.
Transition arrangement requirements will be specified in the transition plan template and supporting material, which will be published on the department’s website once the legislation comes into effect on 1 January 2025.
The existing Allocation Report template will be updated to require information about how providers are allocating SSAF revenue to meet the new SSAF requirements.
Commonwealth Prac Payment
With the passing of the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, the department will progress the amendments to the Higher Education Support (Other Grants) Guidelines 2022 in relation to Commonwealth Prac Payments (CPP).
The CPP will provide a payment of $319.50 per week (benchmarked to the single Austudy rate) to eligible Bachelor and Masters nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students doing their mandatory placements.
The department is currently working with the higher education sector and key stakeholders through the CPP Operational Working Group to develop the detailed Program Guidelines to ensure the payment can be administered as simply as possible while remaining targeted to those students most in need.
The Program Guidelines will set out:
- the purpose of the CPP program
- the eligibility criteria for providers and students
- how applications from students should be considered
- what monitoring and evaluation will be involved
- responsibilities and expectations in relation to the CPP program
The Department of Education CPP webpage will be updated with further information shortly.
For questions, please contact the team at commonwealthpracpayment@education.gov.au.
FEE-FREE UNI READY courses
The Government will provide $350.3 million in additional Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding over four years, commencing on 1 January 2025, to fully fund FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses and help more students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, build the skills, experience and confidence they need to get into university and to succeed – for free.
The amendments to the HESA included in the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 establish a new FFUR funding cluster with a Commonwealth contribution rate of $18,278. Students will not be required to pay any student contribution amount.
The Government wrote to providers on 27 November 2024 informing them of allocations totalling 8,211 FFUR places. A further 454 places will be awarded on a basis of a competitive assessment process.
FFUR places are preparatory courses designed for students to undertake before an award course. A FFUR course is not an award course itself and therefore it does not consume SLE.
For the purposes of reporting, FFUR enrolments are to be reported as an enabling course to TCSI but with CSP load.
Suburban University Study Hubs
As recommended in the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report, the Suburban University Study Hubs program has been designed to provide outer metropolitan communities with better access to tertiary education.
In June and October 2024, amendments were finalised to the Higher Education Support (Other Grants) Guidelines 2022 and the Student Identifiers Regulations 2014. These changes introduced a new section, Part 9A, establishing the legal framework and funding provisions for the Suburban University Study Hubs program. The updates also authorise grant recipients of this program to collect, use, and manage student identifiers while also protecting privacy.
On the 16 November 2024, the Minister announced the first 10 successful suburban hubs, representing 11 locations across Australia:
- 3 locations across Western Australia being Mandurah, Armadale, and Ellenbrook
- 3 locations across Victoria being Melton, Broadmeadows, and Epping
- 2 locations across New South Wales being Kurri Kurri and Macquarie Fields
- 1 location in Strathpine Queensland
- 1 location in Elizabeth South Australia, and
- 1 location in Sorell Tasmania.
The department is currently running a targeted funding round, to establish up to 4 additional hubs in suitable locations in Melbourne, Brisbane, or Sydney, where there are areas with low tertiary participation and high population density.
Applications for this round close on 20 December 2024, and it is anticipated that successful applicants will be announced in early 2025.
University partnerships with all University Study Hubs
Universities are strongly encouraged to build strong, mutually beneficial relationships with both Suburban University Study Hubs and existing Regional University Study Hubs. University partnerships are a key element of each program, and various partnership models show success and mutual benefits. For universities, these partnerships provide an opportunity to grow enrolments, as well as improve support for existing external students to support increased participation and success in higher education for students from under-represented cohorts. As part of a 2021 Program Evaluation, Regional University Study Hub students surveyed were more likely to report a sense of belonging to their tertiary institution, including 93% of Regional University Study Hub students reporting a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ educational experience (around 10 points higher than external students responding to the QILT survey).
All providers are encouraged to make their external students aware of the Hubs. Students and providers can learn more at Regional University Study Hubs and Suburban University Study Hubs.
Support for Students Policy First Annual Report due 1 March 2025
The first Support for Students Policy Report is due on or before 1 March 2025. The department has released a Reporting Template to simplify reporting for higher education providers, available at Support for Students Policy.
2024 HELP Tuition Protection Service Levy invoice
HELP providers were sent their 2024 HELP Tuition Protection Service Levy invoice on
12 November 2024. This is a friendly reminder that the due date for payment of the 2024 HELP Tuition Protection Levy is 12 December 2024. If you have not yet paid, please do so as soon as possible to ensure the payment is received by the due date.
For assistance, please reach out to the Tuition Protection Service.
HEP Provider 2025 TCSI reporting requirements
On the 25 November 2024, the TSCI team circulated the Ministerial Notice to VCs and CEOs for HESA-approved providers. The notice was also sent to TCSI Newsletter subscribers from all HESA providers along with the submission deadline and Change Control document.
The Ministerial Notice broke the requirements down into the following three sets of requirements:
- HEP Student data
- HEP Staff data
- the Apps and Offers submission for universities.
The TCSI November Newsletter and monthly webinar focused on 2025 TCSI data reporting requirements and updates from the TCSI Renewal Project. If you haven’t seen them already, please, they are at TCSI November Newsletter 2024.
For TCSI assistance, please contact TCSIsupport@education.gov.au.
2025 Publications
The 2025 HELP booklets will be released in two stages.
The initial stage saw the release of interim 2025 booklets in September 2024, along with interim 2025 eCAFs, which has allowed providers to commence enrolling students for courses with 2025 census dates.
The second stage will see a complete review of the 2025 HELP booklets in both content and design. The second stage will align the booklets with the design of the newly released StudyAssist website. Revised booklets will also include content relating to the indexation changes and signpost the Government’s proposals for a marginal repayment system.
The second version of the 2025 HELP booklets will be published on StudyAssist in January 2025 and links for the eCAF will also be made available then.
2024 eCAF Stocktake
The 2024 eCAF stocktake is being undertaken to assist the department determine whether non-Government eCAF users are issuing an approved form (an eCAF that replicates the Government eCAF) to students requesting a HELP loan.
The 2022 eCAF stocktake highlighted a number of areas of concern. This resulted in the department working with providers and software vendors to either onboard providers to the Government eCAF, or to ensure that their provider non-government eCAFs were compliant.
As part of the 2024 stocktake, the department issued 56 requests for information to universities and private providers and are now assessing the responses. The department anticipates finalising the assessments by the end of the year.
The department will be in contact with each provider in the new year regarding the analysis conducted and areas of concern.
To providers that have taken part in the 2024 eCAF stocktake, thank you for your responsiveness and ongoing support.
2025 eCAFs
The interim 2025 eCAFs were released in September 2024, allowing providers to commence enrolling students for courses with 2025 census dates.
As legislation was passed by the Parliament on 26 November, the department can now progress a second release of 2025 eCAFs, which will include wording changes and new indexation information. None of these changes will impact API linkages.
The department understands non-Government eCAF providers will require time to update their eCAFs and will take this into account when seeking approval of transitional arrangements.
The department will communicate with providers as soon as possible in relation to the approval of the second release of 2025 eCAFs, and regarding a decision about transitional arrangements for implementation (i.e. when the revised 2025 eCAF is mandatory in non-Government eCAFs.)
eCAFs and census dates
To ensure a non-Government eCAF is compliant, and replicates the Government eCAF, a student’s eCAF must have a census date, and that census date must be the student’s earliest census date for their enrolled course of study.
The department has received feedback from providers that a student’s earliest census date is not always known, as some students do not select individual units until after they complete their eCAF.
In these cases, a higher education provider should identify the earliest published census date for the course of study that the student is enrolling in. This is the date that would be appropriate to include as a student’s earliest census date for their enrolled course of study.
If that student enrols in unit(s) of study where the earliest census date ends up being later than the census date stated on the eCAF, they do not need to have their eCAF updated with the later census date.
The student would need to update, or complete a new eCAF, if the following circumstances apply:
- Deferral - In circumstances where a student defers, there are different requirements depending on how the higher education provider classifies the student.
- For example, if the student is still classified as a 2025 student in their enrolment/course structure by the higher education provider, the student is not required to complete another eCAF for the 2026 year. If the student is however classified as a 2026 commencing student, they will need to complete the 2026 eCAF when it is available.
- Earlier unit - In circumstances where a student selects a unit with a census date before the earliest course census date that was included in their eCAF, the student’s eCAF needs to be updated with the earlier census date or the student will not be eligible for the CSP/HELP loan they are requesting.
- Withdrawal - If a student withdraws from their course of study before their first census date, the eCAF needs to be deleted. For higher education providers using the Government eCAF, the department encourages you to notify the department as soon as possible after the student withdraws so the department can process the deletion of the eCAF.
Resolution of Status (Permanent Humanitarian) visa status for Ukrainian nationals
The Department of Home Affairs is in the process of offering Ukrainian Year 12 students who intend to study at university and who currently hold Temporary (Humanitarian Concern) visas a pathway to permanent residence. Upon acceptance of the offer, these students will be able to apply for a Subclass 851 Resolution of Status (RoS) visas and these applications are being processed as quickly as possible.
RoS visas are considered to be permanent humanitarian visas for the purpose of higher education, meaning RoS visa holders who meet all other eligibility requirements will be able to study in a Commonwealth supported place (CSP) and access Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loans (HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP).
The Department of Home Affairs will provide all Ukrainian students who have accepted the offer with an acknowledgement receipt number, which is evidence of their RoS visa application. Once the RoS visa is granted, these Ukrainian students will be provided with a visa grant notification.
The Department of Education is informing providers about this cohort of students prior to the start of 2025 study so that these students can access Commonwealth assistance where eligible during their transition to higher education.