Higher Education Provider Updates September 2024

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Introduction of higher education legislation 

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill was introduced into Parliament on 15 August 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 Bill is in the House of Representatives. It has been referred to a Senate Committee for consideration by 3 October 2024.

Proposed changes to HELP indexation

Introduced as part of the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill, the Government will cap the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index (WPI) and ensure that indexation never rises faster than wages in the future.

Indexation was applied on 1 June 2023 at the rate of 7.1% and applied on 1 June 2024 at the rate of 4.7%. Once legislation passes, indexation will be retrospectively changed to 3.2% and 4%, respectively. The changes will apply to all HELP, VET Student Loan and Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan and other student loan accounts, including loans from the former Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS), that existed on 1 June 2023.

Individuals will receive a credit to their outstanding student loan debt balance for any difference between the current and new indexation rates. Those who repaid their HELP debts after being indexed in 2023 and/or 2024 may receive an indexation credit via a refund.

After legislation receives royal assent, the ATO will commence automatically applying the indexation credits. The credit will be independent of people’s tax returns. Individuals should ensure their bank account details are up to date with the ATO.

Individuals can use the credit estimator at www.education.gov.au/helpestimator to get an indicative amount of the credit they may receive when legislation is passed.

FEE-FREE Uni Ready

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 to provide more students with an enabling pathway into higher education, with a focus on students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Universities will also be supported to improve FEE-FREE Uni Ready course design and delivery to enhance the recognition and portability of FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses between providers.

This will result in 30,000 students studying in FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses each year by 2030, an increase of 40% in student numbers, and doubling the number of students by 2040.

How will FEE-FREE Uni Ready places be funded?

The Government will deliver increased funding per place, replacing the current mixed funding system with consistent and sufficient funding to deliver high quality enabling courses. This is being achieved by replacing the existing Enabling Loading Program funding, which provides a flat payment rate per EFTSL ($3,886 in 2024) in lieu of student contribution amounts, with a dedicated FEE-FREE Uni Ready funding cluster which will provide $18,278 per EFTSL for FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses in 2025. This is in line with the recommendations made by the Australian Universities Accord and will bring FEE-FREE Uni Ready funding into line with the actual costs of delivery.

Why is it important?

The Australian Universities Accord makes it clear that more people need to go to university in the future to deliver the large and skilled workforce that Australia needs. The Australian Government has set an overall tertiary education attainment target of 80% cent of working aged people by 2050. This is an ambitious, long-term goal and investing in FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses will help more students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, gain the skills they need to get into university and to succeed.

Next steps?

FEE-FREE Uni Ready course funding will be limited to delivery by Table A Universities in 2025. The Government has established a dedicated FEE-FREE Uni Ready Working Group comprising experts from across the higher education sector and other relevant stakeholders, to provide advice on further implementation options for 2026 and beyond.

Introduction of a Commonwealth Prac Payment

As announced in the 2024–25 Budget, the Government is establishing a Commonwealth Prac Payment (CPP) for eligible nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students doing their mandatory placements. From 1 July 2025, a payment of $319.50 per week (benchmarked to the single Austudy rate) will be available for eligible higher education students while they are undertaking a mandatory placement within an entry to practice Bachelor or Masters qualifications in the relevant disciplines.

For VET students, the Government will be administering the payments through a new IT build at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR). For higher education students, the Government will work with higher education providers to deliver this new assistance.

Work has already commenced to establish the CPP. Importantly, the legislation has been introduced into Parliament. In addition, consultation is being undertaken with key stakeholders to ensure the payment can be administered as simply as possible while remaining targeted to those students most in need. To assist with planning and implementation processes, the department has issued a 2024 Practicum Student Estimates data request as part of the 2024 CGS/HECS-HELP Estimates Collection.

More information is available on the department’s website at: www.education.gov.au/higher-education/commonwealth-prac-payment.

If you have any further questions, please contact the team at: commonwealthpracpayment@education.gov.au.

Regional University Study Hubs

On 18 July 2023, in response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report, the Australian Government announced funding to double the number of University Study Hubs, including additional Regional University Study Hubs. The new Regional University Study Hubs are being established across two streams, Cohort 4 and Cohort 5.

Cohort 4 

On 25 March 2024, the Hon Jason Clare MP, Minister for Education, announced 12 Regional University Study Hubs funded in Cohort 4, including funding to support two existing Country Universities Centres in New South Wales.

A number of these Hubs are now open to students, with the remainder expected to open by Semester 1 2025. A list of the 46 Hubs operating or establishing across Australia is at: www.education.gov.au/regional-university-study-hubs/list-regional-university-study-hubs.

Cohort 5 

On 21 August 2024, applications opened for eligible organisations to establish up to 10 new Regional University Study Hubs. Applications will close at 5:00pm (AEDT) 18 October 2024.

For Cohort 5, as a trial, universities are eligible to apply to operate a Regional University Study Hub. University applicants must meet all eligibility requirements and demonstrate that they will meet the core components of the program:

  • Provider agnostic – the Hub must support students studying with any Australian university or vocational education and training provider.
  • Community-embedded and driven by local student and community needs – universities must establish an advisory board or committee which includes members from the community where the Hub will operate, to ensure ongoing community engagement in the mission, purpose, partnerships and operations of the Hub.

More information about Cohort 5, including an application guide, is at: www.education.gov.au/regional-university-study-hubs-2024-application-round.

University partnerships with all Regional University Study Hubs 

Universities are strongly encouraged to build partnerships with both applicants to this round, and existing Regional University Study Hubs. University partnerships are a key element of the 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 equity groups.

All providers are encouraged to make their regional and remote students aware of the Hubs. Students and providers can learn more at www.education.gov.au/regional-university-study-hubs and regionaluniversitystudyhubsnetwork.edu.au.

University Course Closures

The requirements relating to course closure requests are outlined in providers’ CGS Funding Agreements. The requirements for Table A providers were updated in 2024. Providers are now required to notify the department of any proposed course closures before 31 July, or before any information on the potential course closure is made public. Prior to this, there were several instances where the department only became aware of course closures at some providers via the media or ministerial correspondence.

Providers must complete a Course Closure Template for each proposed course closure. The template is attached to provider 2024–25 CGS Funding Agreements and requests information such as the reason for the closure, potential impact on priority skills or regional economy, student load and teach out provisions.

The department retains the ability to question a course closure and come to a mutually agreed outcome if there are concerns

The department has received a number of course closure requests that refer to a restructure of a course, such as changing the focus of the course or a name change. The department appreciates the diligence of providers in sending the request, however these are not a course closure and therefore do not require notification to the department.

Please contact cgs@education.gov.au if you are unsure about the course closure requirements or have any questions about the department’s course closure assessment process.

Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) Stakeholder Content Kit

The Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) is a non-indexed, means-tested payment to school-leavers from regional or remote areas who need to relocate for full-time, higher-level tertiary education at an education provider located at least 90 minutes by public transport from their family home. The TAP is a payment of up to $5,000 made in a student’s first year of eligible study. Students will only be eligible for the TAP once.

The department has developed a stakeholder content kit, which provides downloadable resources for providers (and other stakeholders), to support the sharing of key information about the TAP to students. The kit includes text and images for social media, newsletters, and websites. The department encourages all providers to review the kit and use the content in communications with current and potential students.

Now is a great time to share information about the TAP as:

  • eligible students who completed high school in 2023 can still apply for the TAP until 31 December 2024; and
  • current high school students are making decisions about where to study next year.

Downloadable resources from the TAP Stakeholder content kit are live now at: www.education.gov.au/tertiary-access-payment/resources/shareable-content-tertiary-access-payments-resources.

Study Assist website re-design

The redesigned StudyAssist website went live on Friday 19 July and was the culmination of close to 12 months work. The project adopted a co-design approach to ensure stakeholders were involved in all aspects of the design and development of the website, including branding, navigation, content and resources. This included four rounds of user research with prospective and current students as well as consultation with providers and other Government agencies.

The new look website makes it easier for current and prospective students to find the government study loans they may be eligible for. It also continues to house the department’s ‘contact us’ student enquiries form.

The website has helpful information, tools & tips, Related topics tiles, FAQs, process maps and videos to help students with their study journey, including:

  • the types of loans available for students
  • how to check their eligibility for loans through an enhanced tool
  • how to apply for a loan
  • what the application process involves
  • how and when to repay their loan
  • their obligations and rights.

There are also resources available for higher education providers through a dedicated concierge page (www.studyassist.gov.au/for-providers), including:

  • updates about the administration of the HELP, higher education policy, legislative amendments, funding, and programs
  • links to relevant legislation and guidelines
  • links to the provider updates
  • access to a series of 7 new animated explainer videos that are embedded throughout the relevant student facing pages.

The switch over to the redesigned website occurred with minimal downtime and all redirected links from external website pages to the new StudyAssist webpages are working as expected.

Please contact HEenquiries@education.gov.au if you have noticed any broken links or have any feedback regarding the new look site.

The department’s strategic communication area has developed a stakeholder content pack which contains a range of assets to assist with promotion of the StudyAssist website. The promo pack includes banner artwork, tiles, a flyer and social media content. A copy of the pack will be circulated to providers.

myHELPbalance website upgrade

The myHELPbalance website (www.myhelpbalance.gov.au) is for students and providers to be able to view their available HELP balance entitlement under the HELP loan limit, and for students to see their loan usage from 2005-current, and see what repayments made to the ATO have re-credited their HELP balance.

In July 2024, the department completed an upgrade and released a new version of the myHELPbalance website.

For providers, remaining OS-HELP and STARTUP-HELP entitlements can now be viewed for the first time.

For students, the new design simplifies the information into two sections. The top section relates to a student’s available HELP entitlement. The bottom section is where a student can download a statement with their complete HELP and VSL loan history.

2025 rolling eCAFs

The department has finished project work on the rolling eCAF templates.  The new rolling templates have text tag references on all calendar year fields, which means these fields will automatically populate, where applicable.

The 2025 threshold amounts and the 2025 HELP information booklets are now also ready. The Government eCAF system will automatically populate the correct text tag information based on the census date (or other applicable date) for the enrolment. This means that 2025 booklets and thresholds will display in 2025 eCAFs. For 2024 census dates, the 2024 information will automatically be displayed.

A list of the text tag references is on the Government eCAF website, under the ‘Help’ menu.

The release of the rolling eCAFs does not mean that future year eCAFs can be completed at any point in time. Future year eCAFs can only be used when the HELP limits and HELP information booklets are available for that given year.

For non-Government eCAF users, the text tag reference information is now available in the training environment, so that providers can replicate changes to non-Government eCAFs.

For other non-text tag changes, such as wording due to a policy or legislation change, these will be made and communicated to the sector in the usual way, via a new template, which will be accessible via the definition templates. The department will continue to notify providers of any changes to the eCAFs.

Providers are encouraged to review the eCAF user guide, available on the Government eCAF website, which has been updated to include information on the text tag reference changes.

2025 HELP booklets

The suite of 2025 HELP information booklets are now available to support providers in utilising the text tag reference and rolling eCAF functionality.

The 2025 HELP information booklets are available at:

This year, updating the HELP booklets will involve a two-stage process.

The first stage is the release of provisional 2025 booklets. This involves an update of the 2024 HELP booklets with the minimum requirements, such as the 2025 indexed amounts. The published provisional 2025 booklets allows providers to enrol students for 2025. 

The provisional 2025 booklets link into the eCAF text tag references so a 2025 student will receive the 2025 HELP booklet.

The second stage of updating the 2025 HELP booklets will be a more holistic review to better align with the new StudyAssist website design in both branding and content. The second version of the 2025 booklets will be available by the end of the year for use from 2025.

The provisional version of the 2025 booklet has signposted proposed changes to indexation (lower of the CPI or WPI). The department anticipates that the second version will reflect the legislation when it has passed Parliament.

2025 eCAF submissions

2024 eCAFs are only valid for 2024 census dates.

Where a provider seeks to issue an eCAF for a future year where that year’s eCAF is not yet available, the usual process requires a provider to seek approval from the department first. To date, the department has not approved any provider to be offering a 2024 eCAF to a 2025 student. However, the department is aware of submitted eCAFs with a 2025 census dates.

Providers are encouraged to check their 2025 eCAF compliance. For:

  • Government eCAF users, please check your enrolments and eCAFs submitted before 19 September in your Government eCAF production website.
  • non-Government eCAF users, please ensure your student management systems were not allowing eCAF submissions for 2025 students prior to 19 September.

Higher education providers were able to, and can continue to, enrol students into their 2025 courses. However, only 2025 eCAFs completed from 19 September are valid.

Any students who submitted a 2024 eCAF for a 2025 census date before 19 September have not completed an approved request for Commonwealth Assistance Form and risk not being eligible for a CSP or HELP loan.

The department notified non-compliant providers via email on 5 September and will follow up again in the coming weeks, to ensure compliance.