What is VET Student Loans (VSL)?
Eligibility and entry requirements
What is VET Student Loans (VSL)?
The VET Student Loans (VSL) program assists eligible students pay tuition fees for approved higher-level (diploma and above) vocational education and training (VET) courses, when studying at VET Student Loans approved course providers. The program is designed to provide financial support to students undertaking higher level training in courses that address workplace and industry needs, creating better opportunities for employment. The department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) manages VSL.
Loans are available to those students who must:
- Be an eligible student
- Be studying an approved course
- Be studying with an approved course provider
- Apply to the government using the approved form, which will be managed through your provider, and
- Submit Progression Forms to confirm your ongoing engagement with your studies and continue accessing the loan throughout your course.
CTI VSL Program
Canterbury Technical Institute (CTI) is an approved course provider under the VSL program. The following courses are available to eligible and approved students via VSL:
|
Qual Code |
Qual name |
Unit total |
Units of Study |
Duration |
|
BSB50420 |
Diploma of Leadership and Management |
12 |
5 |
52 |
|
BSB50120 |
Diploma of Business |
12 |
4 |
52 |
|
BSB60420 |
Advanced Diploma of Leadership and Management |
10 |
4 |
78 |
|
BSB60120 |
Advanced Diploma of Business |
10 |
4 |
78 |
|
BSB50820 |
Diploma of Project Management |
12 |
4 |
52 |
|
ICT50220 |
Diploma of Information Technology |
20 |
6 |
52 |
|
ICT60220 |
Advanced Diploma of Information Technology |
16 |
4 |
52 |
|
SIT50416 |
Diploma of Hospitality Management |
28 |
5 |
52 |
Students must read this booklet prior to applying for a VSL.
Important information
The following information is sourced from the DESE website.
- Your VET Student Loan debt (VETSL debt) must be paid back at the relevant repayment rate when your repayment income is above the compulsory repayment threshold. The compulsory repayment threshold is adjusted annually and is $48,361 for the 2022-2023 financial year.
Note: Any VET Student Loan debt incurred prior to 1 July 2019 was referred to as your Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt and continues to be part of that existing accumulated HELP debt account.
- At least twice each calendar year for the duration of your course, you are required to submit a Progression Form to confirm your continued engagement in your course of study. CTI will arrange for Progression Forms to be sent to you using the electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) system. Your ongoing access to a VET Student Loan is dependent upon you demonstrating that you are still engaged in and progressing through your course.
- You will incur your liability to pay tuition fees for each part of your course on the census day for that part of your course.
- If you do not wish to incur a liability for that part of the course you must withdraw your enrolment in that part of the course before the census day. You must withdraw in writing and in line with CTI’s withdrawal procedure. (Refer to the Domestic Student Handbook)
- Full fee paying/fee for service students will incur a 20 per cent loan fee on their VET Student Loan. (See Loan Fees section below for further description details)
- You must meet the eligibility criteria to access a VET Student Loan.
- The amount of a VET Student Loan for a course is capped. CTI will send you a written notice of the amount of your course tuition fees covered by the loan and any gap fees required to be paid by you.
- Information about tuition fees covered by the VET Student Loans program, any other fees payable for the course, and information on how to withdraw before the census day without incurring fees, will be supplied to you by CTI prior to your enrolment.
Eligibility and entry requirements
To be an eligible student, you must meet all the criteria detailed below.
- You are:
- An Australian citizen or,
- A qualifying New Zealand citizen [1] or,
- A permanent humanitarian visa holder, who is usually resident in Australia.
- Your HELP balance (the amount of your HELP loan limit you have left) is more than $0. This means you have enough HELP loan limit remaining for your proposed studies to be covered by the loan. The HELP loan limit is the limit on how much you can borrow. Any borrowing under FEE-HELP, VET FEE-HELP, VET Student Loans and, from 1 January 2020, HECS-HELP will count towards your HELP loan limit. 2021 Loan limit is $108,232 for most students.
- You are enrolled with an approved course provider in an approved course and have enrolled in accordance with the application requirements.
- You are studying the approved course primarily at a campus in Australia.
- You have been assessed by CTI as academically suited to undertake the approved course based on either:
- Providing your Australian Year 12 Certificate or
- Providing your International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) diploma or
- Providing a copy of a certificate showing you have been awarded a qualification at level 4 or above in the Australian Qualifications Framework (where the language of instruction was English) [2] or at a level in a framework that preceded the AQF and is equivalent to level 4 or above in the AQF or
- Displaying competence at Exit Level 3 in the Australian Core Skills Framework in both reading and numeracy through an approved Language, Literacy and Numeracy test.
- In addition, CTI must reasonably believe you show competence in completing the course.
- You meet the Tax File Number (TFN) requirements.
- You have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) or are otherwise exempt.
- You have given the required documents to CTI and submitted the loan application form by the first census day no less than two business days after enrolling.
[1] A qualifying New Zealand citizen is a New Zealand citizen who meets all of the following:
- Holds a special visa category, such as the New Zealand Special Category Visa (SCV),
- Has been usually resident in Australia for at least 10 years,
- Was a dependent child when he or she was first usually resident in Australia,
- Has been in Australia for periods totaling 8 years during the previous 10 years, and
- Has been in Australia for periods totaling 18 months during the previous 2 years.
[2] If your qualification is from overseas, then the certificate provided must be a letter or certificate issued by a Federal, State, or Territory government agency which assesses overseas qualifications and which shows your qualification has been determined to be equivalent or comparable to a qualification in the Australian Qualifications Framework at level 4 or above.
Tuition fees
|
Qual Code |
Qual name |
UoS 1 |
UoS 2 |
UoS 3 |
Total Covered Fees* |
|
BSB50420 |
Diploma of Leadership and Management |
$2,833.34 |
$2,833.33 |
$2,833.33 |
$8,500.00 |
|
BSB50120 |
Diploma of Business |
$2,833.34 |
$2,833.33 |
$2,833.33 |
$8,500.00 |
|
BSB60420 |
Advanced Diploma of Leadership and Management |
$3,333.34 |
$3,333.33 |
$3,333.33 |
$10,000.00 |
|
BSB60120 |
Advanced Diploma of Business |
$1,666.67 |
$1,666.67 |
$1,666.66 |
$5,000.00 |
|
BSB50820 |
Diploma of Project Management |
$2,833.34 |
$2,833.33 |
$2,833.33 |
$8,500.00 |
|
ICT50220 |
Diploma of Information Technology |
$3,333.34 |
$3,333.33 |
$3,333.33 |
$10,000.00 |
|
ICT60220 |
Advanced Diploma of Information Technology |
$5,000.00 |
$5,000.00 |
$5,000.00 |
$15,000.00 |
|
SIT50416 |
Diploma of Hospitality Management |
$3,333.34 |
$3,333.33 |
$3,333.33 |
$10,000.00 |
*Student Loan Fee is calculated at each Unit of Study
Loan fees
Students will incur a Loan Fee as stipulated by the department, 20 per cent (20%) loan fee applies to VET Student Loans for full fee paying/fee for service students. The loan fee does not count towards your HELP loan limit. You do not have to pay the loan fee upfront – it is added to your VETSL debt at the ATO.
You do not incur the loan fee if you are a student who is subsidised by a state or territory government and you are studying a diploma or advanced diploma course. If you are not sure if you are a subsidised VET student, contact CTI.
Census days
A census day is a date by which a student’s enrolment in the course or part of the course can be cancelled without the student incurring tuition fees for the course or part of the course.
Tuition fees for the course must be reasonably and proportionately distributed across at least 3 sequential fee periods (therefore at least 3 census days/3 units) over the course.
A student becomes financially liable for the tuition fees on a ‘part of a course’ (or unit of study) basis at the end of the census day.
Census days are calculated individually and students will be provided with a Fee Notice at least 14 days prior to any census date. A Census date will be at least 20% of the way between when that UoS starts to be provided and when a student is reasonably expected to complete that part of the course.
CTI has rolling intakes, which in turn allow students flexibility on when they can commence. Each student will be notified individually of their census dates
Further Information
The following information can be found in the CTI Domestic Student Handbook:
- Code of Conduct,
- Enrolment,
- Training and assessment,
- Withdrawal,
- Refunds and re-credits,
- Complaints and appeals.