What is VET Student Loan?

VET Student Loan is an Australian Government loan program that helps eligible students enrolled in approved courses at diploma level or above, at approved course providers, pay their tuition fees. The loan has income-contingent repayment arrangements, which means you only need to make repayments if you are earning above the minimum repayment threshold. You can make voluntary repayments at any time.

If you are an eligible student, the Department of Education and Training may approve your VET Student Loan for an approved course. The department will pay your loan directly to your approved course provider. You will be responsible for any gap amount in the tuition fees, which are not covered by the loan. You will owe a debt to the Australian Government for the loan, which will be managed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The Department of Education, Skills, and Employment have developed simple resources and videos that will help you understand the process better. Click here.

Am I eligible?

To receive a VET Student Loan, you 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
• confirm your engagement and progression to continue to access the loan throughout your course

To be an eligible student, you must meet ALL of these criteria – further detailed below.

• You are:
  • an Australian citizen, or
  • a qualifying New Zealand citizen*, or
  • a permanent humanitarian visa holder, who is usually resident in Australia.
• Your FEE-HELP balance (the amount of your FEE-HELP limit you have left) is more than $0. This means you have enough FEE-HELP limit remaining for your proposed studies to be covered by the loan.
• 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 your approved course provider as academically suited to undertake the approved course on the basis of either
  • providing your Australian Year 12 Certificate; OR
  • providing a copy of a certificate showing that you have been awarded a qualification at level 4 or above in the Australian Qualifications Framework (where the language of instruction was English)** ; 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, your approved course provider 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 your approved course provider and submitted the loan application form by the first census day no less than two business days after enrolling.

In order to apply for a VET Student Loan you must provide current and updated evidence against each of the following criteria (prior to enrolment). Otherwise, you will be liable to pay the full cost of your course.

Please note: Centrelink benefits do not affect your eligibility or the loan amount you can access.

*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 totalling 8 years during the previous 10 years; and
• has been in Australia for periods totalling 18 months during the previous 2 years.

**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 that your qualification has been determined to be equivalent or comparable to a qualification in the Australian Qualifications Framework at level 4 or above.

Important Information for Students

Eight important points you must read!

1. Your VET Student Loan becomes part of your Education Loan Program (HELP) debt and 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 each year and is $51,957 for the 2018-19 income year. For the 2019-20 income year, beginning 1 July 2019, the threshold will be $45,881.
   
   
2. At least twice each calendar year for the duration of your course, you are required to confirm your continued engagement in your course of study. Your approved provider will manage this engagement and progression activity using the Department of Education and Training’s 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.
   
   
3. 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.
   
   
4. 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 your approved course provider’s withdrawal procedure.
   
   
5. Full fee paying/fee for service students will incur a 20 percent loan fee on their VET Student Loan. Students enrolled in a diploma and advanced diploma level course whose enrolment is subsidised by a state or territory government do not incur a loan fee.
   
   
6. You must meet the eligibility criteria to be eligible for a VET Student Loan. You will need to supply information to your provider to prove that you meet the eligibility criteria.
   
   
7. The amount of a VET Student Loan for a course is capped. The loan may not be sufficient to cover all the tuition fees for a course. Your education provider must 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. The information must be sent to you by the first census day for your course. You are responsible for paying the gap fee as you progress through your course.
   
   
8. 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 provided to you by your provider prior to your enrolment.

For further information please refer to

Census Dates/Tuition Fees

The census date for a unit of study is the last day a student can submit their request for a VET Student Loan eCAF to defer their tuition fees through the VET Student Loans program. If you have not submitted a completed eCAF on or prior to the census date, you WILL NOT be entitled to a VET Student Loan for the current unit(s).

A census date is the date by which enrolment may be cancelled without incurring tuition fees for the course or part of the course.

Census dates cannot be set any earlier than 20% of the way through the period in which a unit is undertaken (this period includes any examination/assessment periods). Census dates cannot be extended.

Upon confirmation of your intake, you will be provided with a schedule including Units of Study start dates, end dates and census dates specific to your intake.

Below is a list of the New Futures Training Fees Schedule including Census dates.

Download New Futures Training Fees Schedule

Student entry process

Before enrolling a student in a given VSL eligible course New Futures Training must determine that the student is “academically suited” to the course.

Please refer to the below listed VET Student Loans Student Entry Procedure which specifies how New Futures Training will determine 'academically suited' students.

Download VET Student Loans Student Entry Procedure

Equal and fair treatment of students

New Futures Training seeks to create a learning environment where all students are respected and can develop their full potential. All students are given fair and reasonable opportunities to attend and complete training.

New Futures Training treats all prospective students equally and fairly. We have implemented open, fair, and transparent policies that are based on merit for making decisions.

Download Equal & Fair enrolment policy

Student withdrawal

New Futures Training ensures that its administrative processes support the provision of assistance to all students withdrawing from their studies.

Students paying for their course through a VSL loan can access VSL Student Withdrawal Policy and Procedure at any time here:

Download VSL Student Withdrawal Policy and Procedure

Student review procedures

Our review processes and procedures ensure that a student is not victimised or discriminated against for:

• seeking review or reconsideration of a decision; or
• using the New Futures training’s processes or procedures about dealing with grievances
• making an application for re‑crediting of the student’s FEE‑HELP balance

Download Student Review Requirements

New Futures Training is committed to providing effective, efficient, timely, fair, and confidential academic grievance and non-academic grievances handling procedures for all VSL students.

A complaint or grievance may be about an Academic or Non-Academic matter.

For full details please download the VSL Student Grievance Procedure

Statement of Tuition Assurance

Tuition assurance protects students in the event a course provided by an approved VSL provider ceases to be provided after it starts but before it is completed. Affected students are offered a replacement course with another provider and where this is not possible, the student's FEE-HELP balance for the affected part of the course will be re-credited. 

Details on the process and full statement to be accessed here,
Download Statement of Tuition Assurance for Exempt VSL Providers

Privacy and information handling

New Futures Training is committed to protecting the privacy of students through responsible handling of personal information gathered from them. New Futures Training allows students to apply for and receive a copy of the VET personal information that New Futures Training holds. New Futures Training will take every reasonable step to make sure that the personal information it collects uses or discloses is accurate, complete, and up to date.

Full details are to be found in these relevant policies: 
Download Privacy Policy

An RTO can only deliver qualifications that are in their scope of registration.
For course details, please see the scope of registration for New Futures Training at www.training.gov.au

VICSEG New Futures trading as New Futures Training (TOID 21203)