Tertiary education fees in Australia are payable for courses at tertiary education institutions. For most of the "domestic students", the Commonwealth government provides loans, subsidies, social security welfare payments & benefits to relieve the cost of tertiary education, these benefits are not available to the "international students". Some domestic students are supported by the government and are required to pay only part of the cost of tuition, called the "student contribution", and the government pays the balance. Some government supported students can defer payment of their contribution as a HECS-HELP loan. Other domestic students are full fee-paying (non-Commonwealth supported) and do not receive direct government contribution to the cost of their education. Some domestic students in full fee courses can obtain a FEE-HELP loan from the Australian government up to a lifetime limit of $150,000 for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science programs and $104,440 for all other programs.
Australian citizens (and in some cases overseas professionals completing bridging studies in order to be accredited permanent residents) are able to obtain loans from the government under the Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) which replaced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS). As of April 2016, the amount of money owed to the Australian government under the HECS scheme was AUD$60 billion and is expected to increase to $180 billion by 2026.
HELP is jointly administered by the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). In addition, qualified students may be entitled to Youth Allowance or Austudy Payment to assist them financially while they are studying. These support payments are means and assets tested. Further assistance is available in the form of scholarships. Overseas students are charged fees for the full cost of their education and are ineligible for HELP loans, but may apply for international scholarships.
History
In 1940, the Curtin Labor dramatically increased the number of scholarships to increase the number of university graduates and allowed women avail these scholarships as they were previously exclusive to men. In the 1960s, the Menzies Liberal rapidly established new universities, mostly in outlying suburbs, and offered special research scholarships to encourage students to undertake postgraduate research studies. Many of these universities are members of Innovative Research Universities Australia. In 1967, the government created a category of Commonwealth-funded non-university tertiary institution, called College of Advanced Education (CAE), to provide cheaper & easier access to equivalent of bachelor's degrees.
In 1970s, Whitlam Labor government abolished university fees to make tertiary education in Australia more accessible to working and middle class Australians. In 1989, the Hawke Labor government began gradually re-introducing fees for university study and setup the Higher Education Contributions Scheme (HECS).
Present status
In 1996, the new Howard Coalition government, introduced tiers in the HECS fee structure (now called HECS-HELP). Fees are charged on the basis of the perceived value of courses. Courses considered to have most likelihood of generating higher income for students in the future (e.g. Law and Medicine) are the most expensive and those least likely to generate higher income (e.g. Nursing and Arts) are the least expensive. Since 2007, HECS places are known as Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP). A student in a CSP is only entitled to study for a maximum of 7 years full-time (16 years part-time) at CSP rates. This is known as a Student Learning Entitlement (SLE). After that period the student has to take either a FEE-HELP loan (if available) or study at full-fee rates. If a student receives a HECS-HELP loan, the Commonwealth government pays the loan amount directly to the higher education provider on behalf of the student.
An alternative option is FEE-HELP which provides eligible fee-paying students with a loan to cover their tertiary education fees.
Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) & Student Contribution (SC)