Glossary

Please note: the definitions in this glossary are intended to provide a general understanding of key HESA concepts. Many of these concepts have more precise definitions, which are detailed in the Act, HESA guidelines or the (AIP). The precise definitions should be used if detailed interpretation of the concepts is required. Unless indicated otherwise, the number in brackets following each definition indicates where more information can be found in the AIP.

Census date: the date on which a student’s enrolment is taken to be finalized (section 8). HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP debts are incurred and SLE is consumed on census dates. Students must make their up-front payments and submit their request/s for Commonwealth assistance by the census date.

Cross-institutional programme: a programme of study comprising a unit or a set of units of study being undertaken with one provider (the host provider) as part of a course of study for which the student is enrolled with another provider (the home provider). There are a number of other criteria that must be met for a programme to be considered cross-institutional (16.1).

Differential HECS student: a pre-2005 student who is not a pre-1997 student (25.4).

Domestic student: a student who is an Australian citizen, a New Zealand citizen or the holder of a permanent visa (4.1).

Employer reserved place: a place made available under a restricted access arrangement between the provider offering the course and an employer or industry body, which limits or restricts enrolments in some or all of the places in the course to students sponsored by the employer (18.1).

Exemption Scholarship: a scholarship that is awarded to a student by a provider that exempts the student from paying student contribution amounts or tuition fees for a course of study (14.1).

FEE-HELP: a loan scheme to help eligible non-Commonwealth supported students pay their tuition fees (44.1).

Funding cluster: one of twelve clusters of disciplinary areas in which a given unit of study will fall. Funding clusters are used to determine Commonwealth contributions for a place and the maximum student contributions for a place (24.4).

HECS-HELP: a scheme that includes up-front payment discounts and loans to help eligible Commonwealth supported students pay their student contributions (43.1).

Higher Education Student Collection: a statistical data collection that contains data on the characteristics of higher education students in Australia . Providers submit data on their students to DEST, which is responsible for the specification, collection, collation, validation and interrogation of the data (48).

Incidental fees: fees that are additional to student contributions or tuition fees and are for goods or services that are related to studies (19).

Indexation: annual adjustments made to Commonwealth contributions, maximum student contributions, HELP debts and repayment thresholds to maintain their real value.

Lifelong SLE: the type of SLE that all eligible students accrue each January, beginning either on their 30th birthday or 1 January 2015 , to encourage lifelong learning (30.1).

Loan fee: a fee that applies to all OS-HELP (45.16) and undergraduate FEE-HELP loans (44.9).

Maximum student contribution amounts: the maximum student contribution amount for a place that can be charged for any units of study in a given cluster.

National Priority areas: areas for which the Commonwealth offers additional assistance, either through offering additional places, increasing Commonwealth contributions or reducing the maximum student contribution amounts for a place. Currently, education and nursing are the National Priority areas.

Non-Commonwealth supported student: a domestic student who is not Commonwealth supported for a unit of study. Non-Commonwealth supported students generally pay tuition fees. Non-Commonwealth supported students are also known as ‘fee-paying students’ (32).

Ordinary SLE: the type of SLE that all eligible students receive when they first commence higher education. All students start with an ordinary SLE of 7 EFTSL (28.1).

Overseas student: any student who is not a domestic student (37).

Permanent humanitarian visa holder: a student who holds a visa of one of the subclasses listed in Table 1 of Appendix I of AIP.

Provider: a higher education provider (ECU).

Re-crediting: a practice where a student’s FEE-HELP balance or SLE is re-credited because of special circumstances (64). What constitutes ‘special circumstances’ for the purposes of re-crediting is detailed in the Act (65.4).

Request for FEE-HELP assistance - OLA: the request for Commonwealth assistance that a student must complete and lodge in order to receive a FEE-HELP loan for units of study undertaken with Open Learning Australia (44.10).

Six-month study period: the notional six month period to which a given OS-HELP loan relates (45.5).

Study abroad programme: where a domestic student undertakes study outside Australia with an overseas higher education institution that counts as credit towards a course that they are enrolled in with an Australian higher education provider. These students are not covered by an agreement between institutions and will typically pay fees set by the overseas institution while studying overseas (17.2).

Table A and Table B: a list of higher education providers in the Act that sets out which providers have access to which Commonwealth programmes (HESA s16-15 and s16-20).

Tuition fees: fees paid by domestic non-Commonwealth supported students (33.1).

Unit of study: a subject or unit that a person may undertake with a provider or through Open Learning Australia (OLA) that could be undertaken as part of a course of study. Parts of a bridging course for overseas trained professionals are also considered units of study (HESA schedule 1).

Up-front payment: partial or full payment of student contributions or tuition fees made direct to the provider on or before the census date (43.5).

Voluntary repayments: HELP repayments made at the ATO that are in excess of compulsory repayments (47.2).

Work experience in industry (WEI): work undertaken by a student that is done as a part of, or in connection with, a course of study undertaken with a provider, in respect of which student learning and performance is not directed by the provider, and the purpose of which is to obtain work experience relevant to the course of study (15.2).

www.goingtouni.gov.au: a website that will contain information on courses and providers for students and prospective students. Through this website, and using their CHESSN and other unique information, students can access information on their usage of Commonwealth assistance (58).