Higher Education Loan Program (HELP)

The Australian Commonwealth Government have introduced a Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) which provides eligible students who commenced studies from 2005, with a loan to help pay their course fees. Payments on these loans may be deferred until their income reaches over $47,196 in the 2011/2012 financial year (indexed each year).

There are three main types:

HECS-HELP for eligible Commonwealth Supported Students
FEE-HELP for eligible Fee Paying Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students
OS-HELP for eligible Commonwealth Supported Students who want to study overseas (Exchanges and Study Abroad).

Commonwealth Supported Students

Australian undergraduate students are Commonwealth supported. This means the Australian Government provides funding towards the cost of your education. You are required to pay a portion of the cost as a Student Contribution (HECS).

Eligible students have the option of paying their Student Contribution (HECS) upfront and receiving a discount on their contribution, or to take advantage of a HECS-HELP loan.

A 25% loan fee applies to undergraduate FEE-HELP loans. The FEE-HELP loan fee only applies for undergraduate fee paying courses of study. Over their lifetime, students will only be able to borrow up to a maximum of $89,706 unless a person is undertaking a medicine course completion of which satisfies the academic requirements for provisional registration as a medical practitioner. If they are, the FEE-HELP limit is increased to $112,134. The FEE-HELP limit is indexed on 01 January each year.