VET Student Loans

A VET Student Loan (VSL) helps students to cover fees for vocational education and training (VET) courses. VET Student Loans began on 1 January 2017 and replaced the VET FEE-HELP scheme. VSLs are only available for approved courses at the diploma level and above. This means that you can't get a VSL for a Certificate IV level course or below.

You can search for courses that are approved to offer a VET Student Loan on MySkills. Look for the active 'VSL' logo. Not all registered training organisations (RTOs) are approved to offer VSLs. You can also search on MySkills for RTOs that are approved to offer VSLs.

What is the VET Student Loans scheme?

VET Student Loans is an Australian Government loan scheme that assists eligible fee paying students to pay all or part of their tuition fees without any upfront cost. The maximum amount you can borrow in your lifetime (known as the FEE-HELP limit) is currently $100,879. You can check your FEE-HELP balance at my Uni Assist.

Repayment is made through the tax system and commences once you are in the workforce and your income rises above the minimum repayment threshold. The threshold for the 2017-18 income year is set at $55,874 or above.

Taking out a VET student loan is not the only way for you to pay your tuition fees. You can also choose to:

pay all your tuition fees upfront, or
pay some of your tuition fees upfront and use a VET Student Loan for the rest, or
use a VET student loan for all your tuition fees (up to your FEE-HELP limit)

You are eligible for VET Student Loans if you are

an Australian citizen or a New Zealand Special Category Visa holder who meets long-term residency criteria and will undertake, in Australia, at least one unit of study contributing to your course; or
a permanent humanitarian visa holder who will be resident in Australia for the duration of your unit; or
a permanent visa holder undertaking bridging study for overseas-trained professionals, and will be resident in Australia for the duration of the study.
To get the loan, you must not have already exceeded your lifetime FEE‑HELP limit of $100,879 . This is the total amount available to eligible students under VET Student Loan scheme and the previous VET FEE‑HELP loan scheme. If you have accessed a loan for your studies at university or TAFE, you may need to check your balance to be sure you have sufficient left to pay for this course.
Your VET student loan must be repaid once you earn an annual income above $55,874. Interest is charged on your debt and is indexed annually to the CPI – see the ATO website. There is also a loan fee for VET Student Loans, but this doesn’t count towards your FEE-HELP limit. The fee is 20% of the tuition fees for each unit of study you pay for with the loan. Subsidised students are exempt from the loan fee.

VET Student Loans forms

Each unit of study has its own census date which is the last day you can submit the application or withdraw from the unit of study without incurring the cost or debt for the unit. LTT will issue you with a VET Student Loans Invoice Fee Notice 14 days before each census date so that you know exactly how much debt you have and you have enough time to withdraw without incurring a FEE-HELP debt.

Timetables and fee schedules

*A loan fee of 20% of the tuition fee applies to each unit of study you pay for using a VET student loan. This is a Commonwealth Government requirement.

While the 20% loan fee is added to your VET student loan, the amount is not deducted from your lifetime FEE-HELP limit.

This fee ONLY applies if you access a VET student loan to pay for some or all of your study.

Both Tuition Fee and VET Student Loans Fee added together will give you the TOTAL LOAN incurred.

NOTE: The census date is the last day that you can submit a Request for a VET Student Loan form or withdraw from the unit of study without incurring the tuition fee for the unit of study or the applicable VET Student Loans debt.

EFTSL: equivalent full-time student load