Vet Student Loans

If you are an eligible student, the Department of Education and Training (the department) may approve your VET Student Loan for one or more of our approved courses. The department will pay your loan directly to us as your approved course provider. You will be responsible for any gap amount in the tuition fees not covered by the loan.

• You will owe a debt to the Australian Government for the loan. This debt is added to your VETSL debt, and incorporated into your overall HELP loan.
• The department applies a loan fee of 20% under VET Student Loans. The loan fee is applied to the amount of VET Student Loan assistance provided and is included in your VETSL debt.
• Each person has a HELP loan they can use for approved courses. The HELP loan limit is currently set at $109,206 per year (2022). However, this loan limit has been increased to $158,847 for students studying aviation courses (2022) which lead to a commercial pilot licence outcome. This includes all three of our diploma courses (see ‘approved courses’ below). For some students, this can mean VET Student Loans can be applied for up to three of our courses taken in sequence. 
• Your HELP balance is your available borrowing capacity at a point-in-time, and:
  • when you incur a VETSL debt, this will reduce your HELP balance
  • as you repay your HELP loan, this will increase your HELP balance.

Your HELP balance is then managed by the Australian Taxation Office. Loan repayments are deducted proportionally from your earnings once you earn above a certain threshold. The loan may, until the debt is repaid, reduce your take-home (after-tax) wage or salary and may reduce your borrowing capacity. We recommend you seek independent financial advice before applying for a loan.

You can obtain your current HELP balance through the Australian Taxation Office. This will indicate the amount you have available to potentially use in our course/s – using a VET Student Loan.

Refer to the Study Assist website for further information.

A limited set of Diplomas and higher-level courses are approved by the department for VSL. Our courses approved for VSL are:

• Diploma of Aviation – Commercial Pilot Licence
• Diploma of Aviation – Instrument Rating
• Diploma of Aviation – Flight Instructor

Please access the course pages (above) for information on tuition fees, intake dates and census dates relevant to VSL.

To receive a VET Student Loan, you must:

1. be an eligible student
2. be studying one of our approved courses (see above)
3. apply to the government using the approved form (see below), and
4. confirm your engagement and progression to continue to access the loan throughout your course (see below).

Read more about the criteria to be eligible for a VET Student Loan.

The maximum amount that can be borrowed with VSL for a single course in the aviation field is $81,111 (2022) – this is called the ‘course cap’. Tuition fees for all of our courses are currently less than the course cap. This means tuition fees for each course can be fully covered by VSL and there are no standard ‘gap fees’ which students must pay themselves.

You will be liable to pay gap fees if you do not have sufficient HELP balance to fully cover the tuition fees. You are responsible to pay gap fees to us directly, with the option of using our interest-free payment plan (subject to our approval). We may require this is paid up-front.

Non-tuition fees are not covered by VSL and are paid to us directly.

Other external fees (eg for items required for your study) are to be purchased separately by you and are not covered by VSL.

Our courses are divided into a number of study periods of roughly equal length. There are at least three study periods in each course. Each study period has three key dates: start date, census date and completion date.

The census date is set at the one-fifth point of the study period (approximately). This date is important because:

• you become financially liable for the tuition fees for a study period at the end of the census day for that study period; and
• it is the date by which your enrolment in the course or part of the course can be cancelled or withdrawn without you incurring tuition fees for the course or part of the course.

Tuition fees are generally spread evenly across the study periods for a course and added to your VSL liability immediately after the census date in each study period.

Census dates for each course and intake are published on each course page – see links above.

During the course the department may contact you to request that you:

• communicate your agreement that the department should continue to use the VET student loan to pay tuition fees for the course;
• verify your enrolment in the course; and
• demonstrate at regular intervals that you are a genuine student and engaged in the course.

It is important that you notify us as soon as possible of any change of your contact details so these communications and official notices are properly delivered to you.