Tertiary education fees in Australia

Students enrolled in courses at Australian tertiary education institutions are charged higher education fees. However, government loans and subsidies are in place to relieve the costs of tertiary education in Australia.

Some students are supported by the national government, known as the Commonwealth government. These students are only required to pay a part of the cost of tuition, called the "student contribution", while the Commonwealth pays the balance; and some Commonwealth supported students are also able to defer payment of their contribution as a HECS-HELP loan. Other domestic students are full fee-paying (non-Commonwealth supported) and receive no other direct government contribution to the cost of their education. Some domestic students in full fee courses can obtain a FEE-HELP loan from the national government up to a lifetime limit of $112,134 for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science programs and $89,706 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 interest free 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 was AUD$60 billion.

HELP is jointly administered by the Australian Department of Education and Training 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 any loans from the Commonwealth, but may apply for international scholarships.

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