VET Student Loans (VSL) Provider Newsletter – October 2025

Welcome to the VSL Provider Newsletter – October 2025

In this edition, we farewell Assistant Secretary, Jane Hayden, who has decided to retire from the Australian Public Service. We wish her well in her new adventures, time with family and more rounds of golf.

The new Assistant Secretary leading the VSL Branch is Tom Varnedorff who was previously Assistant Secretary for the Apprenticeship Operations Branch. Tom has worked in the Australian Public Service for almost 20 years across a range of areas, including industry, social services, health and child care policy.

VET Student Loans reporting arrangements are changing

From 1 October 2025, reduced student reporting arrangements for Tertiary Collection of Student Information system (TCSI) data apply.

From that date you are only required to report data for students who have been admitted to an approved course and have been approved to access a VET Student Loan. Previously you were required to report on students who were admitted to an approved course and were eligible to apply for a VET Student Loan. If a student never uses a VET Student Loan you are not required to report any data for the student.

You may, if system constraints apply, continue to report data for all eligible students as an interim measure. Systems and processes should be adjusted as soon as practicable to meet the new, narrowed reporting requirements.

There is no requirement to submit any further data in relation to students already reported to TCSI who do not have an approved VET Student Loan, unless the student chooses to access VSL for a later unit of study. Where a student accesses a VET Student Loan at any point during their study, all units for the course need to be reported to TCSI. This includes units with a census date in the past.

If your student management system (SMS) is unable to retrospectively report the fee paid units when a student begins accessing a VET Student Loan, you should continue to report all units from that point onwards, until your SMS or administrative processes can be updated to ensure the fee paid data is not missed.

As always, the data you report must be timely, accurate and only be in relation to genuine students (as defined in the VET Student Loans Rules 2016).

Details of reporting requirements are published on the TCSI support website on the VET Reporting Requirements page.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact VETStudentLoans@dewr.gov.au.

Annual financial statements

In accordance with section 113 of the VET Student Loans Rules 2016, approved non-listed VSL providers with a financial year ending on 30 June 2025 must submit audited general purpose financial statements by 31 October 2025, via HITS.

Please note, special purpose financial statements are not an acceptable form of submission. Section 113 also sets out specific requirements regarding the content and format of these statements, which you must meet to ensure you are compliant. You are encouraged to review section 113 in detail and ensure all reporting obligations are met by the due date.

Any queries can be emailed to VSLProgramintegrity@dewr.gov.au.

Annual reporting requirements

We recently emailed notices about the annual reporting requirements to individuals identified as CEO, SAO, and PVC contacts in the HELP IT System (HITS). The notice specified the information we require you to provide under section 116 of the VET Student Loans Rules 2016.

The email included template Excel spreadsheets. These will reduce administrative burden and standardise data on industry links and third-party arrangements. You must upload completed spreadsheets, along with a report on your last annual student satisfaction survey to HITS by COB 14 November 2025.

If you haven’t received this notification, or have any queries about the annual reporting obligations, please send an email to the department at VETStudentLoans@dewr.gov.au and include ‘annual reporting’ in the subject line.

Masking VSL students’ Tax File Numbers (TFNs) in systems

From 24 September 2025, changes have been made to the Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI) Data Entry portal and Business to Government (B2G) channels that completes the masking of VSL students’ TFNs in systems.

• Consequently, you will notice the following in the TCSI Data Entry portal and B2G channels for VET student records:
• The upload of older templates is no longer accepted. You should be using the new 2.1 VET Student template from the TCSI Support website when uploading into the TCSI Data Entry Portal.
• The TFN field (E416) has been removed from the new 2.1 VET Student template.
• You are not able to view, edit or download previously uploaded TFNs through the TCSI Data Entry portal or B2G channel through PRODA.
• A new validation error (10938) will be returned for any TFN uploaded to the B2G channel. This error will only cause the upload of TFNs to fail. Other data items will be uploaded successfully.
• Functionality to edit TFNs on students’ VET records has been removed in the TCSI Data Entry Portal.
• You will still be able to determine whether a TFN exists and has been verified by the ATO.

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please send an email to the department at vetstudentloans@dewr.gov.au and include ‘masking VSL TFNs’ in the subject line.

Remember, it is important that you do not request, collect or disclose student TFNs (even if the student gives you permission to do so).

New maximum loan caps for the 2026 academic year

The indexed 2025 VSL maximum course loan cap amounts have been finalised. These will apply to all units of study (new and continuing VSL students) with a census day of 1 January 2026 or later.

We have updated VSL course caps indexed amounts (for providers) and VSL course caps indexed amounts (for students) which provide details about the new loan cap amounts and how they apply to VSL.

The calculated indexed maximum loan cap amounts for 2026 for VET Student Loans are:

• Band 1 (Part 1, Schedule 1) – $6,428
• Band 2 (Part 2, Schedule 1) – $12,858
• Band 3 (Part 3, Schedule 1) – $19,290
• Specific (Schedule 2) – $96,467

If you are planning to adjust your tuition fees for 2026, including increases to reflect the indexed amounts, you must publish the new tuition fee schedule on your website.

You must ensure that tuition fees charged to students align with fees prescribed in the issued Statements of Covered Fees and Fee Notices. The tuition fees must not exceed the maximum tuition fees specified in a student’s eCAF VET Student Loan application.

You must discuss and agree any changes to a continuing student’s VET Student Loan amount with the student and issue new Statements and Notices as required.

2025 VSL Tuition Protection Levy – early advice coming soon

The Tuition Protection Service (TPS) has commenced preparatory work for the 2025 VSL Tuition Protection Levy (VSL Levy).

VSL providers who are liable for the levy can expect to receive early advice on 30 October 2025, followed by the 2025 VSL Levy invoice on 11 November 2025. Payment will be due by 11 December 2025.

To ensure your organisation receives all communications from the TPS, please review and update your contact details now in the HELP IT System (HITS).

Communications will be sent from the TPS levy system (LTPS) to contacts identified in HITS with the contact type of CEO/VC and copied to those with the contact type of Chief Financial Officer, Senior Authorised Officer, Primary Contact – VET or Primary Contact VET/HE.

For guidance on updating contact information, refer to the HITS User Guide.

Please note, the three domestic tuition protection levies – the VSL Levy, HELP Tuition Protection Levy, and the Higher Education Up-front Payments Levy – are calculated and collected separately, but concurrently.

Key dates and further information will be made available on Tuition Protection Service - Department of Education, Australian Government in mid-October 2025.

If you have any questions regarding the 2025 VSL Levy, please contact the TPS using the online form at Contact the Tuition Protection Service - Department of Education, Australian Government.

Tertiary Access Payment

First-year tertiary students (Certificate IV and above) in 2025 are still eligible to claim the Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) during their first year of study.

The TAP is a non-indexed, means-tested payment of up to $5,000 to Year 12 graduates (or equivalent) from regional or remote areas who need to relocate for full-time, higher-level tertiary education (Certificate IV and above) at an education provider located at least 90 minutes by public transport from their family home.

As of June 2025, changes to the eligibility criteria now allow students who take one or more gap years after finishing Year 12, or equivalent, to claim the payment.

Previously, students could only claim the TAP if they were starting tertiary study within 12 months of finishing Year 12 or equivalent.

Now, if they start their course by 22 years of age and meet all other eligibility criteria, they’ll be able to get the TAP.

Eligible students have until the 31 December 2025 to apply for the TAP through Tertiary Access Payment - Services Australia.

Subscribing to the VSL Provider Newsletter

The VSL Provider Newsletter is how we let you know about program updates and reminders about the program administrative requirements. Let your colleagues know they can subscribe to the newsletter in less than a minute at VET Student Loans – subscribe. You can access previous copies of the newsletter at VET Student Loans Provider Newsletter.