To have access to a VET Student Loan, a student must be eligible and academically suited to the course. They must also be studying with an approved provider and in an approved course.
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You must have processes and procedures for collecting and verifying student documentary evidence. You must keep all required records for 5 years.
Your processes and procedures must provide for equal and fair treatment of all students seeking to enrol in an approved course.
There are HELP loan limit, HELP balance and loan cap requirements that apply to VSL approved courses. It is your responsibility to make sure that students meet these requirements.
27.1 - VET Student Loan application process
As an approved provider, you apply for VET Student Loans on behalf of eligible students.
Process outline
- The student enrols in an approved course and lets you know they want a VET Student Loan.
- You assess the student’s eligibility [part 31] for a VET Student Loan.
- If they’re under 18 they must provide additional information to you.
- If the student is eligible, you enter their enrolment information into the electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) [part 28] system.
- The eCAF system emails the student with instructions on how to fill out their eCAF application.
- The student must:
- complete the eCAF
- provide their Tax File Number through the eCAF [part 30]
- The student submits their eCAF. Note: They must wait 2 business days after enrolment before submitting the eCAF.
- They must complete their eCAF before the first census day [part 26] for the course.
- The student receives an email receipt from the eCAF system confirming that their application has been approved.
- You can now view the student’s eCAF.
- You must keep all required records [part 45] for the application and enrolment process for 5 years. You must be able to produce this evidence and documentation on request.
- After these processes are complete the student will be able to access a VET Student Loan, paid to the provider, for any census days that occur after the eCAF submission date.
27.2 - Students who are under 18 years
If a student is under 18 years of age, they’ll need to ask their parent or guardian to sign a VET Student Loans Parental Consent Form. They’ll need to submit the form to you before you give them their login details for their eCAF application.
The student won't need a parental consent form if Centrelink has assessed them as meeting the requirements for receiving the independent rate of Youth Allowance under part 2.11 of the Social Security Act 1991. The student will need to give you their Centrelink Income Statement. The student can request the statement by logging into myGov and selecting their Centrelink online account.
For more information, visit Centrelink online account help - Request a document.
27.3 - Fair and equal treatment of students
You must have open, fair and transparent procedures that you reasonably believe are based on merit for making decisions about:
- the selection of students who are seeking to enrol as VET students in VET units of with you
- the treatment of those students.
However, this does not prevent you from considering that a student may be enrolled in an approved course in accordance with an arrangement that:
- was entered into between the you and an employer or industry body
- limits or restricts enrolments in some or all of the places in the course.
Legislation: Act s 10, s 17, s 51–52, Rules s 10, s 84–85, s 105 and s 152