40. Ending a course of study

You must have in place processes to deal with students’ withdrawal from or deferral of their course.

Students who face special circumstances, such as illness, may have their HELP balances recredited if they withdraw or defer after census day [part 46.2]. They’ll need to apply to do this. The provider’s decision whether or not to grant their application is a reviewable decision [part 47.1]. The Secretary may decide to recredit the student’s HELP balance [part 46.5].

If the student is not satisfied with your or the Secretary’s decision, they can apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal [part 47.4] for review of the decision. There is also a VET Student Loans Ombudsman, who may assess and investigate student complaints [part 49].

If a decision has been made to recredit a student’s HELP balance, you’ll need to repay the Commonwealth the amount of fees you received for that student.

40.1 - Students who fail a unit or part of a course and must repeat it

If a student with a VET Student Loan fails a unit and needs to repeat (re-sit) it, they can use a VET Student Loan to do so if:

there is remaining course cap
they have enough HELP balance left.

If they don’t have enough HELP balance [part 39] to cover the course fee, they will need to pay the rest themselves.

In this scenario you should have a structure in place where each unit of study is a single unit of competency. This makes it clear to students what you charge for each unit and what you deliver for that price.

Students usually don’t need to repeat a whole unit of study if they only fail part of it. Doing so would be a financial disadvantage to them.

You must comply with the RTO Standards regarding re-sits. For VSL, the requirement is that you cover the scenario where a student needs to re-sit part of a unit by:

publishing all fees before enrolment
publishing either:
individual unit of competency fees or
clear advice about how you determine the fees for repeating individual competencies. For example, you may state that that you calculate the fees for repeat units on a pro-rata basis in line with the components/competencies that need to be redone.
making this information available to students before enrolment so they have enough information to make their study and payment decisions.

You must give students the Fee Notice [part 43.2] and Commonwealth Assistance Notice [part 43.3]. If they need to re-sit, you must give them an updated Statement of Covered Fees [part 43.1].

You can cancel a student’s enrolment for failure to progress.

40.2 - Students who withdraw from a course

Your processes and procedures must include:

procedures for a student to withdraw from an approved course, or a part of an approved course
a procedure for a student to enrol in a part of an approved course with the provider where the student had earlier withdrawn from the part of the course undertaken with the provider.

If a student wants to withdraw from a course, they need to follow your withdrawal procedure. However, your withdrawal procedure must be fair. It must not involve financial or administrative barriers that prevent a student from withdrawing on or before the census day [part 26].

40.3 - Withdrawal procedures

Your withdrawal procedure should include:

A way for students to formally communicate their intentions to you - for example, through an online or paper form.
A way to confirm receipt of the student’s withdrawal. This should include the date and time of the student’s withdrawal, the unit(s) of study they withdrew from and the relevant census day.
A way to inform the student whether they have incurred a debt for the unit(s) they withdrew from. Note: they cannot incur a debt if they withdraw on or before the census day.
Advice to the student about special circumstances [part 47] requirements.
Information about refunds for upfront payments.

Counselling for students who want to withdraw

You can include an optional counselling service in your withdrawal procedure as long as it:

doesn’t pressure a student into remaining enrolled
doesn’t pressure a student to enrol in a different course
occurs within a timeframe that still allows the student to withdraw on or before the census day.

What your withdrawal procedure can’t include

If a student withdraws on or before the census day you must not charge any fee that would a disincentive to withdrawing. You must not charge:

a withdrawal fee
an administration fee
a fine or penalty
any portion of the tuition fees for the unit(s) they withdraw from.

Re-enrolling a student who has withdrawn

If a student has withdrawn from a course or part of a course, you must not re-enrol them without their written permission.

Refunding tuition fees

If a student withdraws from a course or part of a course on or before the relevant census day, you must not charge them tuition fees.

This applies to every part of the tuition fees. Therefore, it includes:

VET Student Loan covered fees
any gap fees
upfront payment of tuition fees
gap fees or tuition fees paid through a loan from the provider.

If the student has paid tuition fees upfront to you or through a loan from you, you must refund this amount to them.

Penalties for providers

There are civil penalties [part 61.1] for providers who don’t follow the rules about:

ensuring students can withdraw on or before the census day
not charging fees to students who withdraw on or before the census day.

If a student with a VET Student Loan for any part of the fees for a course tells you in writing on or before the course’s census day that they want to withdraw from it, you must not:

fail to cancel the enrolment on or before the census day or
charge a fee for cancelling the enrolment.

This can result in civil penalties of up to 120 penalty units [part 61.1].

If a student has a VET Student loan for any part of the fees for a course, you must not:

prevent the student from cancelling their enrolment
make it unnecessarily difficult for them to cancel the enrolment.

This can result in civil penalties of up to 120 penalty units.

40.4 - Students who defer their study

If a student has been approved for a VET Student Loan, they don’t need to submit a new eCAF if they continue to study with the same provider. This is the case even if there has been a break (deferment) in their study or a break in the provider’s approval.

When a student defers, you should give them a Progression Form. The student needs to complete the option that indicates they have deferred their studies.

When the student resumes study and/or access to VSL, they need to complete a new Progression Form, giving the date when they resumed study and/or loan access.

40.5 - Cancelling an enrolment after census day

You may cancel a student’s enrolment if they are not making sufficient progress.

If you decide to cancel a student’s enrolment after the relevant census day [part 26], you must:

inform the student of the proposed cancellation
inform the student of the circumstances in which you will or will not refund course fees
give the student at least 28 days to start grievance procedures [part 48] before the cancellation takes final effect
not have the cancellation take final effect until any grievance procedures have been completed.

Legislation: Act s 58–59, Rules s 86–87