62. Voluntary revocation of a provider’s approval

Please follow these instructions if you want your VSL approval revoked before your approval end date.

62.1 - Request for the department to revoke your VSL approval

Formal request

If your organisation requests VSL approval to be revoked, your CEO (or other authorised entity representative listed in HITS) must send a formal letter of request to the department. By sending this letter, you acknowledge that you understand the administrative requirements (outlined below) and the consequences for current and prospective students (outlined above).

Sample letter (to be placed on your organisation’s letterhead):

Request for revocation of approval pursuant to clause 30 of the VET Student Loans Act 2016.

Name of organisation [approved provider], ACN XXX XXX XXX / ABN XX XXX XXX XXX

I am writing to request that the Secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations revoke the approval of [legal name of organisation] (approved provider) as an approved course provider under the VET Student Loans Act 2016.

I am the duly authorised officer for [legal name of organisation] and am hereby requesting the revocation take effect from [insert date of effect – cannot be retrospective and must allow sufficient administration time – for example, request should be made at least 30 days in advance].

The reason for revocation is [insert reason].

Additional information may be included, as well as the information required below attached.

Signature

Name Position

Legal name of organisation that is the approved provider

Day Month Year

RTO Code

62.2 - What to include in your request

Your formal request should include:

Confirmation that your organisation has no current VSL students or
A list of the students currently enrolled or deferred accessing a VSL including:
student’s full name
student’s email address
student’s contact phone number
student’s CHESSN, USI and provider student ID
name of course/s the student is enrolled in
unit of study code for those units the student is still to complete
expected completion dates for each unit of study
expected course completion date
your organisation’s intentions in relation to the student as to whether you intend to:
continue teaching the student, and if so to what date or point in their studies (such as completion of the course) or
not continue teaching the student, and if so to what date you intend to cease delivery of the course or
confirmation your organisation has contacted the Tuition Protection Service (if your organisation is either closing or will cease course delivery to enrolled VSL students), and
confirmation your organisation has fully reported student course and unit of study data, including unit and course completions data.

62.3 - How to submit your request

You can either:

upload the letter into HITS and submit a brief message using the online enquiry form notifying the department of the upload or
mail the letter to the department: The Assistant Secretary, VET Student Loans Branch, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, GPO Box 9828, CANBERRA ACT 2601

Once you have submitted your request

Once we receive your organisation’s request (all components received as outlined above), the request will be reviewed and submitted to the delegate. Once the delegate has approved your request, we will:

provide your organisation with a formal letter of revocation, in line with the requirements of the VET Student Loans Act 2016
disable your organisation’s access to eCAF (if not already actioned upon receipt of the revocation request)
revoke your organisation’s provider approval in HITS
disable your organisation’s access to TCSI (as appropriate) and
arrange for your organisation to be removed from the VSL Approved Course Providers list.

Different arrangements may apply where a ‘teach out’ arrangement has been agreed.

62.4 - Administrative requirements for revoked providers

After the approval of revocation, you must meet the following requirements.

Students – tuition protection

You must complete teaching all your current VSL students before progressing a request for voluntary revocation. If this is not possible and your request for revocation is approved, the VSL Tuition Protection Director may require you to provide periodic reports on those VSL students you have undertaken to continue to teach.

If you cease to make a course or part of a course available to a student who is accessing a VET Student Loan (other than where a student withdraws), you will have defaulted in relation to the student. If you default, you may be required to repay to the Commonwealth the cost of recrediting affected students’ HELP balances [part 39].

If you default in relation to a VSL student, you have obligations under the Tuition Protection Service for those students. You must provide written notice to the VSL Tuition Protection Director of the circumstances of the default within 24 hours of the default occurring.

You are required to confirm that your organisation either has no VSL students or has advised the department and the students of the measures it will take to afford students tuition protection.

Possible future recrediting of a HELP balance

Your former students may apply for recrediting of their HELP balance and remission of the associated debt in certain circumstances. If you receive any queries from students, you should refer students to VET student loan complaints | Commonwealth Ombudsman.

As part of your revocation process, you must enter the contact details of the person/area to contact regarding any such future matters into HITS.

Final submissions of VSL data

As part of your revocation, you must have your student liability data reconciled and any overpayments/underpayments settled. The relevant VSL teams and TCSI Support will be advised of your request for revocation.

Before you request revocation, you must ensure all student data has been reported, including any unit of study records for students in the current or prior years. You must report completion status for:

all students who have completed any award courses in the current year or prior years (2017 onwards)
all units of study undertaken by students – this includes passed, failed, withdrew or incomplete study outcomes.

You must also resolve all data reporting errors listed in your TCSI Notification Reports, including errors relating to students with unverified Tax File Numbers [part 30].

You must verify the accuracy and completeness of all reported data by reviewing your reports in TCSI Analytics and Statutory Declarations uploaded to HITS.

62.5 - After revocation

After revocation, your organisation must continue to be able to report any student revisions to the department, particularly for students who have had their VET debt remitted due to special circumstances.

Your TCSI access will be closed if your organisation is no longer registered on the Australian Business Register. If your organisation remains in business, any student revisions relating to a successful re-credit request by a former student needs to be reported. First inform the VSL team at VETStudentloans@dewr.gov.au or via the online Enquiry Form at Provider Enquiries Please seek advice on how to submit this data in TCSI from the TCSI Support Team at TCSIsupport@dewr.gov.au.

If a provider has closed, the VSLO and the Secretary of the department may consider remission requests and act on the closed provider’s behalf.

Retention of student records

You must ensure previous students are able to access their records, as well as all records relating to any HELP or VSL assistance matters.

You must comply with record-keeping requirements [part 52].

The Australian Taxation Office also requires relevant records be kept for a specific time.

You must retain student grievance records to ensure they are kept in a confidential manner for at least 5 years. The records will also need to be accessible by both parties to the grievance process.

More information

If you have any questions about the voluntary revocation process, please contact us using the online enquiry form on Provider Enquiries.

Legislation: Act s 66b and 66c(2)