VET FEE-HELP – Preparing an Estimate for Advance Payments
Detailed instructions for preparing an estimate for advance payments and submitting this into VITS can
be found in the document entitled: ‘VET FEE-HELP Estimate of Advance Payments’(the Estimate) which
is on the VET FEE-HELP website:
http://www.innovation.gov.au/Skills/SkillsTrainingAndWorkforceDevelopment/VETFeeHelp/ApprovedV
ETProviders/Pages/UsefulPublicationsApprovedProviders.aspx
Change to Credit Transfer Requirements
From 1 January 2013, VET diploma and advanced diploma courses with unit census dates after
1 January 2013 will no longer require credit transfer arrangements (CTAs) to be approved for
VET FEE-HELP. This may have implications for your organisation’s tuition fee schedule and estimate of
advanced payments for 2013, as well as for tuition assurance requirements.
From 1 January 2013, your students will be entitled to access VET FEE-HELP assistance for Diploma level
and above courses currently on your scope of delivery regardless of whether there are CTAs in place for
these courses. You will need to add these courses to your tuition fee schedule.
If you intend to add new courses, due to the removal of the CTA requirement, you can submit these in
your original estimate of advanced payments rather than submitting a variation after 1 January 2013.
If you have already submitted your 2013 estimate of advanced payments and do not have any new
courses to add, then you do not need to resubmit your estimates. If you do have new courses then
please contact the payments team via email to tsenquiries@innovation.gov.au to request that the 2013
estimates be returned to draft. You can then resubmit your original estimates with the new courses
included in the estimation.
Please ensure that you indicate in the estimate calculator which courses have been added. Please
submit your 2013 estimate of advanced payments through VITS and advise the Department via email to
tsenquiries@innovation.gov.au with the subject line “Provider name: 2013 estimate including courses
added due to the removal of CTA”.
General Overview
As VET FEE-HELP payments are made to providers monthly in advance over a calendar year it is
important that VET providers submit an Estimate for how much funding is required based on a
reasonable assessment of relevant information.
It is equally important that, during the year, as significant census dates are passed that providers
reassess their Estimate based on actual figures available to them immediately after census dates.
Requests to vary an Estimate can be made at any time within the calendar year.
In preparing an Estimate the following will need to be considered:
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By Course or Field of Study?
Equivalent Full Time Study Load (EFTSL)
Average Annual Course Cost (or if submitting information by Field of Study Weighted Average
Annual Course Cost)
Student withdrawals prior to census dates
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Deferral rate (the proportion of maximum available VET FEE-HELP assistance that students
access)
Variations
Each of these issues are addressed below.
By Course or by Field of Study
Depending upon how many VET FEE-HELP eligible courses a VET provider is currently offering (those
that are on the published Schedule of VET Tuition Fees), an Estimate will be required to be completed
either by ‘course’ or by ‘field of study’.
If the VET provider offers 50 or fewer courses, the information must be entered by course. If the course
has the same name it is considered to be just one course even if it is offered at different times of the
year and/or at different campuses.
There is scope, when preparing your estimate in the ‘VET FEE-HELP Estimate of Advance Payments’, to
enter the same course several times to take account of different commencement dates occurring in the
one calendar year. This means that the number of line entries in your estimate may be greater than 50
even though the number of VET FEE-HELP eligible courses (on the Schedule of VET Tuition Fees) is 50 or
less.
If the VET provider offers 51 courses or more, the information will need to be entered by field of study
categories (these are sourced from the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) ABS
Catalogue No. 1272.0 which providers currently use when submitting VET FEE-HELP data into HEIMS).
1 = Natural and Physical Sciences
2 = Information Technology
3 = Engineering and Related Technologies
4 = Architecture and Building
5 = Agriculture, Environmental and Related Studies
6 = Health
7 = Education
8 = Management and Commerce
9 = Society and Culture
10 = Creative Arts
11 = Food, Hospitality and Personal Services
12 = Mixed field programs
There are templates, in the ‘VET FEE-HELP Estimate of Advance Payments’ for entering your estimate
data by Course or by Field of Study.
Equivalent Full Time Study load (EFTSL)
EFTSL is the measure of the study load. A student undertaking a course on a full time basis and utilising a
standard study plan, will achieve an EFTSL of one (1) over the course of an academic year. EFTSL is
adjusted according to the proportion of a full time study load a student will undertake in a year. In
deciding the proportion of full time study which students will undertake in the year, please consider the
following points:
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Students who undertake study full time for the whole year will attain a 100 per cent study load.
The structure of the academic year – e.g. a student studying full time for one semester of a two
semester academic year will attain a 50 per cent study load.
The late commencement date of a course intake or the early completion date of a course, should be
allocated a percentage which is closest to the percentage of the year the student will be studying.
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f students study on a part time basis, what percentage of the course load they will undertake.
The course EFTSL identified on the published Schedule of VET Tuition Fees. If a course has been
allocated an EFTSL of 0.5, a student studying this course full time will undertake a 50 per cent study
load in the year.
Combinations of the above scenarios. For example, a student commencing a course in July which
has an EFTSL of 0.5, and choosing to study a half load will achieve a study load of 25 per cent.
Providers offering courses on a trimester basis will need to determine the EFTSL based on the
number of semesters a student undertakes. Students studying two out of three semesters should
be allocated a study load of 66 per cent, and those studying one of three semesters should be
allocated a load of 33 per cent.
Average Annual Course Cost
The way a provider determines ‘average annual course cost’ will depend on whether they are preparing
their estimate by Course or by Field of Study.
By Course
If a course has more than one tuition fee, for example, different fees for different modes of study (by
distance, face to face, on-line etc) the VET provider is required to determine the average annual course
cost when preparing their estimate. Where the provider expects to have students in government
subsidised places accessing VET FEE-HELP, this should also be taken into account when determining
‘Average Annual Course Cost’.
By Field of Study
To ensure realistic estimates are submitted, when providing an estimate by Field of Study, the average
annual course cost will need to be 'weighted'. This can be done by taking into account the proportion of
students in each course. For example, within the field of study ‘Management and Commerce’, three
courses might be offered as follows:
A
B
C
D
Name of Course
Annual Cost Number Number of EFTSL
Weighted Average Annual
of Course
of EFTSL x Cost of Course
Course Cost
Diploma of Accounting
$10,000
100
$1,000,000
Diploma of Business
$ 6,000
10
$60,000
Advanced Diploma of
10
$80,000
$ 8,000
Business
Total
$24,000
120
$1,140,000 $1,140,000 / 120 = $9,500
In order to derive the ‘Weighted Average Annual Course Cost’ for all courses within a Field of Study, the
provider undertakes the following calculation steps:
1. For each course within a ‘field of study’, enter the average course cost (see Column ‘A’ above) and
expected EFTSL (Column ‘B’)
2. Multiply the average course cost by the expected EFTSL (Column ‘C’)
3. Divide the total of Column ‘C’ by the total of Column ‘B’ to determine the ‘Weighted Average Annual
Course Cost’ for this ‘Field of Study’.
These steps will need to be repeated for each ‘Field of Study’ in which the provider has VET FEE-HELP
eligible courses.
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Student withdrawals before census dates
Under the Higher Education Support Act 2003, a student does not incur a liability for a VET unit of study
until after the census date, which can be set no earlier than 20 per cent of the way through a unit. The
proportion of EFTSL that, based on past experience, is likely to withdraw prior to census dates needs to
be taken into account when calculating estimates.
Deferral rate (the proportion of maximum available VET FEE-HELP assistance for
students)
The deferral rate refers to the proportion of available VET FEE-HELP assistance that students actually
use. For example, if the total annual tuition fees for a course is $5,000 students may choose how much
of this to pay up front and how much to defer through a VET FEE-HELP loan. Some examples follow:
Student
Total Course Cost
A
B
C
Total
$5,000
$5,000
$5,000
$15,000
Pay Up-Front
$0,000
$2,000
$1,000
$3,000
Pay through VFH
loan
$5,000
$3,000
$4,000
$12,000
Deferral Rate
(amount of
course costs paid
through VFH loan)
100%
60%
80%
80%
For 2011, the average deferral rate was 84 per cent. New providers should use this as a guide when
preparing their first estimate. If the estimated deferral rate is higher than 84 per cent, providers will be
required to substantiate their higher estimate.
Providers who have been operating as approved VET providers for more than one full calendar year
should use the previous year’s deferral rate as a basis when preparing estimates for the coming year.
Variations
It is unlikely that the Estimate of Advance Payments will be the same as the actual amount of funding
deferred through VET FEE-HELP assistance.
After census dates are passed a VET provider will be able to calculate how accurate their estimates were
for those courses.
When a VET provider becomes aware that the difference between the estimate and the actual amount
deferred is greater than 10 per cent the provider must contact DIISTRE and seek a variation to their
monthly payments in advance.
Further Information
The key document you will need to begin preparing your payment estimates for submission into VITS is
the ‘VET FEE-HELP Estimate of Advance Payments’ which can be found on the VET FEE-HELP website:
http://www.innovation.gov.au/Skills/SkillsTrainingAndWorkforceDevelopment/VETFeeHelp/ApprovedV
ETProviders/Pages/UsefulPublicationsApprovedProviders.aspx
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If you have any queries or require further information you may send an email – ‘for attention of the
Payments Team’ to tsenquiries@innovation.gov.au
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