VSL Provider Newsletter – August 2024 - Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government

The Hon Andrew Giles MP will step into the role of Minister for Skills and Training after his tenure as Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs where one of his responsibilities was to ensure the skills delivered by our education and training sectors are complemented by informed skilled migration pathways.

In the August edition of the VSL Provider Newsletter we remind providers about the importance of progressions, transitioning students from superseded courses and the system changes implemented to ensure all students have a verified USI recorded.

Statistical reports now available

The VSL Annual Report January to December 2023 and the VSL Six-Monthly Report January to June 2024 have been published. The annual statistical report provides an overview of VET Student Loans activity for a calendar year, including information on the number of students accessing VET Student Loans, the amount of VET Student Loans accessed, and provider level statistics.

During the life of the VSL program, the commonwealth has paid around $1.7 billion in VSL loans to approved providers enabling around 189,386 eligible students to study.

Key points/statistics

VSL Six-monthly Report 1 Jan 2024 – 30 June 2024:

The VSL loan program assisted 18,335 students with approximately $125.5 million in loans covering tuition fees charged of about $131 million.
The unit of study completion rate was 83.5%.
During the reporting period, there were 184 approved providers made up of:
- 23 TAFEs
- 11 other public organisations (including Table A providers), and
- 150 private providers.
Diploma of beauty Therapy surpassed Diploma of Nursing to become the highest ranked course in terms of course enrolments.
RMIT surpassed TAFE QLD as our largest VSL provider in the period.

VSL Annual Statistical Report - 2023:

The VSL loan program assisted 24,721 students with approximately $221.6 million in loans covering tuition fees charged of about $235 million.
The unit of study completion rate was 85.2%.
During the period, there were 208 approved providers.
Of the 24,721 assisted students:
- 65% (16,115) identified as female
- 13.8% reported to be from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds
- 12.1 % reported to be living with disability
- 20% reported as living outside the major cities
- 3.2% identified as Indigenous Australians
The average loan amount in 2023 per student (excluding aviation courses) was $6,607.
Nursing was the most popular course with 4,118 students in 2023.

New Administrative Review Tribunal

In May this year the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 passed Parliament and became an Act on 3 June 2024. The Government announced in July that the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) will commence on 14 October 2024 to replace the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the AAT).

The ART is the result of a significant reform to Australia’s system of administrative review. The changes are relevant to you and your VSL students. The VET Student Loans Act 2016 provides the right to seek review of certain decisions, such as students seeking a re-credit of their loan due to special circumstances.

A taskforce established within the Attorney-General's Department is working across government to implement the reform and ensure that there is a smooth transition to the new Tribunal. People who have matters currently before the AAT will not have to take any action. All existing AAT cases will continue as usual until the commencement of the new Tribunal on 14 October, when they will transfer automatically to the ART.

We will review and update our student and provider guidance materials and include further advice in future editions of the Newsletter.

Further information about the ART is available at A new system of federal administrative review | Attorney-General's Department.

New maximum loan caps for 2025

The indexed VSL maximum course loan cap amounts for the 2025 academic year have been finalised. These will apply to all units of study (new and continuing VSL students) with a census day of 1 January 2025 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 caps and how they apply to VSL.

The calculated indexed maximum loan cap amounts for 2025 for VET Student Loans are:

Band 1 (Part 1, Schedule 1) – $6,278
Band 2 (Part 2, Schedule 1) – $12,557
Band 3 (Part 3, Schedule 1) – $18,838
Specific (Schedule 2) – $94,207

If you are planning to adjust your tuition fees for 2025, 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 and must not exceed the maximum tuition fees specified in a student’s eCAF VSL 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.

Progressions

You are required to issue progressions to all students currently accessing a VET Student Loan at 4-monthly intervals throughout a student’s enrolment. You should issue progressions for all VSL students, including those who have ceased study. This allows students to provide the most up to date status of their studies - continuing, deferred, withdrawn or completed.

You should encourage students to participate in the progression process and explain:

the importance of completing the progression forms
they need to complete and submit the form within 2 weeks of receiving the invitation email
the response options as required.

The absence of an issued or submitted progression, or a progression response indicating the student is no longer studying, may result in the student’s loan being closed for further payments.

When a student provides a completed status, the loan will be closed and the student is asked to complete a voluntary student satisfaction survey.

A student advising of their completion of the course:

ensures your reporting obligations are fulfilled and the VET Student Loan is closed so no further draw down can occur and
allows the department to capture course completion rates.

The department uses completion rates and student survey results to inform the re-approval process for providers.

You may wish to share the Progression Form Fact Sheet with students. For further information on progression requirements see section 4.7.3.1 of the VSL Manual for Providers or the Quick Guide – Progressions.

Transitioning students from superseded courses

We have identified payment errors caused by providers failing to transition students from superseded qualifications.

When training packages are superseded, training and assessment for all enrolled students must be completed before the transition period ends. This is usually 12 months unless ASQA has granted an extension. See Training products with current transition extensions | Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). You should support students to complete their course within this time or transition to the replacement qualification.

Transferred students, who are accessing a VET Student Loan, should have a matching eCAF for the replacement qualification code submitted before the first census day for the new course.

There are additional resources to assist you with superseded qualifications and transitioning students:

VET Student Loans requirement to have a verified USI

A Unique Student Identifier (USI) is an individual education number for life. Students are required to provide or create a USI as part of the application process for a VET Student Loan. System changes have been implemented from the August pay run to check all students have a verified USI recorded.

From the August pay run onwards, you will not receive payments for new VET Student Loans, unless the student has a verified USI. Where you make changes to an existing VET Student Loan created on or after 1 January 2021, the loan will be reassessed and will also require a verified USI.

If the USI is not verified at the time pay run data is extracted for that payment period, that unit will not be paid. The non-payment reason of ‘insufficient student details to complete USI verification’ will be displayed on the payment report. Where USI is not verified for an existing loan that is being reassessed, the same non-payment reason will also be displayed on the payment report.

You are required to update the USI in TCSI. Please see the latest VSL reporting requirements at VET Student Loans 2024 | TCSI Support.

If the USI is not verified within 90 days:

new loans will be rejected
existing loans that have already been paid but are being reassessed, due to changes you have made, may be recovered.

There are no changes to the existing notifications you receive from TCSI. See Notifications | TCSI Support for more information on notifications and appropriate action.

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 at VET Student Loans – subscribe.You can access previous copies of the newsletter at VET Student Loans Provider Newsletter.

VSL Provider Newsletter – August 2024

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