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FEE-HELP

Students in any MCD University of Divinity course who are Australian citizens, or hold a permanent humanitarian visa, can have their tuition fees met by a loan from the Commonwealth Government. The scheme – established by the Higher Education Support Act (2003) – is called the Higher Education Loan Program: FEE-HELP for short.

To apply for a FEE-HELP loan, you must fill in the Government form and hand it in to the Academic Records Office, which will then forward it to the MCD University of Divinity. Please return completed forms by end of the first teaching week of each semester (for new applications). Forms and the FEE-HELP Information 2012 booklet are available from CTC. Your tuition fees will be paid to the MCD University of Divinity office by the Commonwealth, and CTC will receive payment for your tuition and library use.

Before you apply for a loan, note the following carefully:
A. The Government requires that, before you sign the FEE-HELP form, you must read the FEE-HELP Information 2012 booklet so that you are aware of your obligations under the scheme. If you participate in FEE-HELP, your details will be listed in DEST’s Higher Education Information Management Scheme (HEIMS), and you will receive a Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number (CHESSN), which remains unique to you for life.
B. For undergraduate courses the Government adds a one-off 25% loan fee to your tax liability: a 15-point unit costing $1,098 will thus incur a tax liability of $1,372.50.
For graduate and postgraduate courses no further charge applies.
C. You must have a Tax File Number to apply for a FEE-HELP loan. Your loan is repaid through the tax system (like HECS). When your income reaches $47,196 (the 2011/2012 figure – it will be indexed upwards) you pay a proportion back with your tax. The higher your income, the higher the repayment proportion, starting at 4.0%. Voluntary early repayment over $500 receives a discount of 5%.
Your FEE-HELP tax liability increases by the CPI on June 1st each year, but remains stable in ‘real dollar’ terms. If someone with a FEE-HELP debt dies, only the repayment due in that tax year is billed; the rest is cancelled.
D. You can take out a maximum FEE-HELP loan of $86,422 (2011 figure) in total during your lifetime, and are entitled to seven (full-time) years of Student Learning Entitlement (SLE), normally through HECS support. As HECS is not available to MCD University of Divinity students, using FEE-HELP for MCD University of Divinity study does not use up any of your SLE.

The MCD University of Divinity and CTC take your right to privacy seriously, and only use information you provide for the purpose for which you give it. The top page of the FEE-HELP form includes your Tax File Number (TFN), which is seen by only two people in the MCD University of Divinity office; the CTC office keeps a copy of the second page, which does not include your TFN.

The government sets a census date for each unit. All enrolments in relation to FEE-HELP loans must be finalised at CTC by this date.

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