✦ Plain-English Summary

Education Legislation Amendment (2020 Measures No. 1) Bill 2020

What it does

This bill makes several technical fixes to Australia's higher education and vocational training loan systems. The main changes involve updating student identification requirements, validating certain loans that may have had issues, adjusting HELP (university loan) balances, and removing some student loan fees.

Why it matters

These are behind-the-scenes fixes to keep the student loan system running smoothly and fairly. If you're paying back a HELP debt or considering vocational education loans, this ensures the system has correct records and removes unnecessary barriers.

Key details

• Student ID requirement: From 1 January 2021, students need to have a valid student identifier before their course census date (the date that determines if they're officially enrolled). This applies to new students starting from January 2021 and all students from January 2023 onwards.

• Loan validation and HELP adjustments: The bill fixes loans and payments that may have been incorrectly processed, and corrects HELP account balances where errors occurred. These changes took effect immediately when the bill passed.

• Fee removal: Student loan fees for certain circumstances are being removed, effective immediately.

Official Description

Amends the: Higher Education Support Act 2003 to: require students commencing from 1 January 2021, and all students from 1 January 2023, to have a unique student identifier (USI) in order to be eligible for Commonwealth assistance; provide that a student's HELP balance is taken to be reduced immediately after the census date for HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, VET FEE-HELP assistance, and immediately after the census day for vocational education and training (VET) student loans; provide undergraduate students seeking FEE HELP loans with an exemption from the requirement to pay the 25 per cent loan fee for units of study with census dates from 1 April to 30 September 2020; and make minor and technical amendments; and VET Student Loans Act 2016 to require that all applications for VET student loans made on or after 1 January 2021 must include the student's USI. Also validates certain HELP loans and VET student loans by enabling the secretary to determine certain students who, due to having more than one Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number, have exceeded the HELP loan limit, and allow these students to repay the resulting excess debt amounts through the taxation system.

Committee Referrals

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.