FAQs
To be an eligible student for the purposes of accessing VET Student Loans, you must meet ALL of these criteria:
You are: an Australian citizen; OR
a qualifying New Zealand citizen (see information about NZ citizen); OR
a permanent humanitarian visa holder, who is usually resident in Australia. Your FEE-HELP balance is more than $0 and is sufficient to cover the amount you wish to access.
You are enrolled with an approved course provider (SAE is an approved provider of VET Student Loans) and have enrolled in accordance with the application requirements.
You are studying the approved course primarily at a campus in Australia. You have been assessed by your approved course provider as academically suited to undertake the approved course on the basis of either:
providing your Australian Year 12 Certificate; OR
providing evidence of successful completion of an Australian Qualifications Framework Certificate IV or higher qualification (where the language of instruction is English); OR
displaying competence at Exit Level 3 in the Australian Core Skills Framework in both reading and numeracy through an approved Language, Literacy and Numeracy test.
In addition, your approved course provider must reasonably believe you show competence in completing the course.
You meet the Tax File Number (TFN) requirements. You have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) or are otherwise exempt.
You have read the VET Student Loans information booklet.
You have given the required documents to your approved course provider and submitted the loan application form by the first census day no less than two business days after enrolling.
SAE does not have a minimum ATAR requirement for entry.
A balanced program of subjects in your senior studies is the best preparation for our programs. If you are interested in visual aspects of creative media (animation, graphic design, web design) then visual art is a great preparation. If you are interested in audio production, then music performance or production is ideal. Mathematics is great for games programming. English, especially storytelling and drama, is ideal for filmmaking.
To get a FEE-HELP loan, you must:
be an Australian citizen and study at least part of your course in Australia or be a New Zealand Special Category visa (SCV) holder or permanent humanitarian visa holder and meet the residency requirements
– permanent residents can only get FEE-HELP for approved bridging studies be enrolled in a fee-paying place at a provider that offers FEE-HELP loans be enrolled in an eligible course at your provider by the census date (your provider can tell you if your course is eligible)
submit the Request for FEE-HELP loan form to your provider by the census date
have an available HELP balance.
not have undertaken more than 2 years worth of higher education study in the last 12 months, unless your provider has assessed you as capable of taking on a higher study load.
you must have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) prior to the first census date to be eligible for FEE-HELP if you are starting a new course in 2021. Applying for a USI is fast and free, and you keep the same USI for life. You can apply for a USI, or check if you already have one, at www.usi.gov.au.
If you are studying at a non-university higher education provider, you must maintain a pass-rate of 50 per cent or above to continue to be eligible for FEE-HELP.
Can I come in and work on assessments on the weekend?