Focus on studies. Not fees.

All undergraduate degrees and select postgraduate degrees at La Trobe University offer CSPs.

A Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) is available for Australian citizens and eligible residents, such as New Zealand citizens and permanent humanitarian visa holders who meet the residency and study requirements. Any students who don’t qualify for a CSP Place can still enrol as a full-fee paying student.

To be eligible for a CSP eligible citizens and residents must be studying either most or all of their course in Australia, and meet all additional eligibility and residency requirements set out by the Australian Government.

When you apply and have been approved for a CSP in a course, you will be assessed against the eligibility criteria. Just being eligible for a CSP does not mean that you will be automatically offered a CSP place in your preferred course, you must still meet the academic entry requirements.

To maintain your eligibility for a CSP, you will be required meet completion rate requirements in the course you are studying.

For the latest eligibility requirements, visit HECS-HELP on the Study Assist website.

To apply for a CSP, follow the steps below:

1. Select a CSP Course from the list of courses above

2. Begin the Application Process

3. Select ‘Apply for Commonwealth Supported Place’ on the course fees page and provide relevant documentation

4. Follow the instructions to 'accept your offer' in your offer letter. The letter will tell you if the place you have been offered is a CSP or not.

5. Complete your CSP and HECS-HELP loan application form by the census date.

All undergraduate course at La Trobe offer CSPs*. However, undergraduate courses may have limited number of CSPs available, and certain postgraduate courses only offer full-fee paying places.

If your course doesn’t qualify for a CSP or if you haven’t been offered a CSP place in the course you wish to study, then a full-fee paying place may be available to you.

In a full fee-paying place, the government does not subsidise the cost of your education, so you will be required to pay the full amount. You may still be eligible for a FEE-HELP loan to defer your tuition fees through compulsory and voluntary repayments.

* with exceptions for certain courses offered via partnership arrangements, such as the Diploma of Elite Sport Business and Diploma of Sport Coaching and Development.

The student contribution is usually deferred to the Australian Government as a loan. There are two ways to repay your HELP debt directly through the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), through compulsory repayments or voluntary repayments.

For a compulsory payment, you’ll be expected to start repaying it through your tax once your income goes above a certain amount, this is called the ‘compulsory repayment threshold’.

Voluntary repayments are in addition to the compulsory payments where you can make extra repayments to lower your HECS-HELP debt.

For the latest information, visit the Loan Payment page on Study Assist.

For compulsory payments, you’ll be expected to start repaying it through your tax once your income goes above a certain threshold.

How much you can earn before you have to start paying as well as the amount you have to pay can change each year, but there are some exceptions in place for low family incomes and serious financial hardship circumstances.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will calculate your compulsory repayments based on your yearly income. Your repayment rate will vary from 1% to 10% of your total earnings.

When you start a new job, you must notify your employer or declare it on your tax declaration forms that you have a HECS-HELP debt. The amount you will be required to pay will depend on your earnings.

For the latest breakdown for compulsory repayments, visit the Loan Payment page on Study Assist.

A Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) is a place within a higher education course where the Australian Government pays a contribution toward the cost of your education. The amount you're required to pay is known as the ‘Student Contribution’.

A HECS-HELP loan is used to pay the student contribution, with payments for the loan deferred through your tax payments once your income goes above the minimum threshold.

Eligibility for a CSP and HECS-HELP are not the same, so it’s important to ensure you meet the eligibility and obligation requirements for both.

If you or your course doesn’t qualify for a CSP, then you will be enrolled in a full-fee paying place where you will be required to cover the full amount of your university fees.

You may still be eligible for a FEE-HELP loan to defer your tuition fees through compulsory and voluntary payments. The HELP loan limit will depend on the course you study, and will vary from year to year.

For the latest information, visit the Loan Payment page on Study Assist.

Your student contribution amount depends on the course you study. Each unit of study is classified in a funding cluster, which will specify how much the government will contribute to that subject.

The amount of student contribution you will need to pay depends on the discipline of the subjects you enrol in, and the number of credit points of each subject. Throughout your course, you may take on subjects that come from different funding clusters.

There are four different funding cluster groups:

• Funding cluster 1: Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, Communications, Society and Culture
• Funding cluster 2: Education, Postgraduate Clinical Psychology, English, Mathematics or Statistics, Allied Health, Other Health, Built Environment, Computing, Visual and Performing Arts, Professional Pathway Psychology or Professional Pathway Social Work, Nursing, Indigenous and Foreign Languages
• Funding cluster 3: Engineering, Surveying, Environmental Studies or Science
• Funding cluster 4: Agriculture. Pathology, Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary Science

For a detailed breakdown of student contribution amounts, visit Student Contribution Amounts on Study Assist.

A HECS-HELP loan only covers your student contribution amount. It doesn’t cover any additional costs like accommodation, laptops, textbooks or fees such as student union or membership fees.

La Trobe University charges a Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) in order to help fund non-academic services and amenities for students. You may be eligible to defer your SSAF through SA- HELP.

If you're claiming Youth Allowance, Austudy or ABSTUDY payments, you can apply for a Student Start-up Loan twice per year to help cover any additional costs for study. This is a voluntary loan you will be required to pay back through your tax once you are employed.

Yes, there is a limit on the amount of HECS-HELP you can borrow. Your HELP loan limit depends on what you are studying, and the limit is updated by the government each year.

The 2025 combined HELP loan limit for most students is $126,839. However, students studying certain approved degrees such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and aviation may have higher limits.

If you have studied before, you can check your available HELP balance at www.myHELPbalance.gov.au.

For the latest information, visit Combined HELP loan limit on Study Assist.