Postgraduate study

A full-fee place is a place at university that receives no financial contribution from the government. Fees cover the full cost of tuition and vary from program to program.

If you are enrolled in a full-fee place, you may be eligible to apply for a FEE-HELP loan, which you can use to defer payment of part or all of your tuition fees.

To be eligible for a domestic full-fee place you must be:

• an Australian citizen, or
• an Australian permanent visa holder or New Zealand citizen

If you meet the above criteria but are not enrolled in a full-fee place, then you are a Commonwealth supported student.

If you do not meet the eligibility criteria for a domestic full-fee place or a Commonwealth supported place, please visit the RMIT International fees site.

You will pay fees based upon the number of credit points you are enrolled in for your program and the fee per credit point for that program in the current year.

Most programs at RMIT have a standard annual full-time load of 96 credit points, so you can estimate your expected tuition fee for the year by multiplying the fee per credit point by 96.

You can also calculate the cost of any course in the same way. The list of courses offered by RMIT contains the credit point value for each course. The undergraduate and postgraduate full-fees list contains the fee per credit point for each program.

• 2020 course list (PDF 5.7MB 180p)
• 2020 domestic higher education full-fee tuition fees (PDF 460kb 10p)

Example 1:

In 2020, a student will be enrolled full-time in MC249 Master of Advertising. To calculate the annual tuition fee for this program, the student needs to multiply the number of credit points by the fee per credit point as follows:

Example 2:

Some programs, such as accelerated programs, may require enrolment in more than 96 credit points in each year to enable students to complete the program in the allocated time. To calculate fees in these programs, students will need to know how many credit points are required in the year of their enrolment.

For example, in 2020 a student will be enrolled full-time in MC245 Master of Design Futures, which has a total of 144 credit points. This is an accelerated program and can be completed in one year. The tuition fee for 2020 can be calculated as follows:

RMIT reserves the right to adjust tuition fees for full-fee places on an annual basis by an amount that will not exceed 7.5% each year (subject to rounding).

For higher education fees, tuition fees are rounded up to the nearest $10 per credit point increment, and so the actual fee increase may exceed 7.5%.

You may be eligible to apply for a FEE-HELP loan, which you can use to defer payment of part or all of your tuition fees.

Don’t forget to include other fees such as the student services and amenities fee (SSAF) and materials fees to dete/content/rmit/au/en/study-with-us/applying-to-rmit/local-student-applications/fees/commonwealth-assistance-help-loans/defer-paying-student-services-and-amenities-feermine the overall costs. 

You may be eligible to apply to defer payment of the SSAF through the SA-HELP loan scheme.

A Commonwealth supported place (CSP) is a place at university where your tuition fee is jointly paid by you and the Australian Government.

Your share of the fee (student contribution) is set by the government on an annual basis and determined by the discipline areas (bands) of your individual enrolled courses (subjects), not the overall program. 

Most postgraduate students pay full-fees. However, Commonwealth supported places (CSPs) are available to eligible students in some postgraduate coursework programs.

As a CSP student, you may be eligible to apply for a HECS-HELP loan, which can be used to defer payment of up to 100% of your student contribution fees.

Students who don't require an exact figure for their student contribution amount can estimate their contribution by assuming that all courses in their program will be from the same band and using the maximum student contribution for that band as their estimate.

For example, if a student is enrolled in an Accounting degree their approximate annual student contribution will be $11,155 in 2020.

The Australian Government has recently proposed changes to the way tertiary education is funded from 2021. Please note these changes are subject to the passage of legislation, and refer to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment website for the most up-to-date information on the status of those changes.

What this means for you

If you enrol in a Commonwealth supported place (CSP) your tuition fees are subsidised by the Australian Government. Under these proposed changes, the amount of money the Government provides RMIT (the Commonwealth contribution) for different courses will change in 2021. This means the amount of money you will be charged (the student contribution) is also likely to change compared to the 2021 rate. 

Students studying courses in key growth areas will see reductions in their student contributions, including for science, engineering, health, architecture, education, nursing and mathematics, compared to 2020 fee rates.

These changes will commence on 1 January 2021, subject to the passage of legislation.

Commencing students

Students commencing study in 2021 in arts, law, economics, creative arts and communications courses will see increases in student contributions for those units compared to 2020.

Continuing students

Continuing students will contribute the same amounts for arts, law, economics, creative arts and communications courses as they would have done before this policy was implemented. For more information, see the section below 'Grandfathering arrangements for continuing students'.

Note: applicants who deferred a 2020 offer are commencing students in 2021 and their fees will be charged accordingly.

Commonwealth supported places and HECS-HELP

A Commonwealth supported place is not the same as HECS-HELP. Eligible students in a CSP may also apply for a HECS-HELP loan from the Australian Government to pay for these fees. If you are approved for a HECS-HELP and/or SA-HELP loan, the Australian Government will pay RMIT on your behalf, up to the full amount of your fees. This amount will become part of your accumulated HELP debt.

• www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans - link to Study Assist content about HELP loans

Any queries?

Please contact Study@RMIT

The Australian Government has proposed changes to fees for Commonwealth supported places for 2021. Under these changes, what you are charged in 2021 will depend on if you are a commencing or continuing student.

The 2021 fees in the tables below are subject to the passage of legislation. Annual fees displayed are per EFTSL: Effective Full-Time Student Load

2021 student contribution fees for commencing students

2021 Commonwealth supported place fees for continuing students

Grandfathering arrangements will be in place for continuing students who would see an increase in their student contribution amounts under the Government's new Commonwealth supported place fee structure.

Under these arrangements, students who commenced their course of study before 1 January 2021 and are facing increased student contribution amounts for a unit, will instead have their student contribution amount remain as it were under 2020 arrangements (with fees indexed by CPI each year).

If continuing students are enrolled in units that will see their student contribution amount lowered under the Government's new CSP fee structure, their student contribution will be the lowered amount.

^ Effective Full-Time Student Load

Note:

*If you began your course of study prior to 1 January 2010 you may be considered a pre-2010 student. Pre-2010 students will be charged $5,348 per EFTSL for education and nursing courses (subjects) in 2020. Students who started their course of study on or after 1 January 2010 are subject to the band 1 student contribution amount specified in the above tables for education and nursing units.

To determine the exact annual fee for a program, you need to know which courses you will be undertaking as well as the band and weight for each course.

• 2020 course list (PDF 5.7MB 180p)

To calculate an exact fee for a course, the student contribution is calculated by multiplying the EFTSL value of the course by the maximum student contribution for the band that the course has been allocated to. Your enrolment program structure shows which courses you need to complete to meet the academic requirements of your program. 

Example 1: student contribution for one course

A 12 credit point economics course has an EFTSL of 0.125 and is in Band 3. The 2020 student contribution for this course will be $1,394.00 (rounded down to the nearest dollar):

$11,155 x 0.125 = $1,394.00

Example 2: student contribution for multiple courses

A student commences a Master degree in 2020. In their first year, they enrol in eight courses of equal weighting (8 x 12 credit point courses), which comprise a standard full-time load (96 credit points). They enrol in five business courses and three arts courses. Their student contribution for 2019 would be calculated as follows:

* the fee for each course is rounded down to the nearest dollar

Please note

Some programs, such as accelerated programs, may require students to enrol in more than 96 credit points in some or all years of the program. The annual student contribution can still be determined by adding together the cost for each course undertaken in that year.

Some programs, such as accelerated programs, may require students to enrol in more than 96 credit points in some or all years of the program.

The annual student contribution can still be determined by adding together the cost for each course undertaken in that year.

Don’t forget to include other fees such as the student services and amenities fee (SSAF) and materials fees to determine the overall costs. 

You may be eligible to apply to defer payment of the SSAF through the SA-HELP loan scheme.