Undergraduate study

All undergraduate and honours degrees have Commonwealth supported places (CSPs) available, except the Associate Degree in Aviation (Professional Pilots) program, which is full-fee only. 

A CSP is a place at university where the tuition fee is jointly paid by you and the Commonwealth Government. Your share of the fee (student contribution) is set by the government and determined by the discipline areas (also referred to as bands) of your individual enrolled courses (subjects), not the overall program.

To be eligible for a CSP you must be:

• an Australian citizen, or
• an Australian permanent visa holder or New Zealand citizen, and
• meet the relevant citizenship and residency requirements.

If you are an Australian citizen, you will meet the CSP residency requirements if you undertake at least some of your program of study in Australia.

If you are a permanent visa holder or a New Zealand citizen, you must be resident in Australia for the duration of your course(s) to meet the CSP residency requirements.

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.

You cannot be enrolled in a Commonwealth supported place under the following circumstances:

• the course contributes to a program that is being undertaken primarily at an overseas campus
• the enrolment is an employer-reserved place
• the course forms part of a bridging course for overseas-trained professionals, or
• the course forms part of a program the Minister has specified, by way of legislative instrument, that students cannot be enrolled in as Commonwealth supported students.

Each program has courses you must complete to meet the academic requirements of your award program. If you wish to study additional courses that are not part of your program, you will be unable to study those additional courses and receive Commonwealth support. This is because the additional courses do not contribute towards your degree.

If you have already completed a course for which a pass grade or higher has been achieved, and the course contributes to the academic requirements of your award program, you will be unable to re-enrol in that same course and be Commonwealth supported. 

If you wish to study additional courses that do not contribute towards your degree, or continue studying once you have met the requirements for your award program, you may have options to do so under other enrolment arrangements such as non-award study, single or short courses. 

If you enrolled in a short online Undergraduate Certificate or Graduate Certificate as part of the Australian Government’s relief package to support workers displaced by COVID-19 retrain or upskill, you received a significant discount for your 2020 Commonwealth supported place (CSP) fees. This Government discount applies to 2020 fees only.

If you continue to study your Undergraduate Certificate or Graduate Certificate beyond 2020, discounted CSP fees will no longer apply and you will be charged normal CSP fees.

If you progress from a Graduate Certificate to a Master’s degree, you will not be guaranteed a CSP in the Master’s degree. If CSPs are being offered in the Master’s, it will be at the discretion of RMIT University to offer them. If CSPs are unavailable, you will be offered a full-fee paying place.

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.

Some programs, such as Double Degrees, may require students to enrol in more than a standard full-time load (96 credit points) in some or all years of the program. The annual student contribution can be determined by adding together the cost for each course undertaken in that year.

The Australian Government has introduced changes to the way tertiary education is funded from 2021. 

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 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 2020 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.

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.

Commencing students studying courses in disciplines where there has been a decrease to student contribution from 2021 will see a reduced student contribution for those units compared to 2020.

Important note: Under Government rules, applicants who deferred a 2020 offer are commencing students in 2021 and their fees will be charged accordingly.

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'.

Continuing students studying courses from disciplines where there has been a decrease to the student contribution from 2021 will see a reduced student contribution for those units compared to 2020.

• www.studyassist.gov.au/news/job-ready-graduates-package-higher-education-reforms-0 - Job-ready Graduates package FAQs for students 

Important note: Under Government rules, 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

What you are charged in 2021 will depend on if you are a commencing or continuing student. Annual fees displayed are per EFTSL: Effective Full-Time Student Load.

2021 student contribution fees for commencing students

*The Federal Government has indicated there will be two different fee rate fields for Professional Pathway Psychology, Professional Pathway Social Work courses and further detail will be released.

2021 student contribution 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.

Important note: Under Government rules, applicants who deferred a 2020 offer are commencing students in 2021 and their fees will be charged accordingly.

Professional Pathway Psychology and Professional Pathway Social Work

Commencing students in these programs will be charged student contribution fees based on their program type for the units (courses) that meet the Australian Government’s Professional Pathway Psychology or Professional Pathway Social Work requirements.

For Professional Pathway Psychology, these are units that begin with field of education prefix 0907 (e.g 090701, 090799).

For Professional Pathway Social Work, these are units that begin with field of education prefix 0905 (e.g 090509, 090513).

Postgraduate Clinical Psychology

Continuing and commencing students in MC002 Master of Clinical Psychology will be charged student contribution fees at the Postgraduate Clinical Psychology rate for units (courses) that meet the Australian Government’s requirements for this program type, which are units with field of education 090701.

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.

• 2021 Course list (PDF 8MB 104p)

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. For a commencing student, the 2021 student contribution for this course will be $1,812.00 (rounded down to the nearest dollar):

$14,500 x 0.125 = $1,812.00

Example 2: student contribution for multiple courses

A student commences a degree in 2021. 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 mathematics courses. Their student contribution for 2021 would be calculated as follows:

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

As a CSP student, you may be eligible to apply for a HECS-HELP loan, which can be used to defer payment of your student contribution to the Australian Tax Office up to your HELP limit

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.

If you are an Australian citizen or a permanent humanitarian visa holder enrolled in a CSP, and you meet the HECS-HELP eligibility criteria, you can apply for a HECS-HELP loan to defer payment of your student contribution.

If you are a permanent (non-humanitarian) visa holder, or a New Zealand citizen who does not meet the NZ SCV long-term residency requirements, you are not eligible for HECS-HELP. You must pay your student contributions upfront by the census date.

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 your tuition fees to the Australian Tax Office up to your HELP limit.

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 full-fee tuition fees list contains the fee per credit point for each program.

• 2021 Course list (PDF 8MB 104p)
• 2021 Domestic higher education full-fee tuition fees (PDF 460kb 9p)

Example 1:

A student will be enrolled full-time in a degree. The fee-per-credit-point for their program is $300. They can calculate their fees as follows:

Example 2:

Some programs, such as double degrees, 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, a student will be enrolled full-time in a double degree, requiring 432 credit points over four years. They enrol in 108 credit points in their first year. Their tuition fee for the year 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 your tuition fees to the Australian Tax Office up to your HELP limit.

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.

Most higher education programs at RMIT have a standard annual full-time load of 96 credit points that is equal to 1 EFTSL (Effective Full-time Student Load). Although there are some exceptions (such as double degrees, which may require a student to undertake more than the standard 96 credit points), this does not change the way EFTSL is calculated.

The EFTSL of any course can be determined by dividing its allocated credit points by 96. For example, a 12 credit point course has an EFTSL of 0.125 (12/96 = 0.125).

Below is a list of EFTSL values for the more common credit point values: