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Member colleges recently notified English Australia that the following update was made to the PRISMS News section:
Changes to PRISMS, effective 6:30 PM, 11th July 2012 - 10/07/2012
• The initial pre-paid tuition fee ‘From’ and ‘To’ dates is optional where the initial pre-paid fee is Zero (0).
• The limit to the amount of initial pre-paid fee to no more that 50% of the total tuition fee has changed from 24 weeks to 30 weeks to allow additional six weeks for orientation and holiday periods.
• A new question has been introduced to streamline the default process where no money is owed to the student.
• The questions around the written claim by student for refund of tuition fees during the default process have changed for further clarity.
• Default type ‘Student (with Visa approved)’ has changed to ‘Student (other)’ to be able to accommodate a broader choice of default types, where it is not related to a visa refusal.
Colleges queried the second dot point - whether this was a change of policy and meant they could now accept pre-paid fees for up to 30 weeks.
English Australia followed this up with AEI and received the following clarification:
A provider cannot take up to 30 weeks tuition. The legislation has not changed in that a provider must not receive more than 50% of the student’s total tuition fees for a course before the student has begun the course. The only situation where this does not apply is where the course has only one study period. (Study periods as per the legislation must be no longer than 24 weeks). If there is only one study period or the course is less than 24 weeks then a provider may accept 100% of the tuition fees if they so desire.
The intent of the PRISMS change was to assist providers who have only one study period but who also have holiday periods included in the CoE length as per Part C of the National Code which requires the course duration to include structured holiday breaks.
PRISMS initially had a check when a CoE was being added that detected when the CoE duration was greater than 24 weeks and imposed a stop on the user where the prepaid tuition fee exceeded 50% of the total tuition fee. Given the stop was too inflexible due to the CoE ‘from’ and ‘to’ dates including orientation and holiday periods, the PRISMS Add CoE check on prepaid tuition fees was amended to allow a CoE with a duration up to 30 weeks to take above 50% of the total fees.
This is not a license for providers to take above 50% of tuition fees for 24 to 30 week courses unless there is a maximum of 24 weeks study included in the CoE duration. It should be noted that providers practices for taking tuition fees will be monitored and may be used in any risk based initiatives like compliance monitoring, so providers should have documentary evidence to support taking greater than 50% of pre-paid tuition fees for CoEs with durations between 24 and 30 weeks.
The following FAQ questions on the AEI website may also be of assistance:
• How should providers deal with course fees that apply to different course lengths? (Updated 12 June 2012)
Providers have flexibility to determine the length of each study period (within the 24 week bandwidth) and the fees that apply to each study period.
• If the course is less than 24 weeks are there any limits on the amount of tuition fees providers can collect before the student commences and when can providers collect any remaining tuition fees? (Updated 1 May 2012).
No. If a course is only 24 weeks or less it only has one study period and therefore there are no restrictions on when or how much of the tuition fees for the course you can collect either before or after commencement.
• Are holiday breaks included in the study periods set out in the written agreement? (Updated 1 May 2012).
The information about courses and their study periods should reflect the duration of the course as it is registered. Part C of the National Code requires that course duration includes structured holiday breaks and also allows the duration of ELICOS courses to vary according to each student’s learning goals as reflected in the expected duration of study on the student’s CoE. There is no requirement for holiday breaks to be included in any particular study period, this is up to each provider to determine. This means, for example, that if a provider has a CRICOS registered course of 26 weeks with 4 weeks of holidays, the written agreement could specify a study period of 22 weeks. In this case, in the interests of transparency, the written agreement should also outline the number of weeks holiday that are not included in the study period.
• If a holiday break is included in a study period, this may mean that the student’s CoE is longer than 24 weeks. Can a provider receive 100% of pre-paid fees for a course where the CoE is longer than 24 weeks even though the course actually has no more than one study period of 24 weeks excluding holidays? (Updated 4 May 2012).
Yes. The student’s CoE should accurately represent the course of study being undertaken by the student and if it includes a holiday break, it may be longer than 24 weeks but only include one study period. The obligation for a provider to receive no more than 50% of the student’s total tuition fees does not apply if the course has only one study period.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Secretariat if you have any questions.
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