How to determine if a course is approved for ABSTUDY purposes. 010-02080010

One of the general eligibility criteria for ABSTUDY is that the student must be enrolled in an approved course. ABSTUDY policy has an additional course approval requirement to that set out in the Student Assistance (Educational Institutions and Courses) Determination under the Student Assistance Act 1973 (the Ministerial Determination) that governs the approval of courses for student payments generally. This additional requirement is to determine whether a course is an ‘Excluded Course for ABSTUDY purposes’ or not and is the first step towards assessing whether the course is an approved course for the purposes of ABSTUDY. See the References page in Approved courses of study for ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) for a link to the Student Assistance (Educational Institutions and Courses) Determination.

A mainstream course is a course available to all members of the Australian community. The majority of mainstream courses, approved under the Ministerial Determination, are also Approved courses of study for ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC).

If a course is not an Excluded Course and meets the requirements of the Ministerial Determination, it is an ABSTUDY ‘mainstream course’ and therefore is an approved course. If a course is not available to all members of the Australian community, or doesn’t meet the requirements of the Ministerial Determination as outlined in Approved courses of study for ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC), it is normally considered to be an excluded course for the purposes of ABSTUDY.

Courses that would otherwise be Excluded Courses, either because they are not available to all members of the Australian community or don't meet the requirements of the Ministerial Determination, may be able to be approved ABSTUDY courses if they are Indigenous special courses.

Courses that are not available to all members of the Australian community are normally Excluded Courses for ABSTUDY purposes. Courses not accredited or conducted by a non-registered education provider are also normally Excluded Courses.

An exception to these exclusions applies to Indigenous special courses.

Note: if a course is being assessed to see if it is an Indigenous special course but is an Excluded Course for any other reason, it cannot be approved for ABSTUDY. However if the course is accredited by an education provider, or relevant State/Territory or Australian Government authority (that is, Australian Skills Quality Authority) it can be an approved course for other student payments and the student should test their eligibility for them.

Students doing a Startup Year Course, to be eligible for ABSTUDY must be:

• enrolled in the course, and
• selected for a STARTUP-HELP loan by their higher education provider

See Startup Year Courses for more information.

Both a mainstream and Indigenous special course (other than those approved by a correctional services authority for a student in lawful custody) can be approved either as a full-time course or as a part-time course. This is determined by the content and structure of the course. The level of study load a student undertakes in a course is not related to the approval of a course as either full-time or part-time. Entitlements available to a student undertaking a full-time study load are only available in courses that are approved as full-time courses.