Defining levels of tertiary study 010-07010050

Includes a course for a degree of Master (or equivalent).

Master’s courses that are not specified in Schedule 3 of the Student Assistance (Education provider and Courses) Determination are not approved courses for Youth Allowance, Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement purposes.

For the purposes of ABSTUDY, an approved Masters or Doctorate course is a full-time course for which Masters or Doctorate degree is offered by an approved higher education provider.

Courses at this level are coded as Masters (MST) or Doctorate (DOC) on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen.

Note: Doctorates (DOC) can only be coded for ABSTUDY and ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).

Include:

• a ‘postgraduate bachelor’s degree’ course, with or without honours, where entry is based on the student already holding a bachelor qualification. Note: care needs to be taken with these courses. The same degree can be coded as Level A for one student and Level B for another, depending on their entry to the course. See Social Security Guide, 1.1.L.40, Levels of tertiary courses (YA, Austudy, PES)
• a graduate or postgraduate diploma course
• a course of practical legal training at a higher education provider
• a course of advanced education regarded by an accrediting authority as being at PG1 level
• a graduate certificate course

Courses at this level are coded as Tertiary Group A Course (TGA) on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen unless the customer is undertaking a standalone honours year and one of the above course types was a pre-requisite.

Standalone honours at this level are recorded as Honours Group A Course (HGA) on the EDC screen. See Student intending to undertake a course at Honours level, for more information regarding standalone Honours year. Note: the definition of a standalone Honours may differ to the way the course is described in the education provider’s handbook.

Include:

• a bachelor’s degree course (other than a postgraduate course) with or without honours
• the bachelor level component of a master’s degree course with concurrent bachelor and master’s level study
• a diploma course other than:
• a graduate or postgraduate diploma course, or
• a course for which an entry requirement is successful completion of Year 10 studies, or
• a TAFE course
• a course provided by a Vocational Education and Training provider (this only applies to Austudy and Youth Allowance)
• a Masters qualifying course
• the Barristers or Solicitors Admission Boards course
• a course of advanced education regarded by an accrediting authority as being at UG1 or UG2 level

Courses at this level are coded as Tertiary Group B Course (TGB) on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen unless the customer is undertaking a standalone honours year and one of the course types listed above was a pre-requisite.

Standalone Honours at this level are recorded as Honours Group B Course (HGB) on the EDC screen. See Student intending to undertake a course at Honours level, for more information regarding standalone Honours year. Note: the definition of a standalone Honours may differ to the way the course is described in the education provider’s handbook.

Note: if a student is admitted into a ‘postgraduate bachelor degree’ on the basis of their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), or completion of a diploma and it is their first undergraduate course, then the course would be considered Level B even if the course is also available to postgraduate students.

Some Tertiary Group C course levels may qualify a customer for a scholarship payment, as long as the course is also an approved scholarship course. See Coding new study details for further information and correct coding.

Include:

• an associate degree course
• an associate diploma course
• a diploma course at a TAFE institution for which an entry requirement is successful completion of Year 12 secondary studies
• a diploma course provided by a Vocational Education and Training (VET) provider for which an entry requirement is successful completion of Year 12 secondary studies (this only applies to Austudy and Youth Allowance, for PES customers all VET provider courses are Level D courses)
• a two-year undergraduate diploma course (Higher Education Diploma)

A course at this level that is not an approved scholarship course is coded as Tertiary Group C Course (TGC) on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen.

An approved scholarship course at this level is coded as Tertiary Scholarship Course (Level C) (TSC) on the EDC screen.

Include:

• a TAFE course at a higher education provider
• a TAFE course, unless the course is in Level A, B, or C
• courses provided by a Vocational Education and Training provider, unless the course is a Level A, B, C or M (this only applies to Austudy and Youth Allowance)

Courses at this level are coded as Tertiary Group D Course (TGD) on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen.

Note: care must be taken when coding for ABSTUDY. The TGD code is not appropriate for Certificate level courses, because of specific ABSTUDY allowable time rules. Only the codes C01, C02, C03 or C04 can be used. For more information, Code '?' in the Course Level: field on the Education Course History (EDCH) screen.

Preparatory courses offered by a higher education provider are designed to assist people to gain entry to higher education level courses. They may also be known as enabling or bridging courses.

If a higher education provider delivers the course, it can be considered a preparatory course. The Student Assistance (Education provider and Courses) Determination defines such courses as a secondary level course. However, the Social Security (Approved Scholarship Courses) Determination classifies it as an approved scholarship course for the purposes of Relocation and Student Start-up scholarships and Student Start-up loans issued by Services Australia.

For:

• Youth Allowance and Austudy to enable payment of the scholarship, courses at this level are coded as Secondary Scholarship Non School (SSN) on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen
• ABSTUDY, courses at this level are coded as University Preparatory Course (UPC) on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen

The Resources page in Approved courses of study for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) contains a list of Course Assessment and Liaison Officers to contact if there is doubt that a preparatory course is a scholarship approved course.

Startup Year Courses are designed to support students’ participation in business-focused accelerator courses at Australian higher education providers, which will encourage innovation and support Australia’s startup community. Startup Year Courses are available to recent graduates, postgraduate and final year undergraduate students.

Startup Year Courses may be referred to or advertised as incubator courses or accelerator programmes. In legislation and policy, they are known as an accelerator program course.

Some Startup Year Courses are delivered as subjects under the overarching degree, such as a bachelor’s degree or Graduate Certificate. If this is the case the course level is coded as the primary degree. For example, a bachelor’s degree with Startup Year subjects would be coded as a TGB course level.

Standalone Startup Year Courses have their own course level and are recorded as Startup Year Course (SYC) on the EDC screen.

See Startup Year Courses for more information.