Commonwealth Scholarships 010-07030060

Universities may offer Indigenous Commonwealth Scholarships under the Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP). The ISSP provides supplementary funding to universities to help students take on the demands of university and succeed. Universities can offer scholarships, tutorial assistance, mentoring, safe cultural spaces and other personal support services to First Nations students using ISSP funding. The flexibility of the ISSP assists universities to tailor their services to match student needs.

The ISSP superseded the:

• Indigenous Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship (CAS)
• Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship (CECS)
• Indigenous Commonwealth Reward Scholarship

Universities now offer the Indigenous Commonwealth Reward Scholarship, CAS or CECS as a scholarship under the ISSP. Students are required to provide confirmation of the ISSP and whether the ISSP is for:

• education costs (previously CECS)
• relocation and/or accommodation costs (previously CAS)
• a payment that:
• is unlikely to be repeated
• is not intended to duplicate or supplement education or relocation and/or accommodations costs
• the recipient would not have reasonably expected to receive

Universities can determine the value, purpose, duration and other conditions of the ISSP scholarship. They must advise students in writing of the conditions before the student accepts the offer.

Advice that offers of Commonwealth Scholarship have been made, accepted, deferred, or terminated is received from the Department of Education.

A student cannot receive a scholarship under the ISSP for education costs (previously CECS) in the six months immediately before or immediately after their Qualification Test Day (QTD) for Student Start-up Loan (SSL). If a scholarship under the ISSP for education costs is granted within this time, payment of SSL is precluded. Refer to Student Start-up Loan for more information.

If a student receives a scholarship under the ISSP for relocation and/or accommodation costs (previously CAS), they cannot receive a Relocation Scholarship (RS) or Residential Costs Option (RCO) for the same relevant scholarship period. However, if the offer of the place in a residential college or hostel is received after the qualification date for Relocation Scholarship or a scholarship under the ISSP for relocation and/or accommodation costs, RCO may still be payable. See Payment of Residential Costs Option (RCO) for ABSTUDY and ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) for more information.

A scholarship funded under the ISSP for costs other than education and/or accommodation/relocation costs, does not preclude payment of Student Start-up Loan or Relocation Scholarship.

Note: the Indigenous Access Scholarship (IAS) paid before 1 January 2017 does not preclude payment of SSS, SSL or RS.

Higher education providers are required under the Commonwealth Scholarship guidelines to provide details of offers to Department of Education:

• 22 January for semester one offers
• 15 June for semester two offers

To prevent duplication of scholarship income support, the Services Australia new claim process requires prospective customers to declare income from scholarships.

Services Australia also liaises with other organisations, such as the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) that disburse scholarships drawn from Commonwealth Government funds to prevent, detect and recover overpayments (where appropriate).

Through the Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI), Services Australia will receive accurate and up to date student enrolment details including Commonwealth Scholarship information from the Department of Education.

Higher education providers are required to report details of Commonwealth Scholarships to the Department of Education. There are two reporting periods that higher education providers must provide information for:

• period 1 covering January to June, and
• period 2 covering July to December each calendar year.

Commonwealth Scholarships are reported as:

• Offered – customer has received an offer but is yet to either accept or decline the offer
• Verified – a scholarship was paid for a given period
• active - the scholarship was active on the last day of the reporting period
• deferred and terminated - the status of the scholarship was either deferred or terminated on the last date of the reporting period. In these instances, staff need to confirm if the customer received an amount greater than $0 to determine qualification for SSL, RS and RCO

For more details, see Student Payment Circumstance Updates (Student Payment Reviews)