This private senator's bill repeals and substitutes the table in section 93‑10 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003, establishing new maximum student contribution amounts for Commonwealth‑supported units of study by funding cluster. The new table lists specific dollar caps for each cluster and distinguishes between "nongrandfathered" and "grandfathered" students where relevant.
The change is narrowly focused: it replaces the statutory schedule of maximum student contributions and specifies that the replacement applies to units with a census date on or after commencement (the later of 1 January 2026 or the day after Royal Assent). For providers, students and administrators, the amendment fixes precise per‑unit caps that will govern what can be charged for Commonwealth‑supported places once it commences.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill repeals the existing maximum student contribution table in s93‑10 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and substitutes a new table that sets per‑unit dollar caps by funding cluster. It creates separate columns for nongrandfathered and grandfathered students where the amounts differ.
Who It Affects
Commonwealth‑funded higher education providers that offer Commonwealth‑supported places, students enrolled in units classified by the Act's funding clusters, and university finance and enrolment teams responsible for billing and compliance with HECS‑HELP rules.
Why It Matters
The statutory caps determine the maximum HECS‑style student liability for Commonwealth‑supported units and therefore shape student cost signals, institutional pricing room, and administrative rules for billing. Fixing exact dollar amounts in the statute creates certainty but reduces flexibility for indexation or tiering unless expressly accommodated elsewhere.
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What This Bill Actually Does
At its core the bill swaps out the statutory fee schedule found in section 93‑10 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and replaces it with a new table that assigns dollar amounts to defined funding clusters. Each line in the new table identifies a cluster (for example, Law/Accounting/Commerce; Communications/Society and Culture; Medicine/Dentistry/Veterinary Science; and others) and the maximum student contribution for a place in a unit in that cluster.
Where the statute distinguishes between 'nongrandfathered' and 'grandfathered' students it supplies separate dollar amounts for each group.
The amounts are explicit: high contribution caps appear for professional and commercial clusters (for example, Law, Accounting and Commerce set at $13,624 per unit), certain health and STEM clusters are set at $9,537 or $4,738 depending on the discipline, and there are specific lower caps for some humanities and teaching disciplines. Notably, the table treats some clusters identically for grandfathered and nongrandfathered students while for others it sets a lower grandfathered cap (for example, Visual and Performing Arts and Professional Pathway Psychology/Social Work have a lower grandfathered amount).Implementation is limited to units of study with a census date on or after commencement: the bill expressly applies the amended table to those units, whether the course began before or after commencement.
The Act's commencement clause sets the operative date as the later of 1 January 2026 or the day after Royal Assent, which creates a clear temporal trigger for applying the new caps. Beyond substituting the table and setting the application rule, the bill contains no other statutory amendments.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill repeals and substitutes the entire maximum student contribution table in section 93‑10 of the Higher Education Support Act 2003.
Item 1 places Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics and Commerce student contributions at $13,624 per unit (same for grandfathered and nongrandfathered students).
Item 2 separates disciplines across two tiers: Education/Clinical Psychology/English/Mathematics/Statistics at $4,738 per unit, and a higher tier (including Allied Health, Built Environment, Computing and Visual and Performing Arts) at $9,537 per unit for nongrandfathered students.
Under the replacement table, Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science are capped at $13,558 per unit (Item 4).
The amendments apply only to units with a census date on or after commencement; commencement is the later of 1 January 2026 or the day after Royal Assent.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Complete replacement of the maximum student contribution table
This provision repeals the existing statutory table and substitutes a newly drafted table listing funding clusters and dollar caps for maximum student contributions. Practically, section 93‑10 is the primary statutory control on what a Commonwealth‑supported student may be charged for a unit; by replacing the table the bill directly changes those statutory caps. Administrators will need to map their unit classifications to the clusters in the new table to determine the maximum chargeable student contribution per unit.
Cluster‑specific caps and a two‑column approach for grandfathering
The new table uses two columns to show amounts for nongrandfathered and grandfathered students. For most clusters the amounts are identical; for a limited set (notably Visual and Performing Arts and some professional pathway clusters) the bill sets a lower grandfathered amount. That mechanical separation preserves differential treatment for students who meet 'grandfathered' criteria in the principal Act while imposing explicit numeric limits in statute.
Temporal application tied to census dates
Part 2 makes clear the statutory substitution applies to any unit of study that has a census date on or after commencement, regardless of when the course was started. That avoids ambiguous transitional treatment for courses spanning the commencement date but shifts the practical boundary to the unit census date — a key administrative hinge for enrolment and billing teams.
Commencement framing and operative date
The Act names itself and fixes commencement as the later of 1 January 2026 or the day after Royal Assent. Organizations must therefore plan for an early‑2026 earliest implementation but also for a commencement immediately after Royal Assent if that comes later than the calendar date. The bill does not create separate phased or cohorted commencement dates; the single rule governs all affected units via their census dates.
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Explore Education in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Students with census dates on or after commencement — gain statutory certainty about the maximum fee they can be charged for each unit because the caps are explicitly listed in the Act.
- Students classified as 'grandfathered' in clusters where a lower grandfathered amount is specified (for example, Visual and Performing Arts; Professional Pathway Psychology/Social Work) — they retain a distinct, lower statutory cap.
- University finance and compliance teams — receive a single, statutory reference table to implement billing and HECS‑HELP enrolment processes against, reducing ambiguity about acceptable maximum student contributions.
- Policy officials and regulators — the fixed statutory numbers simplify monitoring and enforcement of maximum student contribution limits, removing the need to interpret non‑statutory guidance.
Who Bears the Cost
- Higher education providers — lose the ability to charge beyond the new statutory caps for Commonwealth‑supported places and may need to adjust revenue expectations and course pricing models.
- Nongrandfathered students in some clusters — face higher statutory caps than the grandfathered cohort (for example, nongrandfathered Visual and Performing Arts set at $9,537 vs $8,164 for grandfathered students), potentially increasing out‑of‑pocket HECS liabilities for those students.
- University administrative functions — will bear transitional implementation costs mapping units to clusters, updating billing systems, and communicating changes to students ahead of affected census dates.
- Government agencies administering HECS‑HELP — must update forms, systems and guidance, and allocate resources to ensure correct application of the amended statutory caps.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill resolves the policy question of how much a Commonwealth‑supported student can be charged by fixing statutory caps, but that creates a trade‑off between certainty and flexibility: legislative precision reduces ambiguity for students and administrators but removes a mechanism (such as indexation or delegated adjustments) that would allow contribution limits to adapt to cost changes or policy shifts without fresh legislation.
The bill is narrowly framed — it substitutes a statutory table and specifies temporal application — but that surgical approach raises several unresolved implementation questions. First, the statutory table lists fixed dollar amounts without addressing indexation.
If indexation is intended, it is not spelled out here; absent an express mechanism the figures could become outdated and require frequent legislative adjustment rather than automatic indexing. Second, the instrument relies on existing cluster classifications and the undefined term 'grandfathered student' as used in the principal Act; disputes over cluster mapping of particular units or the eligibility of specific students for grandfathered status could drive administrative appeals and complexity.
A second set of tensions concerns distributional and fiscal consequences the bill does not address. By fixing caps for student contributions the bill can alter the balance between student liabilities and institutional revenue — but the Act does not adjust Commonwealth contribution rates or provide transitional funding.
That leaves open who ultimately absorbs revenue shortfalls (if caps are lower than prior practice) or who benefits if caps are higher. Finally, tying application to unit census dates reduces legal uncertainty for units but creates operational complexity for multi‑year courses that straddle the commencement date; providers will need clear processes for treating enrolments, deferred units and overlapping cohorts to avoid inadvertently mischarging students.
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