Recovering FEE HELP payments made to your private college: The example of The College Of Law ,Sydney .Australia

by Ganesh Sahathevan


Many assume that a FEE HELP debt once incurred must be re-paid regardless of how poorly one is taught.
However, FEE HELP is simply a debt incurred in paying a fee for services to a provider of education services.
Where the services are below expectation, one avenue for fee recovery might be the Department Of Education who pays  the fees on behalf of students ie cutomers.



FEE HELP approved course fees,must by definition , be limited to the actual cost incurred by the approved education services provider. It was clearly not the intention of the Commonwealth Government to add to the profits of FEE HELP approved institutions,  even if this happens with alarming frequency. The fact that customers are unaware of their rights arising from  their contracts for services has probably much to do with why private colleges especially are able to get away with providing poor teaching and assessment services.


To put this another way, FEE HELP is payed on the basis of cost recovery ; the costs being based on an estimate provided by the entity concerned.

The College Of Law Sydney is probably a good example of where fees exceed costs.The College has in fact admitted that it is cutting costs , despite the increase in student numbers, and increasing fees. That admission can be found on  Page 7 of the College Of Law 2017 Annual Report,where the College  has declared that  the increase in the  ratio of cost to Operating Revenue fell 54.8%,due to "efficiencies" from higher enrollments.

There is evidence that the so-called efficiencies are in fact affecting the quality of course delivery in Australia,even as the College works harder at expanding its offerings. into Asia.

Affected students can contact the Department Of Education, and set-out the case for a fee clawback, Naturally the Department will do what it can to avoid doing any work, but that is simply a function of the civil service doing what it does best, not the law. 

Image result for fee help


Generally, you are required to begin paying back your HECS-HELP or VET FEE-HELP loan once you are earning more than around $53,000 a year. However, many students graduating from these Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) were not able to find full-time employment because their degrees were not looked upon favourably by employers, or worse, because their college course hadn’t actually properly prepared them for working in that industry. The College Of Law is at the end of the day an RTO,even if is an RTO that can rely on the Uniform Law and Rules to justify its actions.

END 

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