About the Tuition Protection Service

The Tuition Protection Service (TPS) is an Australian Government initiative that supports international students on student visas and eligible domestic students whose education providers are unable to fully deliver their course of study.

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Australia has an excellent reputation for quality education, and situations where an education provider cannot fully deliver a course are rare. However, if a ‘provider default’ occurs because an education provider closes, does not start a course, or stops delivering a course before it is completed, the TPS may be able to assist affected students.

The TPS may also assist international students who are entitled to a refund from an education provider following a ‘student default’, including where they withdraw from a course or their student visa is refused, and the provider has not paid the refund.

The TPS also supports registered education providers to understand and meet their obligations to students following a provider default or a student default.

The TPS was established in 2012 as an international student tuition protection scheme under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act). The TPS was expanded in 2020 under the VET Student Loans Act 2016 (VSL ACT) and the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HESA), and in 2021 under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act), to provide tuition protection for specific domestic student cohorts. 

The TPS supports four student cohorts enrolled at private education providers:

  • international students on student visas
  • VET Student Loans (VSL) students
  • higher education students receiving FEE-HELP or HECS-HELP loan assistance
  • domestic higher education students who pay their tuition fees up-front.

Depending on a student’s circumstances, TPS support may include:

  • help to find alternative course options to continue their studies
  • either a refund of unspent tuition fees or a loan re-credit for the parts of the course that could not be completed.

Watch the following video to learn more about the TPS.

Tuition protection levies

The TPS is funded by the Australian Government and annual tuition protection levies paid by education providers. Levy amounts vary according to a provider’s size and risk of defaulting. The levies are held in sector-based quarantined accounts and fund the activities of the TPS following a default, as well as operational costs.

The four levies collected by the TPS are the:

  • International TPS Levy
  • VSL Tuition Protection Levy
  • HELP Tuition Protection Levy
  • Up-front Payments Tuition Protection Levy.

Annual levy settings are determined in legislative instruments made under the following Acts:

TPS governance

The TPS is managed by the TPS Director, which is a statutory position created under Commonwealth legislation. The TPS Director is responsible for the delivery and long-term sustainability of the tuition protection arrangements.

The TPS Director is also the VSL Tuition Protection Director under the VSL Act and the Higher Education Tuition Protection Director under HESA.

The TPS Director is supported by the TPS Advisory Board, which provides advice and recommendations to the TPS Director on the annual settings of the tuition protection levies.

TPS Service Charter

The TPS Service Charter outlines the function of the TPS and the standard of service stakeholders can expect to receive.

Privacy Policy

The TPS Privacy Statement and the TPS Director’s Privacy Policy outline the types of personal information the TPS collects, handling practices, and how stakeholders can access and correct their personal information held by the TPS.

The TPS Director’s Privacy Complaints Handling Policy outlines how a complaint can be made by a stakeholder who believes their personal information has not been handled by the TPS Director in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP).