All Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses that lead to Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma qualifications at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) are funded by the Government of Western Australia through the Department of Training and Workforce Development.
Please refer to the available download Indicative Fees 2024. Information on Courses Offered and Fees may also be viewed at the My Skills web page.
Resource fees are charges for materials that are considered essential to a course or unit of study and which do not form part of the course fee.
A VET Student Loan will cover fees for approved courses at the Diploma or Advanced Diploma level up to the maximum amount available for the course. The 2024 maximum VET Student Loan amount for WAAPA courses is $18,097.
Should your course fee exceed the maximum amount, you are required to pay the difference upfront.
To be eligible, you must:
You can make voluntary payments at any time to reduce the balance of your VETSL debt.
Please visit the Study Assist website for further information.
Payment can be made in full by the due date using the following payment options here.
If you are enrolling in a course that is not VET Student Loan approved, a payment plan is another option for eligible students.
For further information, please see also, the Payment Plan for VET Students page.
Eligible students can apply for a Concession Rate of the Course fee component of their fees.
Persons who have reached the age of 15 but who have not reached 17 years and 6 months of age in the calendar year for which they enrol are eligible to receive the School Aged Concession. In 2024, these persons will be born on or after 1 July 2006.This concession will be applied automatically prior to the fee due date of the first teaching period that the student enrols in and the Customer Written Consent Form is not required for this concession type.
For other available concessions, please see the Customer Confirmation Written Consent Form.
Category of enrolment | Fee rate per nominal hour |
|---|---|
Non-concession Student | |
Diploma or Advanced Diploma | $5.79 |
General Industry Training (Up to Certificate IV) | $4.88 |
Concession Student | |
General Industry Training (Up to Certificate IV) | $1.47 |
From 2022 , there are no concession eligible diploma and advanced diploma courses.
For Diploma and Advanced Diploma qualifications, the maximum course fee chargeable in 2024 is $7,860.
For secondary school aged persons not enrolled at school (students born on or after 1 July 2006), the maximum course fee chargeable in 2024 is $420.
If payment has not been made in full by the due date and you have not been granted a VET Student Loan or Instalment Plan, an encumbrance will be placed on your student record, restricting services and preventing graduation.
Once your outstanding fees are paid the encumbrance will be lifted.
If your tuition fees remain outstanding after the financial census date, you will be notified that you are at risk of your enrolment being cancelled and you will be given 28 days from the date of that notice to appeal the cancellation. If after the 28 days you have not appealed the cancellation or your appeal is not successful, your enrolment will be cancelled and you will be:
Any partial payment of your fees will not be refunded, unless you can demonstrate special circumstances (see Withdrawal and Refunds).
The purpose of the SSAF is to provide student services and amenities beyond those required for the academic work of the university. Further information on SSAF may be found the SSAF web page.
Fees that are in addition to tuition fees and which are for goods or services that are related to your studies are classified as incidental fees.
These are items that belong to the student. Students may not access VET Student Loans to defer the cost of incidental fees.
2024 Incidental fees include, but are not limited to:
These are addition fees or charges issued by ECU during the academic year. These include but are not limited to fees such as:
If you do not wish to incur a liability for a unit(s) you must withdraw your enrolment, before the census day. You must withdraw in writing by submitting an Enrolment Variation Form to StudentAdministration@ecu.edu.au. If you submit your request after the census date you will be withdrawn with full financial liability. Please note that it is not sufficient to verbally advise your Lecturer, Course Coordinator or Head of School.
If you correctly withdraw from a unit by the census day, you will not incur a VETSL debt for that part of the course. If you have already made an upfront payment of your tuition fees, you will receive a refund.
There is no fine or penalty fee for withdrawing from units before the census day.
Once withdrawn from your unit(s), if you wish re-enrol in the unit(s) or enrol in different units you must request this in writing.
If you withdraw from a unit after the census day because you become seriously ill or for other special circumstances, you can apply to have your HELP balance re-credited and your VETSL debt removed or your upfront payments refunded. You cannot have your debt removed if you have already successfully completed your unit of study.
Changing your mind is not a good enough reason to apply for special circumstances and you will still be required to repay your VETSL debt. Similarly, failing a unit is not in itself sufficient to apply for special circumstances. However if you fail a unit because of special circumstances, you may consider applying to have your HELP balance re-credited.
To be approved to have your VETSL debt removed or your upfront payments refunded you must be able to prove that the circumstances:
To apply you will need to:
Please refer to the guidelines on the application form and the ECU Remission of Tuition Fees Policy for the specific circumstances in which remission may be granted.
If your application is unsuccessful, the University will provide you with information about requesting a review of the decision. This must be done within 28 days of receiving the original decision and there is no charge for requesting a review.
All decisions and reviews in relation to re-crediting of HELP balances will be consistent with the University’s Prevention of Harassment, Bullying, Discrimination and Violence policy.
If after review your application to have your HELP debt re-credited remains unsuccessful you are entitled to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of the outcome.
The application must be lodged at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal within 28 days of receiving the review outcome. This time limit may be extended in limited circumstances by order of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
If you apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for review of a decision, you may have to pay an application fee and you should confirm the fee before you lodge an application. Your application cannot proceed until you pay the application fee or the fee has been waived. If you want to apply to have the fee waived, you will need to make an application for fee waiver to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Please visit http://www.aat.gov.au for further information on this process.
Your HELP balance may be re-credited in relation to special circumstances if ECU is unable to act or is in the process of being wound up or has been dissolved or if ECU fails to act and the Secretary is satisfied that the failure is unreasonable.
Students who lodge a withdrawal form before the census/withdrawal date for a unit will be eligible for a full refund of the course and resource fee for the unit.
Fee paying students who can demonstrate that they were impacted by special circumstances after the census date for an enrolment period, will be eligible for for a full refund of the course and resource fee for the unit(s) in the that period.
You can apply for a refund by submitting an online refund application form.
You can apply to the Department to have your VETSL debt cancelled and your HELP balance re-credited for any of the following reasons:
Examples of unacceptable conduct include, but are not limited to, misleading or deceptive conduct; advertising tuition fees for the course where there are reasonable grounds for believing that the provider will not be able to provide the course for those fees; the use of physical force, or harassment or coercion in connection with the application or enrolment in the course.
You can apply to the Department and provide details and supporting evidence for more information, visit the Complaints and Grievances webpage at Study Assist.
Applications for re-crediting of your HELP balance must be made to the Department within 5 years of the census date of your course, or the part of the course, concerned. This time limit may be extended in limited circumstances by the Secretary.