Open Universities Australia

[LovelyRita]

I'm looking for people who have gone through here. Good and bad experiences? Are they helpful, supportive?

Also why do they have FEE-Help and how does this differ from HECS? Are they the same thing and if so why is there a different name? Is it only due to the fact that it is distance education?

Thanks for your help.

[~Emmylou~]

Open Universities used to be known as Open Learning Australia.

Basically it's a conglomeration of universities offering individual units that you can enrol in to make up a degree.

This is recognised as the equivalent to the same degree awarded if you were enrolled with the actual university. It's very legitimate and is just another means for people to gain access if they're prepared to pay fees. Nice little earner for the unis involved ;)

Re FEE Help and HECS - HECS is actually no more, it is now known as CSP (Commonwealth Supported Places). FEE Help is a form of assistance available for Full fee paying places - where CSP is offered for government subsidised places as HECS was previously. It's a bit confusing but the upshot is that with Open Universities, the places are fee paying but entitled to FEE Help - meaning you pay and the government chips in a bit. It's not deferred through the tax system like HECS was.

Probably not making much sense...I need to go to bed LOL.

I work in this area so PM me tomorrow when I've had some sleep if you need to :laughing:

[Nates_Mumma]

I'm pretty certain that its a very similar program... The OPEN team are fantastic.. I had many a numerous ph call to my adviser for help with the course

[LovelyRita]

Thanks for your help.

I just looked up some more information about Fee-Help and it says that the government does pay the full amount directly to them, so we are not out of pocket. It just all sounds a bit confusing though.

I think I'll do a bit more research before I commit myself to anything.

[dragonflyblu]

This is just a confusing terminolgy thing, HELP does act almost exactly the same way as HECS. But now they make you feel like the government is "HELPing you" and they give you a certain amount of time to finsih uni! Nice of them ha? Sorry i am a "free education for all" type of girl. Dont worry about the confusing terminology, it is like HECS. They pay the lot for you and you pay it back.

But now you can also get FEE-Help for a full feeing paying place as well (with conditions/limits etc.) so now we can all leave uni with even bigger debts!:thumbsup: There is an idea that Fee-help gives students access to university courses that they couldnt access before, but the reality is that now universities have more fee-paying places and in some cases less govt. supported places (old HECS) so it is just a way for the uni's to earn more money and appear more exclusive. I could go on about this for ages so i better stop now. I used to work at Uni. and had to implement admin procedures surrounding these "improvements".

Here is an extract from the govt. site

"At the undergraduate level, higher education providers are able to offer two types of places to domestic students:
Commonwealth supported (previously known as a HECS place)
Fee-paying (non-Commonwealth supported).

If you are in a Commonwealth supported place, you only make a contribution towards the cost of your education (known as the student contribution) while the Australian Government contributes the majority of the cost.

If you are not Commonwealth supported, you will pay tuition fees which are not subsidised by the Australian Government.

Overseas students are only able to study in an overseas fee-paying place and must pay overseas student fees. Providers must charge overseas students fees at a level sufficient to recover the full costs of delivering their course. "

[dragonflyblu]

oh my neice does open university and loves it. She has 2 school aged children and works and studies and finds the degree flexible and supportive.