PortJackson

Hoping someone can help me on this one:

As a PR-Say a sibling chooses the following course and the fee per unit is $445 would this be $445 X 192 ~$85440 for the 4 years ($21k per year)?

Faculty: Faculty of Engineering
Career: Undergraduate
Typical Duration: 4 Years
Typical UOC Per Session: 24
Min UOC Per Session: 3
Max UOC Per Session: 27
Min UOC For Award: 192

TIA

Sue from Manchester

Whoosh, straight over my head but .....

As a PR Visa holder my son will be applying to University of Queensland soon. He will count as an Australian citizen when it comes to the amount of fees which are capped at a certain amount per year. What he won't be able to do is defer the fees like Australians can do. he will have to pay them up front. The full fees are payable by overseas students, much like in the UK.

The amount you pay is limited by it does vary according to what sort of course you take, e.g., medicine is more expensive. Here's an article about not being able to defer fees.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/...?oneclick=true

Hope this helps

Sue

PortJackson

Thanks Sue.

Would anyone else know about the cost of the courses. If my reading of the rules is corect then it is every unit multiplied by the unit cost = the fee.

Seems extremely expensive ($85k) for a four year degree ?

renth

Why not contact the institution concerned?

PortJackson

Pushed me of to DEST who only have an online form to fill in and been waiting a week for a reply. Can understand they are swamped with requests but I was hoping to see what the experiences on here was.

jan&co

What is "UOC"?
By my reckoning, usually undergrad studies consist of 64 units spread over 4 years = 16 units per year. Each year is divided into 2 semesters, ie 8 units per semester. Most courses consist of 2 units each. Costs depend on the courses you choose - about $300-400+ per unit. 8 units should cost in the region of $2400-$3200+. There is also a student service charge of $136 per semester. So the total fees (called student contribution if you are a PR)
should be around $5000-$6800 per year. Unless you are a citizen or a humanitarian PR visa holder, you are not entitled to HECs help or 20% discount if you pay full fees upfront.

Over and above these requirements, you must have sufficient SLE - Student Learning Entitlement - to qualify for a commonwealth supported place.

This is what I understand it to be. I stand to be corrected. Anyone care to share/enlighten?

PortJackson

UOC=unit of credit. It is at this that you are charged .So in my example there are 192 of them@the rate per unit.
I actually got a reply from the body I gave the example of above. They said yes my calculations are correct => $85k.
They also said that the commonwealth support would be difficult to get and actually said that you would need citizenship status to even think of it. It seems that the government has informed them that any new students i.e 2006 and on PR will not be entitled to Commonwealth support. Any prior PR students will be allowed the support until 2008

jan&co

Is this reply from UQ? The information I got was from their website. Domestic students (include citizens and PRs by their definition) pay only student contribution and enjoy SLE entitlements, while some domestic students who miss marginally the OP score required pay full fees. The conclusion I arrived at is consistent with the few other unis' websites.

If your information is accurate, it's alarming!! Wonder how many pple out there are still in the dark!!?

Sue from Manchester

I too contacted several universities but the problem I found was that they don't read your email fully. They see that you aren't in Australia and it doesn't matter how many times you say you have PR visa, you can write it in 10 foot capitals, they still quote you the full overseas fee.

As I understand it the course costs x amount but you only have to pay a contribution to that as a local student. I did finally wrangle that out of someone by keep on emailing them and saying no, you haven't answered the question, I want to know how much is it going to cost me as an Australian resident. Now if they've changed the rules since this is going to change all our plans.

PortJackson

it was UNSW. I actually recontacted then directly a second time and they confirmed (however it was the same person). As a check I contacted another more regional uni and they said differently. I checked the going to uni website and it seems that yes you are eligible for assistance. My thinking is a little confused over this at the moment so i may be missing a point somewhere as two sets of different info ~ perhaps the uni's actaually decide. Even the cost multiplying the UOC by unit fee's differed hugely between the 2 unis ~ almost $50K difference.

It would be great if one of the experts were able to comment on the status of PR's post 2005

Edit- the more I think of it the more I am sure that UNSW was wrong (hard to check if i get the same person again and again). How could anyone afford $80K plus upfront ?

Sue from Manchester

Edit- the more I think of it the more I am sure that UNSW was wrong (hard to check if i get the same person again and again). How could anyone afford $80K plus upfront ?[/QUOTE]

Exactly! They just don't read/listen properly. It should only be about 6-8k dollars per year up front. After 2 years you can get citizenship so hopefully the student will then be able to defer same as everyone else. It is pretty scary and confusing though. I don't understand this unit system at all.

OzTennis

Sorry I can't clarify the situation but just my immediate thoughts:

Over $80K would surely be for 'overseas students' only which is not applicable to PR's or locals. Whatever the fees eventually turn out to be, is it a lump sum payment before the course commences or is it spread out over 4 years?

I would get on the phone to the institution rather than rely on email. Just remember the approx 9 hour time difference and make sure you are on One-Tel or similar (4p a minute even if you are on the phone for an hour until you get the definitive answer seems like a good investment to me).

I'll be interested to see the outcome because over $80K for a migrant doesn't seem right.

OzTennis

Sue from Manchester

[ Whatever the fees eventually turn out to be, is it a lump sum payment before the course commences or is it spread out over 4 years?


As I understand it you pay one year at a time.

cheap phone calls to Oz, 2p a minute - see my previous post
Try these people@

www.telediscount.co.uk/accessnumbers.php

I've used them for a couple of months now and you genuinely get cheap calls to Australia. It says 1p per min on the website but it's actuall 2p per min, but that's still brill. You don't have to sign up to anything, just dial the number when you want to make a call and it goes on your normal telephone bill.

You ring (for Australia) 0844 861 86 86 and then wait until you hear a recorded voice telling you how much the call will cost -
then you dial your country code and number, i.e., 00 to get out of the country, 61 for Australia and then the number you want.

I was a bit suspicious at first but I've had a few phone bills through now and they're OK. You can check your time differences before you ring with
www.timeand date.com

PortJackson

I did talk to them earlier yesterday and also mailed to get confirmation (which I have saved). One uni (UNSW) were clear on the $80k the other Uni read from the going-to-uni list and said that we could apply for commonwealth support - which is what will bring the fees down a fair bit. The $80 is over the 4 years ~ I believe $20k'ish per year and divivded by two => $10K twice a year x 4 years up front

Good point by Sue~ to start the course ~ take out citizenship asap and then defer the last two years payment.

PortJackson

SUCCESS
Yes PR's still do qualify for the commonwealth support. Although competitive the facility is still there to avail of.
Sorry for the confusion but i was given the wrong info to begin with ~ glad it is cleared up.