MRCAETS students may access:

• Student Start‑up Scholarship
• Relocation Scholarship

These are paid through Services Australia and governed by separate legislative instruments.

The Relocation Scholarship is intended to assist students with the costs of establishing accommodation in their new place of study.

A student does not need to make a claim to receive the Scholarship. The Repatriation Commission may grant a Scholarship to a student where they are satisfied that:

1. the student is receiving tertiary education allowance at the living away from home, homeless or double orphan rate;
2. the student is undertaking an approved scholarship course;
3. the student intends to start or continue their course of study within the 35-day cut-off period; and
4. the student is not likely to receive the Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship (CAS) in the period of 12 months starting immediately after the qualification time.

A student is not eligible to receive a Relocation Scholarship if, in the 12 months ending immediately before the student’s qualification time:

1. the student already qualified to receive a Relocation Scholarship payment; or
2. the student qualified to receive a Relocation Scholarship payment under ABSTUDY or Part 2.11B of the SSA; or
3. the student already qualified to receive a Relocation Scholarship payment under MRCAETS (for VCES students); or
4. the student has received the amount or value of a Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship (CAS) or the person was entitled to the amount or value of such a scholarship but has not received the full entitlement only because the scholarship was suspended.

The Repatriation Commission has the discretion to determine a period in relation to a student that is between 3 and 12 months in which the student may be paid the Scholarship if this would enable payment to be made on or near the day 1 January in a year. 

This is consistent with the intention of the Scholarships to provide financial support to students who move locations to undertake study. The Repatriation Commission must not make a determination, in this regard if it results in a student being paid more than 2 Student Relocation Scholarship payments in a period of 2 successive calendar years.

Two Student Start-up Scholarship payments may be made in a calendar year. Each payment is for a 6-month period.

The Relocation Scholarship is paid once a year at one of the following three rates:

• an initial scholarship amount, payable once only;
• an intermediate rate paid for two years only; and
• an ongoing scholarship amount. 

Both scholarships are non-taxable and are indexed annually.

When a person becomes eligible for the Relocation Scholarship for the first time, the higher amount will generally be payable to that person. However, the higher amount cannot be paid if either:

1. the person has previously received a student relocation payment; or
2. more than 6 months prior to the person becoming eligible for the relocation scholarship and in any previous calendar year the person did an approved scholarship course while at the same time receiving; the homeless or living away from home allowance for a tertiary student

Effectively, this means that a person will only ever receive the higher amount of the Relocation Scholarship once (hence it is known as the ‘initial’ amount). The higher amount is intended to assist with the initial costs of relocating in order to study.

These provisions also mean that students who, more than 6 months prior to qualifying for the payment were receiving the living away from home, homeless or orphan allowance for a tertiary student while undertaking an approved scholarship course, will be ineligible for the higher amount. 

A student who is not eligible for the initial amount of the relocation scholarship will be eligible for the intermediate rate in the following circumstances:

In up to 2 prior calendar years the person was:

1. undertaking an approved scholarship course; and
2. at the same time, either:
   • was receiving a living away from home, homeless or double orphan tertiary education allowance; or
   • received a student relocation payment.

Note: the prior years do not have to have occurred immediately before the current year, and the 2 prior years do not themselves need to be consecutive.

A person who meets the criteria in (a) and (b) above in relation to 3 or more prior years is only entitled to the on-going rate of the relocation scholarship.

If a person is qualified for the relocation scholarship but does not meet the criteria for the initial or the intermediate rate, they are to be paid the ongoing rate.

Generally, payment of the Student Start-up and Relocation Scholarships will be made in February each year depending on when the study commenced. The second six monthly Student Start-up Scholarship will be made in July each year.

Student Start-up Scholarships are normally indexed annually on 1 January by CPI. 

Relocation Scholarships are indexed annually on 1 January by CPI.

Students may be eligible to receive the Student Start-up and/or Relocation Scholarships if they are undertaking an approved scholarship course. An approved scholarship course is an accredited higher education course or a preparatory course undertaken at a higher education institution. Accredited higher education courses and institutions are accredited by the relevant authorities in a State or Territory. These include Universities and select other education institutions and courses (e.g. some courses offered by TAFE and CIT).

A student studying overseas that is accredited to their Australian course of study are still eligible for the scholarships.

Students undertaking a preparatory course (a course offered by a higher education institution aimed to assist people to gain entry to higher education level courses, including enabling and bridging courses) may also be eligible to receive these scholarships. The links in the Course Coverage section should assist in determining which institutions are accredited higher education institutions for the purposes of the schemes and which courses will meet the relevant criteria for the scholarships

If a student receives the Student Start-up and/or Relocation Scholarship payments because they are proposing to undertake an approved scholarship course and does not start to undertake such a course, then an overpayment for the Scholarship/s is raised against the student.

Changing from one approved scholarship course to another does not trigger an overpayment. It is only if the student, having received the payment, does not start studying any approved scholarship course, that an overpayment should be raised.

For example, a student might have enrolled to study course A, then before the course commences changes their enrolment to course B. Provided course B is an approved scholarship course there is no overpayment.

The debt is taken to have arisen when the student received the payment. Commission has the discretion to waive this debt if the student did not commence an approved scholarship course due to exceptional circumstances beyond the student’s control.

An overpayment for the Scholarship/s is raised against the student in the following circumstances:

• a student receives the Student Start-up and/or Relocation Scholarship payments because they are proposing to undertake an approved scholarship course; and
• 35 days after the course commenced or 35 days after they qualified for the payment (if that occurred later) they are not undertaking an approved scholarship course. *

Changing from one approved scholarship course to another does not trigger an overpayment. It is only if the student, having received the payment and started an approved scholarship course, does not continue studying an approved scholarship course, that an overpayment should be raised.

For example, a student might start studying course A, then two weeks into the course changes to course B. Provided course B is an approved scholarship course there is no overpayment.

The debt is taken to have arisen when the student received the payment. Commission has the discretion to waive this debt if the student is not undertaking the course as mentioned above due to exceptional circumstances beyond the student’s control (see paragraph 7.3.10 of the MRCAETS Instrument).

*The intention of this part of the legislative instruments is not to penalise those that have completed their course requirements; that is, due to delivery method or course structure, a person has completed course requirements in under 35 days. This may arise given Higher Education courses have a range of structures, delivery methods and durations.