13.8.6 Students who are not undertaking the course after 35 days
An overpayment for the amount of the Scholarship/s is raised against the student in the following circumstances:
- If 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 7.5.10 of the VCES Instrument and 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.