Overview

FEE-HELP is one of the loan schemes provided by the Australian Government to assist students who study at a university or higher education provider by paying part of the study fees. 

Read more on FEE-HELP here. For more on FEE-HELP eligibility and related information, head here.

How does this work in RIO Education? 

RIO Education provides an infrastructure to help students to submit the application for FEE-HELP via eCAF.

1. A student is enrolled in the institute.
   
   
2. If the student requests to apply for FEE-HELP, the admin in RIO (or automation) can initiate the application form to eCAF. This will be done through the RIO Connect integration (see here for more information).
   
   
3. Once the application form is submitted to eCAF, the education provider will verify and approve/reject the application in the eCAF portal.
   Note: The application must be submitted by the census date.
   
   
4. The provider will then update the application status if the application is approved/rejected.
   
   
5. The application status will be updated back to RIO by the admin in RIO requesting for the status update. This will be done through the RIO Connect integration.
   
   
6. Depending on the FEE-HELP amount allocated to the student's enrollment, this is then split and applied to the Courses enrolled by the student. This will affect the student fee calculation and the upfront payment required to be paid by the student.
   
   
7. The student has the option to adjust the upfront payment amount in the student portal and the FEE-HELP amount will be adjusted accordingly.

Loan Fee for a Course with FEE-HELP

When a student who is approved for FEE-HELP enrolls to a Program, the Loan Fee is calculated based on the FEE-HELP amount, which is the final amount after deducting any scholarship and upfront payment.

The following fields on the Course Connection record will need to be:

• Fee Type              = Financial Assistance.
• Fee Type Option = FEE-HELP.