Know how changes will impact you

A Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) is a place at a university where the government pays part of your fees.

This part is a subsidy, not a loan, and you don't have to pay it back. This subsidy does not cover the entire cost of your study and students must pay the rest, called the 'student contribution amount'.

Changes to Commonwealth Supported Places

On 19 October 2020 the Australian Parliament passed the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020 which included significant changes to Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) and student contributions from 2021.

From 1 January 2021, you will pay student contribution amounts based on whether you are a commencing or continuing student.

  • All students who are commencing a course of study in a CSP will pay the new student contribution amounts.
  • All continuing students (students who commenced their course of study before 2021) in a CSP will not be disadvantaged by these legislative changes.

2021 Postgraduate coursework degrees

All CSP students will be charged the student contribution amount for your unit enrolments according to the subject area of the unit and the year that you are enrolling in.

At Macquarie, the standard full time load for all postgraduate courses is 80 credit points (ie 1 Effective Full-time Student Load) and is used to calculate student contribution for a unit.

To learn more about these changes and how they affect you, visit our 2021 Postgraduate Commonwealth Supported Places page.