TCSI June Newsletter 2026

Update regarding 2025 Higher Education Student data verification.

The department is nearing finalisation of the 2025 student data collection and would like to thank providers for all their effort completing their submissions. The department will notify Vice-Chancellors, CEOs, and TCSI provider contacts once the collection has been finalised.

Once finalised, verified 2025 student data will become available in TCSI Analytics using the TCSI ‘Verified’ reports and dashboards.

Additional information was presented during the TCSI June 2026 Provider webinar.

Update to Higher Education loan transfers.

Loan records with census dates on or before 30 June 2023, that were reported after 1 June 2025 had been held by the department, primarily for the purposes of ensuring the ATO could successfully progress the application of the 20% HELP reduction. These late reported loans have been released. Moving forward, any newly submitted late loans will be released to the ATO as part of the monthly release process.  

Late reported loans, that were reported before 1 June 2025, are still being withheld and further advice will be provided regarding the release of these loans.

Providers are reminded of their obligations that, if they are reporting a critically late loan, they are responsible for communicating with students advising that their loan records have been reported late to the department, and that loans will soon appear on their ATO accounts.

If providers have any questions, please contact the Department of Education via HELP.Policy@education.gov.au. 

Clarification on commencing and continuing student definitions.

Higher education providers are encouraged to review the Commencing Student glossary web page on TCSI as the primary reference point for interpreting commencing and continuing students.

In addition to these definitions, the Department discussed with providers more complex enrolment scenarios in the TCSI June 2026 Provider webinar. These include:

• Students transferring to a related course
• Students progressing from a Bachelor to Bachelor with Honours, and
• How this data will be used for the new funding glidepaths relating to Managed Growth Funding and Needs Based Funding.

If you require further clarification on commencing and continuing students after reviewing these resources, please send your enquiry to TCSIsupport@education.gov.au.

Updates to the SLE table for vertical double degrees.

In May 2024, the Department finalised a new table to ensure that all vertical double degrees, reported as a single course, award the correct amount of Additional SLE (ASLE) to students.

ASLE is an extra entitlement awarded to students who enrol in certain course types in a Commonwealth support place. The courses that award ASLE are:

• An undergraduate course of study that has a course load of greater than 6 EFTSL
• An honours course of study that has a course load equal to or less than 1 EFTSL
• A postgraduate or graduate entry bachelor course of study

When a provider reports a course admission for an eligible student that matches the fields in this table, the SLE management system will award the student with an amount of ASLE equal to the EFTSL value of the postgraduate component of the course minus any ASLE they have previously consumed.

Providers that report vertical double degrees as separate Courses of Study in TCSI, do not need to change reporting and are advised to keep reporting separately.

The layout of the table is as follows:

If you offer any vertical double degrees that are reported as a single course which are not already included in the table, or require assistance in identifying which courses you have already added, please contact: studentlearningentitlement@education.gov.au.

Providers who have not updated the table since 2025 will receive an email, later this year, seeking re-confirmation of course details.

Updates to the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HESA).

Legislation has been introduced to Parliament to update HESA and implement the Government’s reforms to higher education funding announced at MYEFO 2024-25, including:

Managed Growth Funding System

• Allows for the Minister to set the Total Allocation Pool (TAP) and the ATEC to allocate places to providers through Domestic Student Profiles
• Provides for the Minister to increase the TAP to support managed demand-driven growth for equity students
• Introduces the over-enrolment buffer and student contributions glidepath

Needs-based Funding

• Provides per-student funding for low-SES students, First Nations students, and students studying at regional and remote campuses
• Embeds a transparent, legislated funding framework that directs additional support to students with greater need

More information can be found in the Albanese Government introduces legislation to open the doors of opportunity by getting more Australians to uni media release from The Hon Jason Clare MP – Minister for Education. Additional information was also presented during the TCSI June 2026 Provider webinar.

Providers must submit their SSAF Allocation Report by 30 June 2026.

To determine whether providers’ SSAF practices are compliant with the Higher Education Support Act 2003, providers who charge a SSAF must submit their SSAF Allocation Report for the 2025 calendar year using the form approved by the Minister. The SSAF Allocation Report template available on the department’s website is the form approved by the Minister.

The Report was developed to allow for greater transparency and consistency in reporting on SSAF allocations, expenditure, and consultation with democratically elected student representatives regarding the use of SSAF revenue.

Providers with funding agreements for the relevant year must submit their completed SSAF Allocation Report to SSAF@education.gov.au and make that Report publicly available by 30 June 2026.

All other providers must submit their completed SSAF Allocation Report by uploading it to the HELP IT System (HITS) and notifying the department via SSAF@education.gov.au by 30 June 2026.

For any questions regarding the SSAF Allocation Report, please contact the Department of Education via SSAF@education.gov.au.

All providers are invited to attend upcoming webinars and drop-in sessions.

These sessions are an excellent opportunity to get up-to-date information and to ask any questions you might have about TCSI.

A list of upcoming TCSI webinars can be found below:

To attend the scheduled 2026 monthly TCSI webinars live, please register via the TCSI News Centre webpage.

Recordings of previous webinars can be found at the following locations:

• For monthly provider webinars, please see the ‘Published Newsletters, Webinars and other media’ section of the News Centre webpage.