Tools and resources

We can only help students who have accessed the VET FEE-HELP or the VET Student Loans programs to cover the cost of their studies, in full or in part and who are studying or have studied a:

• diploma
• advanced diploma
• graduate certificate
• graduate diploma course

We can also help people who believe they:

• may have a VET FEE-HELP or VET Student Loans debt they should not have
• have been treated unfairly by their VET FEE-HELP or VET Student Loan approved provider (provider).

Family or friends can raise a concern about a VET FEE-HELP or VET Student Loans provider on a student’s behalf by filling out a Permission for someone else to act on my behalf form.

What is the role of the VET Student Loans Ombudsman?

The VET Student Loans Ombudsman was created to manage and investigate complaints about the VET FEE-HELP and VET Student Loans programs.

We focus on investigating and resolving disputes between students and providers.

We are responsible for:

• investigating complaints, making recommendations, and reporting on providers delivering education and training services under both VET Student Loans and VET FEE-HELP programs
• providing best practice complaint-handling advice and training to providers
• reporting on trends and issues identified in the VET sector
• working with industry to develop a Code of Practice.

If required, it is within the powers of the VET Student Loans Ombudsman to compel providers to meetings. We can also make recommendations to other Commonwealth agencies in relation to systemic issues about providers’ practices uncovered through our investigations.

We cannot override a provider’s decision or compel a provider to put in place our recommendations.

If a provider does not act on our recommendation, we can report this to the:

• Minister for Education, Skills and Employment
• Secretary of the Department of Education and Training, or

disclose this information to other bodies, such as the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).

We investigate in an independent and impartial way. We do not advocate for the student or the provider. Complaint investigations are conducted in private and are usually informal.

When a complaint is received, we assess the complaint and decide if it is an issue we can investigate. In some cases, we may decide not to investigate a complaint. This might be because:

• the student has not complained to the provider first, or
• another organisation is better able to deal with the complaint.

If we decide not to investigate, we will tell you why and let you know what to do next.

If we decide to investigate a complaint, we will ask the provider about the problem. We may request relevant information, such as student records, from the provider.

The time it takes to investigate a complaint varies. Some problems are simple to resolve while others are more complex and take longer to investigate. We will keep you and your provider informed about the progress of your complaint.

At the end of an investigation we may form a view that the provider has acted reasonably. We will advise the student and the provider.

In other cases, we may form a view that the provider didn’t take appropriate action or the action appears to have been:

• contrary to law
• unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory, or
• otherwise, in all the circumstances, wrong.

Where this happens, we may send the provider our preliminary view, suggesting that the provider remedy the problem by:

• apologising to the student
• changing or reconsidering their decision
• providing better information to the student, or
• improving their policies or procedures.

We give providers an opportunity to comment on our preliminary views.

In all investigation cases, we will keep the provider and the student updated on the progress of the investigation.

To investigate a problem, we will usually need to give some information about the complaint to the provider to find out what has happened. This will include your name and a description of your complaint, unless you have asked us not to provide specific information.

We will treat your information with privacy and respect, and collect, store, use and disclose your personal information only in accordance with Australian privacy laws.

You can view our Privacy Statement here.

Yes, VET Student Loans approved providers are members of the VET Student Loans Ombudsman, as the external dispute resolution scheme, as stated in the VET Student Loans Act 2016 section 25(2)(h).

We recommend VET Student Loans approved providers also give students information on accessing our services if they are not satisfied with the provider’s decision or response to their complaints.

Providers can choose to take part in the development of the industry Code of Practice with our Office. They can also take part in our workshops on best practice complaint-handling.

We can supply providers with information flyers and links to videos. Please contact VET.studentloans@ombudsman.gov.au if you would like to receive this information.

Results of individual complaint and external appeal investigations are not generally made public.

We publish quarterly updates and an annual report, which include information such as:

• numbers and types of complaints received by our Office
• complaint trends
• numbers of complaints transferred to other complaint-handling bodies.

To the best of our ability we will remove individual names from updates/reports, and shorten such updates/reports, to limit the disclosure of personal information.

If your provider has closed, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment has information on their website about the assistance you may be able to receive.