Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP)
A university place where the government subsidises part of the tuition cost, with the student paying a reduced "student contribution".
A Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) is a university place where the Australian Government pays part of your tuition fees (the Commonwealth contribution) and you pay the remainder (the student contribution). The student contribution varies by field of study and is set by the government — for 2025, it ranges from about $4,124 for courses in national priority areas (nursing, teaching, STEM) to about $16,952 for courses like law, commerce, and humanities.
If you have a CSP, you can either pay your student contribution upfront (and receive a 10% discount on the amount) or defer it through a HECS-HELP loan, which is repaid through the tax system once your income exceeds the repayment threshold. Most domestic undergraduate students in Australian universities hold a CSP — full-fee places are relatively uncommon for domestic undergraduates.
The student contribution amounts were significantly restructured under the Job-ready Graduates reforms from 2021, which lowered fees for fields aligned with government workforce priorities (e.g., nursing, teaching, IT, agriculture) and increased fees for fields with less perceived workforce demand (e.g., humanities, law, commerce). This was controversial, as the fee changes were seen as a mechanism to steer student choices rather than reflecting actual course delivery costs.
How it works
In a Commonwealth Supported Place, the government pays part of your tuition cost directly to the university, and you pay the remainder as a student contribution, with the amount set by the government according to your field of study rather than the actual cost of delivering the course. For 2025, that student contribution ranges from around $4,124 for national priority fields like nursing, teaching, and STEM up to around $16,952 for fields like law, commerce, and humanities.
At enrolment, your CSP status determines your student contribution amount, and you choose how to pay it: upfront, which earns a 10% discount, or deferred through a HECS-HELP loan, which then behaves like any other HELP debt for indexation and repayment purposes once you start earning above the repayment threshold.
The wide spread in student contribution amounts by field of study comes from the Job-ready Graduates reforms introduced in 2021, which deliberately lowered fees in fields the government wanted to encourage enrolment in and raised them in others — a design that's been controversial precisely because the amounts track policy priorities rather than what each course actually costs to deliver. Most domestic undergraduate students hold a CSP, so a full-fee place is the exception rather than the norm.
Example: choosing to pay upfront or defer a CSP contribution
A student's CSP places them in a field with a $16,952 annual student contribution — roughly the level for a law or commerce-type field in 2025. Paying upfront earns a 10% discount, bringing the cost down to $15,257 for the year.
If they instead defer the full $16,952 through HECS-HELP, no discount applies, and the full amount becomes part of their HELP debt — indexed each 1 June and repaid later through the tax system once their repayment income clears the compulsory repayment threshold.
Related Terms
HELP/HECS Debt
A government loan for tertiary education tuition fees, repaid through the tax system once your income exceeds the minimum threshold.
HELP Indexation
Annual adjustment of HELP debt balances on 1 June, using the lower of CPI or Wage Price Index since 2023.
Repayment Income
The income measure used to calculate compulsory HELP/HECS repayments — taxable income plus other adjustments.
VSL (VET Student Loans)
Government loans for students undertaking eligible vocational education and training (VET) courses at diploma level and above.