This includes the following ABSTUDY payments:
- Living Allowance
- Incidentals Allowance
- Away from Base Assistance
- School Term Allowance
- School Fees Allowance at home rate
- School Fees Allowance higher rate
- Pensioner Education Supplement.
We’ll tell you if your course and institution is approved when you submit your claim.
If you want to find out before you claim you can ask us by either:
- connecting with us on Services Australia social media
- calling us on the ABSTUDY line.
Approved courses meet certain rules. They’re a range of courses that are approved in terms of getting ABSTUDY. Most Bachelor courses in Australia are approved for getting ABSTUDY. You may be studying an approved course if it’s:
- a primary or secondary school course
- a special school course
- a pre-vocational or vocational education and training course
- a course preparing you for tertiary study
- a TAFE or university course
- a masters or doctorate course
- an accredited Indigenous special course with a vocational focus.
You can study an approved course by doing any or all of the following:
- attending classes
- distance education or correspondence
- open learning
- flexible delivery.
Excluded courses
Some courses are excluded courses. You can’t get ABSTUDY if you’re studying an excluded course. A course is excluded if it’s 1 of the following:
- an Australian Government funded program
- mostly made up of Away from Base activities
- not available to all Australian students.
If your course includes Away from Base activities, it may still be an approved course . It will be an approved course if you’re going away to attend 1 of the following:
- residential schools
- placements or field trips
- testing or assessment.
There may be limits to amount of Away from Base activities you can do.
Some courses you can’t get ABSTUDY for except if you’re applying for Lawful Custody Allowance. In this case your course may be still be an approved course.
Approved institutions
Your place of study may be approved if it’s 1 of these:
- primary or secondary school
- TAFE or registered training organisation
- special school
- higher education provider, like a university
- correctional services authority providing Indigenous special courses for students in lawful custody.
Course and provider information
We define course and provider types. We do this by using the Student Assistance (Education Institutions and Courses) Determination 2019. You can read the Determination on the Federal Register of Legislation website.
Go to Providers that offer Commonwealth assistance on the StudyAssist website for a list of approved higher education providers.