Conditions of OS-HELP loan & Appeals

Conditions of loans

Monash students may apply for a loan of $2000, $3000, $4000, or $5824.

Students who want to change their loan amount after they have submitted an application must apply to Monash Abroad in writing.

Students will be permitted to reduce their loan amount provided their request is received before they have submitted their OS-HELP Debt Confirmation form.

Requests to increase loan amounts will only be granted if Monash Abroad assesses that sufficient funds are available for all eligible students who apply in that calendar year.

Students who apply for an increase in the loan amount will be advised whether their request has been granted as soon as practicable, but it may not be possible to assess the availability of funds immediately.

Students cannot request a change in their loan amount once their Debt Confirmation form has been received by the Monash Abroad office.

The granting of OS-HELP loans will not affect students' eligibility for Monash Abroad travel grants.

Loans can be granted for any period of full time study at an overseas institution, whether for a full semester or less. For semester length exchange, study abroad or intercampus exchange programs, your study period is considered full-time provided you receive 18-24 Monash credit points towards the Monash undergraduate course for which you will receive credit for from your overseas study.

For short term international study programs, a full time load is calculated by a formula which takes account of both the credit points and the length of time of the overseas study. Travel dates to and from the study program are not included in the calculation. In general, the following are regarded as full time study loads for OS-HELP purposes:

• 24 credit points taken over no more than 13 weeks of overseas study
• 18 credit points taken over no more than 9 weeks of overseas study
• 12 credit points taken over no more than 6 weeks of overseas study
• 6 credit points taken over no more than 3 weeks of overseas study

Whatever the actual period of full-time overseas study, only one loan may be granted for any six-month period of study. Study programs at the Monash campuses in Malaysia, South Africa and Prato are regarded as overseas study for OS-HELP purposes and loans may be granted to eligible students provided they meet the above definition of full-time study and the OS-HELP eligibility requirements.

Students, who study overseas for two discrete periods, may apply for a second loan. However, the decision whether to grant the second loan will be made no more than six weeks before the commencement of the second period of study. The decision on the second application will be made according to the eligibility criteria and selection principles applying at that time, which may be different from those which applied when the first loan was granted.

Students may receive OS-HELP loans from both Monash and another Australian institution, but may only receive one loan in respect to any six month period of study and may not receive more than two loans during their lifetime.

The full terms and conditions of OS­-HELP loans are set out in the OS-HELP Statement of Terms and Conditions published by DEEWR: http://www.goingtouni.gov.au/  It will also be made available by Monash Abroad to all successful applicants.

Appeals

Any student who is dissatisfied with the outcome of his/her OS-HELP application may lodge a written appeal to the Manager, Monash Abroad, who will respond in writing within 14 days.