Academic Services

Student Fees for Units in Courses of Study - 2008

Domestic Students

Calculation of EFTSL values for units of study

1. In all courses the standard student load for a year of study is 120 credit points.

2. The EFTSL value for a unit of study is equal to the unit credit points divided by the standard student load in a year (120 credit points). EFTSL is an equivalent full-time study load. Broadly, it is a measure of the size of a unit compared with a standard full-time study load. For example, if there are four equal-sized units in a full-year, then each would accrue 0.2500 EFTSL.

Example:

CHE1GEN is a first-year 15 credit point unit. In all courses this is divided by the standard student load (120cp). Therefore the EFTSL value for this unit is 15 divided by 120 = 0.1250 EFTSL.

3. La Trobe has largely standardized all single-award courses to 120 credit points per year. In all EFTSL calculations the standard value of 120 is used. There are however a small number of courses which have non-standard numbers of credit points, either fewer or greater. These can result in less than or more than 1.0 EFTSL in a year of study.

In addition there are several imbalanced courses with say 115, 125, 115, 125 credit points over four years. These result in EFTSL values slightly under and slightly over 1.0 in each of the four years

4. Students enrolled in double-degree courses often take more than a standard student load (120 credit points). For example students in a BA/BSc course require 4.5 years work (4.5 EFTSL), however, students are permitted to accelerate their courses to complete in 4.0 years. It should be noted that higher entry requirements are required for students to have the capacity to accelerate.

Effective Full-Time Student Load (EFTSL) Calculator for a Unit

Unit Fees for Undergraduate Courses of Study

Calculation of unit of study fees for Undergraduate Courses

5. Undergraduate fees are charged at the unit of study level depending on the discipline of the unit and the course commencement year. Disciplines are grouped into areas of study which are listed in the table below.

Table 1 - Student fees per EFTSL (1.0 EFTSL or 120 credit points)

Indexation of Fees

The annualised fees listed will be indexed annually at a figure which takes into account:

• the Federal Government indexation of contribution rates
• external factors which impact on the course delivery costs (eg. Consumer Price Index)
• internal factors which impact on the course delivery costs (eg. University Enterprise Bargaining Agreement)

This amount will be no more than 10%. In general, the University rounds down fee rates per EFTSL to the next whole multiple of $10.

Example:

Student commences an undergraduate course of study in 2008 and enrols in eight 15 credit point Economics units (1 EFTSL at $13,500) and another student enrolling in eight 15 credit point Science units (1 EFTSL at $18,710).

Student commences an undergraduate course of study in 2008 and enrols four Economics units (0.5 EFTSL at $6,750) and four Science units (0.5 EFTSL at $9,355) will cost $16,105 (half of $13,500 plus half of $18,710).

5. To calculate the fee for a unit of study, first obtain the EFTSL value for the unit and the year the student commenced their course (see 2 above). Then obtain the Discipline fee from the table above e.g. if it is an Accounting subject the discipline fee is $14,000 per EFTSL for students who commenced their course of study in 2008.

For many units the discipline is obvious, for example, the unit Clinical Nursing is from the discipline Nursing. For other units the discipline is less obvious, however, the discipline may often be determined from the first three characters of the unit code, for example, the unit Globalisation: The Rise of the Modern World , has a unit code of HIS1DEV. HIS represents History, which is a Humanities discipline.

6. The unit of study fee is obtained by multiplying the EFTSL value for the unit by the discipline fee per EFTSL taking into account the year the student commenced their course.

Example:

Student commences their course of study in 2008 and enrolls in CHE1GEN which has an EFTSL value of 0.1250 (see 2 above). Its discipline is Science - $18,710 per EFTSL. The fee for this unit of study is 0.1250 x $18,710 = $2,338

Undergraduate Unit Fee Calculator for Domestic Students

This is the fee that the University will charge for a commencing domestic student for a unit enrolment in an Undergraduate course of study in 2008. The fee will be rounded down to the nearest whole dollar. Please note, this is NOT the unit fee for Postgraduate courses.

Unit Fees for Postgraduate Courses of Study

Calculation of unit of study fees for Postgraduate Courses

7. Postgraduate fees are calculated using the fee for the course and the date in which a student commences their studies. For example a student who commences their study in 2008, any units of study in a Master of Midwifery Science in 2008 are charged at $12,240 per EFTSL (or $12,240 for a student enrolled full-time for a year of study). The unit fee does not depend on the discipline of study.

Indexation of Fees

The annualised fees listed will be indexed annually at a figure which takes into account:

• the Federal Government indexation of contribution rates
• external factors which impact on the course delivery costs (eg. Consumer Price Index)
• internal factors which impact on the course delivery costs (eg. University Enterprise Bargaining Agreement)

This amount will be no more than 10%. In general, the University rounds down fee rates per EFTSL to the next whole multiple of $10.

8. The fee for a (full-time, 120 credit point) place in each of the postgraduate courses is listed in Table 2. Students should note that the fee may vary depending on when they commenced their course of study.

9. The annualised Course Fee for students commencing in 2008 is shown in the final column. Continuing students will be treated as cohorts and charged a fee based on the year they commenced their course. See Table 2 above.

*Note if the course is the equivalent of one semester full-time (60 credit points) then the fee is half the annualised course fee.

10. The fee for a unit of study is obtained by multiplying the EFTSL value for the unit (see 2 above) by the annual equivalent course fee (see Table 2) taking into account the year the student commenced their course. Note again that graduate certificates generally have a total fee half the annual fee shown, for 0.500 EFTSL or 60 credit points.

Example:

(i ) The Master of Occupational Therapy Practice has a fee of $13,140 per full-time year (120 credit points or 1.0 EFTSL) for students commencing in 2008. OCT5ECA is a 20 credit point unit and has an EFTSL value of 0.1666 (20/120). The fee for the unit is 0.1666 x $13,140 = $2,189.

(ii) The Master of Clinical Psychology has a fee of $16,630 per full-time year (120 credit points or 1.0 EFTSL) for students who commenced in 2007. PSY5CAT, a 10 credit point unit, has an EFTSL value of 0.0833 (10/120). The fee for the unit is 0.0833 x $16,630 = $1,385.

Research

Research students are enrolled in research Units of Study. The EFTSL value for a research unit is:

0.50 EFTSL for a half-year (26 weeks) for a full time student

0.25 EFTSL for a half year (26 weeks) for a part time student

Research students who are enrolled in less than 26 weeks for the half-year have a pro-rata EFTSL value. For example a candidate enrolled for 13 weeks full-time, would have an EFTSL value for the half-year of 0.25 (0.5 x 13/26).

Partner Organisations

Australian Campus Network (ACN)

All Units of Study taken through ACN have an EFTSL value of 0.125. The tuition fee for Units of Study will be calculated using the same assessment model outlined under the calculation of fees for undergraduate course of study. Please note that students who commenced the Bachelor of Business in 2005 or earlier are a cohort and retain their fee of $872 for each Unit of Study. All Fees will be indexed annually.

Association for Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia (APESMA).

All Units of Study taken through APESMA have a EFTSL value of 0.125. The tuition fee for all units taken in 2008 is $1450.

Centre for Pavement Engineering Education (CPEE)

All Units of study taken through CPEE have an EFTSL value of 0.125, except Research Project which has an EFTSL value of 0.250. The tuition fee for Units is $1560 (Research Project - fee $3120).

William Blue Group

All Units of Study taken through William Blue Group have an EFTSL value of 0.125. The tuition fee for Units of Study will be calculated using the same assessment model outlined under the calculation of fees for undergraduate course of study. All Fees will be indexed.

For related information, please visit the Department of Education, Science and Training

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