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2008 Fees for Pre-2005 HECS Students

This page applies to Pre-2005 HECS Students who are Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents or New Zealand citizens and commenced their studies prior to 2005.
Details about fees for other types of enrolments…

General Information

Pre 2005 HECS students pay a student contribution towards the cost of their education either upfront or by deferring all or part of the debt via the Higher Education Contribution Scheme - Higher Education Loan Program (HECS-HELP).

Additional HECS information is available.

How to Calculate Your Contribution

Each degree program requires the completion of a number of units. This is generally 240 units for a three-year program and 320 units for a four-year program. To accumulate the necessary units, students enrol in courses according to the degree requirements for each program. Each course has a unit value and this is ten (10) for most courses at the University of Newcastle. A normal full-time study load is 80 units in any year or 40 units per semester. This means that one year of equivalent full-time student load (EFTSL) is 80 units.

Courses are grouped into a number of academic subject areas where the first four letter abbreviation at the beginning of the course code tells you its subject area. A full list of academic subject areas is available.

Check the requirements of your program in the Undergraduate eHandbook. Then have a look at the table further down this page called 2008 HECS Contribution by Academic Subject Area where the subject areas are grouped into HECS Bands.

For example, if in 2008 you were to undertake 3 courses in Film Studies (FILM), 2 courses in Philosophy (PHIL), 2 courses in History (HIST) and 1 course in Chemistry (CHEM) then you would calculate your contribution as follows:

FILM (Band 1): 3 x 509 = 1527

PHIL (Band 1): 2 x 509 = 1018

HIST (Band 1): 2 x 509 = 1018

CHEM (Band 2): 1 x 725 = 725

TOTAL = $4288

The above example assumes all courses have a 10 unit value. If a course has a value other than 10, then the calculation needs to be weighted appropriately.

You can estimate costs for later years based on these rates. However, HECS Contributions are increased each year.

Remember that you can take out a HECS-HELP loan to pay some or all of your HECS Contribution if you are an eligible student.

2008 HECS Contribution by Academic Subject Area

This table presents the academic subject areas in the 3 HECS bands. The fees listed are in Australian dollars (AUD), for one year of equivalent full-time student load (EFTSL), which is 80 units, and then for each 10 units of study.

Academic Subject Areas

HECS Contribution
per full-time year,
i.e. one EFTSL
(in AUD)

HECS Contribution
per 10 units
(in AUD)

HECS Band 1
AART	ABOR	AHIS	ARTC	CHIN
CMNS	CULT	DESN	DRAM	EDST
EDUC	ENGL	FILM	FREN	GEND
GEOG	GREK	GRMN	HIST	HUMA
IDEA	JAPN	LATN	LEGL	LEIS
LGAL	LING	MUSI	NURS	PHIL
POLI	PSYC	RELI	SOCA	SOCS
SPSW	SWRK	TEHE	THEO

$4,077

$509

HECS Band 2
ACFI	ARBE	ARCH	AVIA	BIOL
BLDG	BUSN	CATH	CHEE	CHEM
CIVL	COMP	EBUS	ECON	ECOS
ELEC	EMGT	ENVE	ENVS	EPID
FORS	FSHN	GENG	GEOS	HLSC
HPRO	HUBS	IBUS	INFO	INFT
IRHR	MARI	MATH	MECH	MKTG
MNGT	MRSC	NUDI	OCCT	OHSE
PDTY	PHTY	PHYS	PUBH	SCIM
SENG	SPOR	SPTH	SRMT	STAT
STEC	SURV	TOUR

$5,807

$725

HECS Band 3
LAWS	MEDI	ORHL

$6,798

$849

Note: These HECS contribution amounts also apply to students who are transferring in 2008 from the Bachelor of Design (Architecture) to the Master of Architecture and who were pre-2005 students in the bachelor course.