HECS debt by degree, field of study and gender in Australia

HECS-HELP is the loan that covers the student contribution for a Commonwealth supported place, commonly known as HECS, where the government subsidises part of the course cost. In 2026, that contribution ranges from $4,738 a year for nursing, education and agriculture to $17,399 a year for law, commerce and related fields. FEE-HELP, a separate loan for full-fee courses such as many postgraduate degrees, works differently again: providers set the price, and it is usually quoted as a total course cost rather than a yearly rate.

Frequently asked questions

Which degrees have the highest HECS-HELP student contributions in 2026?

The 2026 student contribution ranges from $4,738 to $17,399 per year, a gap of $12,661 depending solely on discipline.

Every Commonwealth supported place is assigned to a funding cluster, but the student contribution amount does not map neatly to one cluster number. In 2026, the same funding cluster can include more than one student contribution amount, depending on the discipline group. The same law unit has the same maximum student contribution whether it is studied in Sydney, Perth or Hobart.

For context, multiplying these annual figures across a standard three-year bachelor's degree gives a rough sense of scale: about $14,214 in total student contributions at the lowest student contribution amount, compared with about $52,197 at the highest. Longer professional degrees add further years at the relevant rate, so a four-year engineering degree or a six-year medical degree would accumulate more. These are simple multiplications of the published annual rate, not official total-debt figures, since the government does not publish average HELP debt by named degree.

How much can a full-fee degree cost in Australia?

A full-fee medical degree at Bond University can cost more than $470,000, well beyond the $186,544 HELP loan limit for that field.

HECS-HELP only applies to Commonwealth supported places. A separate loan, FEE-HELP, covers full-fee places, which include most full-fee postgraduate coursework degrees and some full-fee undergraduate places. Each provider sets its own price, usually as a total course fee rather than an annual rate.

Domestic postgraduate commencements rose from 102,359 in 2015 to 118,607 in 2024, an increase of about 16%, while undergraduate commencements fell slightly over the same period. This shows postgraduate study has become a larger part of domestic commencements than it was in 2015, but commencement data does not directly show how many students used FEE-HELP.

The combined HELP loan limit in 2026 is $129,883 for most courses, and $186,544 for medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and eligible aviation courses. That higher limit reflects how long and expensive courses in those fields can be, as the Bond example below shows. HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP have drawn on this same combined limit since 2020.

Full-fee course cost examples

A Juris Doctor at Deakin costs $52,197 as a Commonwealth supported place, or $123,000 as a full-fee place, the same degree priced two different ways.

There is no central price list for full-fee courses, so the closest way to show the range is a small number of real, currently published prices. These are individual examples, not an average or a comprehensive survey.

MBA fees in Australia range from $16,000 to $153,000 for the full degree, with most programmes costing $50,000 to $80,000. Melbourne Business School's $112,536 full-time programme sits well above the middle of that range. This comes from a private industry compilation, not an official government figure, and is included here for context rather than as a benchmark.

How Job-ready Graduates changed HECS-HELP course costs

In the first year of the 2021 changes, law and commerce contributions rose by $3,345 a year, while agriculture fell by $5,577.

The Job-ready Graduates package replaced the old system of eight funding clusters and three price bands with four clusters and four bands from the 2021 academic year. Continuing students who would otherwise have faced a higher contribution were grandfathered onto earlier rates.

Since 2021, the new student contribution amounts have continued to rise with indexation. Law, commerce and related fields climbed from $14,500 to $17,399 by 2026, while lower-contribution fields such as education, nursing and agriculture rose from $3,950 to $4,738. Both moves reflect ordinary annual indexation applied inside the post-2021 structure, not a second policy redesign.

Which fields of study have the highest potential HECS-HELP exposure?

Society and culture, Australia's largest field of study with 98,994 domestic commencements in 2024, sits at the highest 2026 student contribution amount, and so does management and commerce, the third largest at 58,618.

Two things stand out. Information technology grew faster than any other field shown, up 91.4% in domestic commencements between 2015 and 2024, while creative arts fell furthest, down 21.8% over the same period. And the size of a field does not track its price: education is the fourth largest field and among the lowest-cost groups, while society and culture and management and commerce are both large and sit at the top of the pricing scale.

Women make up a growing majority of domestic commencing students

Sixty-two per cent of domestic commencing students were female in 2024, up from 58% in 2015.

Domestic commencing student data is not the same as HELP borrower data. However, because HELP debt starts with enrolment in eligible higher education study, the gender split of domestic commencements gives useful context for where potential new HELP exposure may sit. No official public table tracks HELP balances by gender directly.

Does field of study affect HECS-HELP repayment speed?

Below $69,528 a year, no HELP repayment is required at all, regardless of field of study, provider or debt size.

From the 2025-26 income year, HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP repayments both use the same marginal system, based on repayment income rather than field of study.

Since 2020, HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP also combine into a single balance for repayment purposes. A borrower with both loan types does not choose which one to pay off first, or pay them at different rates. The entire combined balance is repaid together, at whatever rate their income places them in.

These three examples show why the system is described as income-contingent. Someone on $150,000 pays an amount calculated under the 2026-27 marginal repayment formula, regardless of whether their debt came from a $4,738-a-year nursing degree or a $470,540 medical programme.

Why total HELP debt keeps rising in Australia

HELP debt reached a fair value of $51.4 billion across 2.96 million debtors at 30 June 2025, according to the 2025-26 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

Government policy sets the student contribution for a Commonwealth supported place. Provider pricing sets the cost of full-fee study. The 2021 Job-ready Graduates package shows how directly policy can reshape Commonwealth supported place pricing: it moved some disciplines up and others down within one year, separate from ordinary indexation. FEE-HELP pricing works differently. Providers set their own fees for full-fee courses, and some provider-set courses, such as Bond University's Medical Program, can sit well above the HELP loan limit.

Meanwhile, society and culture, the field with the largest domestic commencing cohort in 2024, sits in the highest-cost Commonwealth supported discipline group, alongside management and commerce. Women made up 62% of domestic commencing students recorded as female or male in 2024, although that figure is enrolment data rather than direct HELP borrower data.

Put together, the data shows four separate forces shaping HELP debt: discipline determines the student contribution for Commonwealth supported places, the 2021 Job-ready Graduates package reset those contributions across fields, full-fee study can add a larger provider-priced layer of debt, and repayment speed depends on income rather than course type. What the data cannot yet show is average HELP debt by named degree, field of study or gender.