Statement of Tuition Assurance 

In order to qualify as a Higher Education Provider (HEP) under the Higher Education Support Act (2003) (HESA), Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School Australia is obligated to provide a tuition assurance arrangement for Australian citizens or holders of an Australian permanent humanitarian visa who are enrolled in higher education courses the School offers. The purpose of the assurance arrangement is to protect students in the unlikely event that Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Australia ceases to be able to provide a course of study, by enabling students to:

• Enroll in a similar course of study at another HEP and receive full credit towards a comparable course of study from that HEP for any units of study successfully completed at Carnegie Mellon Heinz School, Australia as part of that course of study (this is known as the “Course Assurance Option”), or
• If necessary, receive a refund equivalent to any student contribution amount or tuition fee paid for any undelivered units of study (this is known as the “Student Contribution/Tuition Fee Repayment Option”).

Carnegie Mellon University has met the course assurance option through an agreement with Flinders University by which students could complete their course of study at Flinders University, should the Heinz School cease operation.  Under this agreement students would receive full credit for any units of study successfully completed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School Australia.

Of course, if Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School Australia ceases to be able to provide a course of study in which a student is enrolled, a student may always transfer and enroll in the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University’s main campus located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to complete the remaining units of study in the course in which the student was enrolled.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Australia has also met both parts of the tuition assurance requirements of the HESA through its current membership of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) Australian Student Tuition Assurance Scheme (ASTAS).  Contact details for ACPET are:

Box Q1076, QVB PO, Sydney NSW 1230
Telephone: (02) 9264 4490
Facsimile: (02) 9264 4550
Email: acpet@acpet.edu.au
Web: http://www.acpet.edu.au/

If Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Australia ceases to provide a course of study, ACPET will send a student enrolled in the course of study a Written Tuition Assurance Offer (the Offer) advising the student of the options available under the tuition assurance requirements.  The Offer will include directions that the student must follow in order to notify ACPET of the choice they have made for each affected unit.  ACPET will provide this Offer within twenty Business Days after it knows, or should know by reasonable enquiries that Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Australia has ceased to provider the course or study. 

The course/s of study for which Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Australia has ACPET ASTAS membership is/are:

A student may choose either:

The Course Assurance Option:

If a student accepts a place in a course offered by ACPET as named above, ACPET will offer the student the option of ACPET making all necessary arrangements to ensure a student is able to enrol in a similar course of study with a Second Provider. This offered course will lead to the same or a comparable qualification without any requirement on the part of the student to pay that Second Provider any student contribution or tuition fee for any replacement units.  A student will receive full credit from the Second Provider for any units of study successfully completed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School Australia.

The Second Provider nominated by ACPET may have different contribution amounts or tuition fees to the amounts or fees the student would have paid for units of study which were part of the course of study Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Australia ceased to provide.

A student is not obliged to enrol in a course of study with a Second Provider offered by ACPET under the Course Assurance Option.  However, if he/she enrols with any other provider there is no obligation on that provider to offer full credit transfer for the units of study completed with Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Australia or to offer a replacement/s unit free of charge.
 
OR

The Student Contribution/Tuition Fee Repayment Option

If a student chooses the Student Contribution/Tuition Fee Repayment Option ACPET undertakes to pay the student the total of any up-front payments already paid by the student for any units of study the student has commenced but not completed.  Students selecting this option will also get SLE or FEE-HELP balance/s re-credited for uncompleted units.