Full-time - Student Allowance definition
Provides the definition of a full-time student for the Student Allowance.
Each tertiary level course has an EFTS (equivalent full-time student) value assigned to it. For an individual course to be approved as full-time, the length of that course must meet a certain EFTS value. See the chart below.
| Number of weeks (gross weeks) | EFTS | Number of weeks (gross weeks) | EFTS |
| 12 | 0.3 | 23 | 0.575 |
| 13 | 0.3 | 24 | 0.6 |
| 14 | 0.3 | 25 | 0.625 |
| 15 | 0.3 | 26 | 0.65 |
| 16 | 0.4 | 27 | 0.675 |
| 17 | 0.4 | 28 | 0.7 |
| 18 | 0.4 | 29 | 0.725 |
| 19 | 0.4 | 30 | 0.75 |
| 20 | 0.5 | 31 | 0.775 |
| 21 | 0.525 | 32-52 | 0.8 |
| 22 | 0.55 | 53 or more | 1.0 |
StudyLink will request a Verification of Study (VoS) from your education provider to verify if you meet the full-time criteria.
There are courses that are shorter than 12 weeks (e.g. Summer School). For these courses to be considered as full-time, the EFTS value must be at least 0.025 for each week of that course, and the course must be approved by the Tertiary Education Commission for Student Allowance purposes.
In most cases a student will need to be studying towards one full-time course at one education provider to receive a Student Allowance. However there are particular situations where courses can be joined together and assessed as full-time. These are known as concurrent or conjoint programmes.
If you're unsure if your course meets the full-time criteria, check with your education provider.
