Full-time - Student Loan definition

The Tertiary Education Commission assigns an EFTS (equivalent full-time student) value to each course to determine if it meets the full-time status criteria for Student Loans.  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

The study status of your course determines what components of the Student Loan you can access.

For example:

 

Study status	Fees	Course-related costs	Living costs
Full-time, Full year (i.e. studying both 1st and 2nd semester)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Full-time, Part year (i.e. studying either  1st or 2nd semester)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Part-time Full year	Yes	No	No
Part-time Part year Note: a minimum value of 0.25 EFTS is required.	Yes	No	No

 

Note: if the length of your course does not meet the required EFTS value to be full-time, StudyLink will check to see if there is any part or segment of your course which may still qualify as full-time.

For example:

Your course is 32 weeks long, so you would need to have 0.8 EFTS to be full-time.  Your first semester EFTS value is 0.4, but your second semester is only 0.3. StudyLink will determine that you are full-time for the first semester but not for the second semester.