Receiving an offer does not confirm your enrolment in the course. To secure your place, you must follow the enrolment instructions sent to you by the institution making the offer. In some cases you may be required to attend enrolment in person on a specific date and time.

Accepting an offer does not stop the offer process and does not reduce your chances for future offers.

Declining an offer

You should only decline an offer if you are absolutely certain you wouldn't take the course even if you don't receive any other offers. To decline an offer, you don't need to do anything.

If you do not enrol in the course on the date and time specified in your email, your offer will automatically lapse. The place that was offered to you will become available to someone else in a future round.

Enrolment

Your specific enrolment details will be sent to you directly by the institution after VTAC notifies you of your offer. You must follow the instructions to enrol. In some cases you may be required to attend enrolment in person on a specific date and time. In most cases, you will need to supply photo ID to enrol.

To find your specific enrolment date and time, follow the instructions in your offer message. It's important that you enrol on time, because in most cases the institution won't hold the place for you beyond the set date and time.

Can I defer my place?

If you have received an offer for a course that you want to undertake but you don't want to start straight away, you may be able to defer your place until the next semester or the next year. Not all institutions allow deferment. To find out if it is possible and what you need to do to defer, you should check with the institution. In most cases, to formally defer your place, you will need to submit your request in writing and you may need to complete an official form. In some cases, you may even need to attend enrolment.

The VTAC website provides a consolidated overview of institutional deferment policies. For deferment policies at various institutions, go to the results and offers section of the VTAC website.

Don't risk it!

VTAC advises all applicants to accept an offer they receive. Even if you are eligible, there are no guarantees that you'll receive an offer in the next round.

·         If you receive an offer for a preference lower than No.1, you will automatically be eligible for an offer in a future round.

·         If you have received your first preference as an offer, but have changed your mind, you can still change your preferences.

Course authorities can only make offers in future rounds if there are places available. Your chances of receiving an offer in the next round will vary for each course.

Before deciding whether to accept, reject, defer or change your preferences, read on to maximise your options for receiving and keeping an offer. 

What if I don't get any offer? What should I do?

If you haven't received an offer there are still opportunities.

·         You can choose to wait to see if an offer is made in subsequent offer rounds

·         Change your preferences by adding or removing courses from your list

·         Provide VTAC with permission to circulate your name to institutions for supplementary offers.

What if I get my first preference? Will I get any more offers?

That depends. If you get your first preference and do nothing with your course preferences, then you won't receive any further offers. If for some reason you have changed your mind, and want to change your course preferences, then you can do that, too.

What if I get a better offer later?

If you have enrolled in a course and later receive an offer that you prefer, you can accept the new offer by enrolling in the course. Once you've enrolled in the new course, you must withdraw your enrolment for any previous offer.

If you need to withdraw your enrolment, you must contact the institution for instructions. To formally withdraw, you generally need to submit your request in writing and you may need to complete an official form. In most cases you will be able to receive a refund of the fees you have paid. However, be aware that some institutions charge an administrative fee for this process.

Don't reject an offer just because you are hoping for a better one in the next round – there are no guarantees that you'll receive another offer.

What if I can't enrol when I'm supposed to?

If you won't be able to attend enrolment, you should contact the institution immediately and check whether they will allow an authorised nominee (someone you choose) to enrol on your behalf. If this is possible, you should provide your authorised nominee with the enrolment instructions and the list of subjects you want to enrol in.

What if I miss the enrolment date?

If you don't enrol on the date and time specified, your offer will lapse. However, if you want to accept the offer, you should contact the institution and ask them if a place is still available and whether you are able to enrol later.

How do I cover the costs of the course?

Your first port of call should be the Study Assist website (studyassist.gov.au) where you will find out more information about HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP and VET Student Loans.

You should also investigate scholarships. Scholarships are offered for a large range of reasons, talk to the scholarships office at the institution from which you've received an offer to discuss your situation.

Change of preference

Change of Preference will reopen tomorrow and close before Round 2. This process will be repeated after each offer round until the final deadline of Thursday, February 23. For a complete list of dates and times refer to the VTAC website.

While Change of Preference is open, you can add, remove, and reorder your preferences as many times as you like.

Before adding a preference, always check the selection criteria to ensure you have met all course requirements.

You may also want to change your preferences if you have changed your mind about which course you most want to study, if a new course has become available and you would like to add it to your preference list, or if a course you had applied for has been cancelled and you want to replace it in your preference list.

There is no cost involved in changing your preferences. As long as you pay your course application processing fee, you can change your preferences as much as you like within the specified periods.

Check out the video on VTAC's YouTube channel about changing your preferences.

Supplementary offers

Some institutions make supplementary offers after Round 2 if they have places available. If you applied for courses with VTAC course codes ending in 1, 2 and 4, you may receive supplementary offers if you have not received an offer in any of the previous offer rounds. Applicants to international fee-paying places (VTAC course codes ending in 3) are not eligible to receive supplementary offers.

To be eligible to receive supplementary offers you must give VTAC permission to release your application to all courses with vacancies by noon on Wednesday, February 8.

Supplementary offers will be processed weekly during February. If you receive two or more offers, you will need to choose which offer to accept – you should not accept more than one offer.