Expansion of the Commonwealth Prac Payment – issued Thursday 23 July 2026

Statement by Charles Sturt University Vice‑Chancellor Professor Renée Leon

Charles Sturt University warmly welcomes the government’s decision to expand the Commonwealth Prac Payment to additional allied health disciplines.

This is very good news for Charles Sturt students, for regional Australia and for the future workforce our communities depend upon.

It is a significant and positive step that recognises the crippling financial pressures many students face when undertaking mandatory placements and reflects the concerns that Charles Sturt and others have consistently raised with government.

Expanding the payments will make a real difference to thousands of students.

Charles Sturt University currently has many students enrolled in clinical psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, paramedicine, radiography, pharmacy, rehabilitation therapies, and podiatry.

Among this approximately 3,200-strong cohort will be many that need financial support to successfully complete their future practical course components.

Poverty placement is an issue for many Australian university students but it disproportionately impacts regional students, given the travel and accommodation costs frequently associated with their placements.

With more limited options, many of our students are required to relocate hundreds of kilometres from home for placements, often foregoing paid work for weeks and months at a time.

This places a severe financial burden on them and their families, one which forces some to quit their courses.

While this is devastating for the students, it is also disastrous for the regional Australian communities which desperately need the skills and knowledge Charles Sturt graduates bring to their communities.

More than 80 per cent of Charles Sturt University’s regional students live and work in regional Australia after graduation.

They are the teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, dentists, paramedics, veterinarians and other skilled professionals that regional communities desperately need – and they deserve to be supported while they study.

We are hopeful the government will consider including other course areas in future expansions of the program, especially medicine and veterinary science students.