Thomson and Secretary, Department of Education, Skills and Employment

This matter concerned an application by Ms Thomson to re-credit her Student Learning Entitlement (SLE) with the Secretary of the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. Ms Thomson sought re-crediting of her SLE after enrolling in two units of study, identified as 'The Geographies of Social Difference' and 'The Individual in Society', in 2011. The dispute centred on whether Ms Thomson had actually enrolled in these units and, if so, whether her application for re-crediting was made within the permissible timeframe. The decision was made by Mr Rob Reitano, Member.

The primary legal issue before the Member was whether Ms Thomson could satisfy the requirements of section 79-1(1)(e)(ii) of the relevant Act to permit the re-crediting of her SLE. This required determining whether it was not possible for Ms Thomson to have made her application before the deadline of 4 December 2012. The Member also considered, but ultimately did not need to decide, whether Ms Thomson met the other preconditions for re-crediting her entitlement.

The Member found that Ms Thomson had received emails on 5 February 2011 and 3 March 2011, which notified her of her enrolment in the disputed units and the requirement to pay tuition fees or defer them. While Ms Thomson, who was 18 at the time and working two jobs, insisted she did not enrol in these units and had no recollection of the emails, the Member found that she had access to her email account and "obviously didn’t pick up on the fact that there were those two units." Crucially, the Member concluded that it was not possible to find that Ms Thomson could not have made her application before the deadline. Therefore, she failed to satisfy the statutory requirement.

Consequently, the Member affirmed the decision of Western Sydney University made on 23 September 2019, which refused to re-credit Ms Thomson’s Student Learning Entitlement.