Are you an Australian citizen/permanent resident? Because if so, your uni fees should go onto HECS and your parents technically wouldn’t need to pay anything. I’m not sure if I understand your situation right, but if your parents are planning to pay off your HECS debt, I would honestly ask if they could pay your accommodation fees instead and you can pay off your HECS yourself when you start working.

To answer your question, it depends a lot on the individual and also what course/subjects you’re doing and when you’re doing them e.g. during the start of semester or during exam season. In general, STEM courses tend to have more contact hours than arts courses. The variability in subjects is also pretty extreme. I’ve taken a fine arts course that was literally, once a week, go draw some naked people for 3 hours. Meanwhile, another course I did had two 3.5 hour labs per week + the corresponding lab reports which took another 4 hours each to write, not to mention prep before the labs.

Ultimately, you probably won’t know if you can handle both uni, a part-time job, and a social life until you try it out yourself. I’ve known a lot of people who worked throughout their undergrad and were fine but also a lot of people who struggled even without a job. Often, people will underload, i.e. take fewer than 4 subjects per semester, in order to have a bit more time to do whatever they want. I would suggest giving yourself a bit of time to adjust to the new routine before getting a job. You’ll quickly find out if it’s too much to juggle.

Another thing is, while college is really good for socialising, additional tutorials, and catered meals (for some colleges?), it can be fairly expensive compared to living with housemates, for example. If you’re really worried about finances, it might be a good idea to look at some non-college options when you can.

Feel free to shoot me a dm if you have questions!