On 4 December 2025 the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025 (the Bill) received Royal Assent. The provisions in the Bill will commence on 5 December 2025.
With the passage of the Education Legislation Amendment Bill (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025, the Australian Government is strengthening integrity in the international education sector through changes to the ESOS Act. These changes strengthen integrity in the sector by combating exploitation of overseas students as well as those who seek to exploit the migration system. The amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 include:
- replacing the definition of 'agent' with a new definition of 'education agent'
- introducing a definition of 'education agent commissions' and collection of commissions information
- improving transparency of education agent information for education providers
- improving the fit and proper provider requirements, by requiring ESOS agencies to now consider:
- ownership and control arrangements between education providers and education agents
- whether a provider or a related person of the provider is being investigated for a specified offence.
- introducing the ability for the Minister to suspend the acceptance and processing of ESOS initial registration and add to scope applications
- introducing a strengthened registration requirement for most prospective VET providers excluding TAFEs to deliver training and assessment for consecutive study periods totalling at least two years to domestic students before being eligible to apply for ESOS registration
- introducing the automatic cancellation of the registration of ESOS providers that have not delivered training and/or assessment to any overseas students for a period of 12 consecutive months
- introducing the ability for the Minister to automatically suspend and cancel specific courses
- increasing the internal review timeframes and including the ability for an ESOS agency to determine that the operation of the decision is stayed pending the outcome of the review.
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