After the announcement highlighting the soft cap on international students, education minister Jason Clare introduced a bill to parliament on May 16. However, amendments were proposed to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act, which will give the government broader powers over the activities of the agents and their interactions with education providers in Australia.
As part of the proposed changes to the bill, the government will have the power to set the enrollment limits for international students at each institution. Moreover, the government can set a pause on the application of new international education providers for up to 12 months.
In a speech to the parliament, Clare announced that the legislation is aimed at the shonks and crooks who are trying to make money by taking advantage of students. He further clarified that Australia is the place where the best and brightest students come to study. However, there is a need for carefully managing and protecting students from bad actors.
He detailed that the proposal directly responds to the issues identified in the Nixon and Migration Reviews; this brings together a bulk of the new measures announced for 2024. There are certain changes introduced, including a “new definition of education agent that better captures their activities.”
A revised definition of the term “commission” for education agents was also included in the bill. This allowed for changes to the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018, which officially outlawed commissions given to agents for onshore switching.
Under the bill, the new education providers would also be required to deliver a course to domestic students for two years before they could apply to register to teach international students. Notably, the minister made it clear that since English-language classes and foundation programmes exclusively serve international students, they would not be subject to the two-year requirement.
