Labour is implementing a 12-month pause on new private colleges. This is besides training organisations that are applying to offer courses to international students.
This suspension is to permit regulators more time to address abuse of the student visa system within the sector.
Meantime, the federal government is bolstering the integrity of the international education system. This measure is to help address concerns about migration rates.
New applications to teach overseas students in vocational education as well as English-language courses may be suspended for 12 months. This is under the federal government’s regulation change.
The pause applies to applications lodged with the Australian Skills Quality Authority, the national regulator for vocational education providers. It is applicable from Monday, 18 May ’26.
The government argues that the move may give regulators more time to scrutinise existing applications. Also, in investigating concerns about poor-quality providers, besides an oversupply of colleges that seek to enter the international student market.
A rapid review into the exploitation of Australia’s visa system, besides the migration review in ’23, identified significant integrity concerns with Australia’s international education sector.
Suspension ‘not a lightly taken decision’
Assistant Minister for International Education, Julian Hill, said that Australia remained open to genuine students. However, the government needed to protect the country’s reputation for high-quality education.
Hill added that ‘suspending new registrations to teach international students VET or English language onshore may not be a decision taken lightly’.
He went further to add that ‘it may permit the government to address integrity concerns about new market entrants.’ This over-saturation in the international VET sector, along with the ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) sector, is a concern.
Hill asserted that it was concerning that regulators were seeing a ‘rush of new market entrants’ for courses besides training. This was so even as student numbers in some parts of the sector had begun to ease.
He also commented that ‘frankly, it raises suspicions’.
‘Australia’s sustained success as a destination of choice for international students needs a ruthless focus on quality and integrity as well as student experience.’
This suspicion may not affect public education providers. This category includes government schools, TAFE, & Australia’s major public universities.
Providers have already been approved to teach international students. They would still be able to add new campuses besides updating courses when existing qualifications are replaced.
The 12-month pause on new registrations was enabled by legislation that was passed late last year. It also forms part of Labour’s broader effort to shut down unscrupulous operators & improve the experience of legitimate international students.
Meantime, the government has vowed to ensure the migration system supports genuine students. This is besides education providers, who are already doing the right thing.
International students: the focus of migration debate
Labour’s decision to suspend new entrants to the private college market comes as major public universities brace for the Coalition to announce plans for significant reductions to foreign student numbers.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has, in the meantime, said that if elected in another 2 years by ’28, he intends to connect Australia’s net overseas migration rate to housing construction completion. This would likely set an intake even lower than that cap to permit some catch-up.
Under Labour, the net overseas migration rate for ’25-’26 is forecast to be 295,000. This reflects a 50,000 drop to 245,000 in the next financial year. After that, the forecast is for 225,000 migrants annually in subsequent years.
With the dwelling completion rates set at about 170,000 homes each year, Taylor has indicated that the Coalition may cut migration rates significantly below 200,000.
Taylor has not confirmed where the cuts may originate from, although he has added that the government had ‘lost control’ of international student numbers.
Nationals Leader Matt Canavan has, in the meantime, called the international visa system a ‘scam that needs to be scaled back.’
