If your Registered Training Organisation (RTO) works with education agents to recruit international students, this guide is for you. Education agent management is one of the most closely monitored areas during an ASQA audit. Get it right and you protect your students, your reputation, and your registration. Get it wrong and you risk enforcement action, financial penalties, and even cancellation of your CRICOS registration.
This guide breaks down everything your RTO needs to know — in plain, simple language — including what changed on 1 April 2026, what your legal obligations are, and how to set up a process that actually works.
An education agent is a person or business that promotes your RTO’s courses and recruits international students on your behalf. They are sometimes called student recruitment agents, overseas agents, or education consultants.
Agents play a big role in the international education market. They help students find courses, complete applications, and understand visa requirements. But they must operate within strict legal boundaries — and your RTO is responsible for making sure they do.
The ESOS Act 2000 now uses the term “education agent” following amendments that received Royal Assent on 4 December 2025. The new definition replaced the old term “agent” and introduced clearer rules about commissions, transparency, and accountability.
Education agent management sits inside a clear legislative framework. Every RTO that is CRICOS-registered must comply with all of the following:
The overarching law governing international education in Australia. It covers agent definitions, commission rules, ownership/control notifications, record-keeping, and PRISMS reporting.
The detailed standard that sets out exactly how RTOs must manage education agents, from written agreements through to termination.
Covers overseas student transfers, including the Transfer Restriction Period (first six months of a student’s principal course).
ASQA confirms that education agent agreements for VET providers are also treated as third-party arrangements under the 2025 Standards and are subject to the same rules.
Relevant where agents give visa or migration advice (which they are prohibited from doing unless they are a registered migration agent).
No single piece of legislation stands alone. Your compliance must cover all of them, all of the time.
This is the most significant change to hit the education agent space in years. From 1 April 2026, your RTO cannot pay any commission to an education agent for recruiting an overseas student who:
This applies to both monetary and non-monetary benefits — so it covers payments labelled as service fees, referral fees, gifts, marketing fees, or any other name. If it benefits the agent and is connected to recruiting an onshore transfer student, it is banned.
The Australian Government introduced this ban to remove the financial incentive for agents to encourage students to transfer unnecessarily. Unnecessary transfers can harm students — disrupting their studies, affecting their visa conditions, and putting them in debt.
The key date is the date of acceptance, not commencement. If a student was accepted by your RTO on or before 31 March 2026, commission can still be paid. The student does not need to have started by that date.
Not all commissions are banned. You can still pay commission where the student:
Regardless of the student’s situation, commission can never be paid or received if:
Your Responsibilities Under National Code 2018, Standard 4
Standard 4 sets out exactly what your RTO must do when using education agents. Here is what each sub-standard requires in plain language.
You must have a written agreement with every agent who formally represents your RTO. “Formally represents” means any agent who promotes your courses with the intention of recruiting students for you.
The agreement must cover:
You must also enter and maintain the agent’s details in PRISMS. This is a legal requirement.
The written agreement must contain specific mandatory elements — not just general statements. It must describe your monitoring processes in detail and clearly state what happens if the agent does not comply.
The agreement must also include a requirement to conduct student satisfaction surveys so you can check how students feel about the agent’s conduct.
Your agreement must require the agent to:
This last point is important. Knowledge currency is a continuous obligation — not something ticked off once at induction. ASQA expects agents to maintain their knowledge throughout the relationship, and your monitoring process should confirm this at every review.
If you know or reasonably believe that an agent, or their employee or subcontractor, has not complied with their obligations, you must take immediate corrective action.
This means you cannot wait and see. Once you are aware of a compliance issue, you must act. Your written agreement should set out exactly how you do this — including timelines, notice requirements, and escalation steps.
You must immediately terminate the agent agreement if the agent (or their employee or subcontractor) is:
There is no notice period for these breaches. Termination must be immediate. If the breach is by an employee or subcontractor of the agent (not the agent directly), you have the option to require the agent to terminate that person within five business days, before terminating the whole agreement.
You must not accept students from an agent if you know or reasonably suspect the agent is:
This clause is a standalone obligation — separate from monitoring and corrective action. It applies at the point of enrolment.
Standard 4.7 is the new commission ban. Standard 4.8 sets out the permitted exceptions listed above. Together, these two standards govern every commission decision your RTO makes from 1 April 2026.
Under National Code 2018, Standard 7, an overseas student cannot transfer to a new provider within the first six calendar months of their principal course — unless an exception applies.
Your RTO must not knowingly enrol such a student unless:
Your agents must understand this rule and must not recruit students who are in their first six months at another provider. ASQA actively monitors onshore transfer patterns and concurrent enrolment practices.
Importantly, agents must ask every prospective student: “Have you started a course at another Australian provider? If yes, how long ago?” If the student is within six months of their principal course and no exception applies, the agent must not recruit them.
Having a good internal process protects your RTO and makes compliance easy for your team. Here is a simple, effective process.
Before any agent recruits students for your RTO, they must sign a current written agreement. This is a hard requirement under Standard 4.1. No agreement means no recruitment — it is that simple.
Before recruitment starts, complete a pre-commencement induction with the agent. Cover the commission ban, the Transfer Restriction Period, sub-agent approval, PRISMS restrictions, and all key obligations. Confirm the agent understands and sign off the checklist.
When a student is referred by an agent, your Student Services or Admissions team should collect transfer status information directly from the student. This puts the information-gathering in the hands of the Institute — not the agent.
Before any commission is paid, your admin team should independently assess commission eligibility. This means checking whether the student is an onshore transfer, whether they were accepted before or after 31 March 2026, and whether any Standard 4.8 exception applies. Document this assessment.
Conduct monitoring reviews at regular intervals — at least every six months for standard agents, and every three months for new agents or agents with an active breach warning. At each review, verify the agent’s knowledge is current.
If a breach is identified, issue a written Minor Breach Notice for lower-level issues and give the agent up to 14 days to correct the issue. For Major Breaches, terminate immediately.
Retain all agent-related records — including the agreement, monitoring reports, commission decisions, and breach notices — for a minimum of two years after the agent ceases to be active, or for the duration of any ASQA investigation, whichever is longer.
PRISMS is the system used to manage international student records. Only your Institute staff may create or issue Confirmations of Enrolment (CoEs). Your agent has zero access to PRISMS — this is a legal requirement under the ESOS Act 2000.
You must also enter and maintain agent details in PRISMS, and publish a current list of your active agents on your public website. The list must include the agent name, contact person, legal entity name, and street address, and must be updated within 30 days of any change.
If there is any ownership or control relationship between your RTO and an education agent — or if such a relationship develops or changes during the agreement term — you must notify ASQA within 10 business days.
This is an ongoing obligation, not a one-time disclosure. If something changes partway through the agreement, you must notify ASQA again. The recent ESOS Act amendments introduced this as a fit and proper person requirement, reflecting the Government’s focus on transparency.
Education agent compliance is not complicated once you understand the framework. The key is having a clear written agreement, a consistent internal process, and a team that knows the rules. The 1 April 2026 commission ban is the biggest recent change, but the underlying obligations around monitoring, conduct, and termination have been in place for years.
If your RTO is not yet fully compliant, now is the time to act. ASQA is actively monitoring onshore transfer practices and commission arrangements. The cost of getting it wrong is far greater than the cost of getting it right.
Yes. Every agent who formally represents your RTO must have a signed written agreement in place before they begin any recruitment. This is mandatory under National Code 2018, Standard 4.1.
Yes — but your RTO cannot pay them commission for it. The student is still free to seek an agent’s help with the transfer process. The ban is on the RTO paying commission, not on the agent helping or the student transferring.
Commission can still be paid. The ban applies to students accepted on or after 1 April 2026. The student does not need to have commenced by 31 March — only acceptance is required.
This is a Major Breach under National Code 2018, Standard 4.5 and you must immediately terminate the agent agreement. You must also not enrol the student unless an exception under Standard 7 applies.
No. The commission ban covers payments to the agent or any associate of the agent — including business partners, family members, related companies, subsidiaries, and franchisees. Payments cannot be routed through any connected third party to get around the ban.
Commission includes any monetary or non-monetary benefit given in connection with student recruitment — regardless of what it is called. This covers payments labelled as service fees, marketing fees, referral fees, gifts, or incentives. The label does not matter — the substance does.
ASQA expects monitoring to occur at regular intervals under Standard 4.4. Best practice is at least every six months for standard agents, and every three months for new agents in their first year or agents with an active breach warning.
Yes. Agent knowledge must be confirmed at every monitoring review — not just at induction. If you find knowledge gaps, the agent should complete a targeted update within 30 days.
No — unless the agent is a registered migration agent under the Migration Act 1958. This is a Major Breach under Standard 4.6, and your RTO should also not accept students from an agent you know is giving unlawful migration advice.
Retain all agent agreements, monitoring reports, commission invoices and records, eligibility assessments, breach notices, and termination letters for a minimum of two years after the agent is no longer active — or for the duration of any ASQA or DHA investigation, whichever is longer.
You should initiate a clawback immediately — within 14 days of becoming aware of the error. Document the process. Failing to clawback a prohibited commission payment could be treated as a continuing breach.
Yes. ASQA has confirmed that education agent agreements for VET providers delivering to international students are classified as third-party arrangements under the Standards for RTOs 2025. This means the same rules apply — your RTO remains responsible for outcomes at all times.
Yes. ESOS Act 2000, s 21A requires you to maintain a current public list of all active education agents on your website. The list must include agent name, contact person, legal entity name, and street address. Update it within 30 days of any change.
Disclaimer:
The information presented on the VET Resources blog is for general guidance only. While we strive for accuracy, we cannot guarantee the completeness or timeliness of the information. VET Resources is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. Always consult a professional for advice tailored to your circumstances.
Ben Thakkar is a Compliance, Training, and Business specialist in the education industry. He has held senior management roles, including General Manager, with leading Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and Universities. With over 15 years of experience, Ben brings extensive expertise across audits, funding contracts, VET Student Loans, CRICOS, and the Standards for RTOs 2025.
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