ESOS Act 2025 Amendments: Your Complete Compliance Roadmap for VET Providers

The Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025 introduced major changes to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, receiving Royal Assent on 4 December 2025 and taking effect on 5 December 2025. The amendments strengthen integrity measures around education agents, commissions, provider fitness, and CRICOS registration to combat exploitation and improve sector quality.

The ESOS Act amendments commenced on 5 December 2025, the day after Royal Assent. There are no transitional periods or delayed commencement dates for the core provisions affecting education agents, commissions, and fit-and-proper requirements.

The amendments apply to all CRICOS-registered providers in Australia, including VET providers (RTOs), universities, ELICOS providers, and schools that deliver courses to overseas students. They also affect education agents (both onshore and offshore) and associated entities with ownership or control relationships with providers.

The Government introduced these amendments to address integrity concerns in international education, including unethical agent practices, student exploitation, migration system abuse, and protection of Australia’s education reputation. The changes implement recommendations from sector reviews including the Nixon Review.

An education agent is any person or entity that recruits overseas students, provides enrollment advice, or otherwise deals with overseas or intending overseas students on behalf of a provider—regardless of whether there is a formal written agreement. The definition is based on activities performed, not contractual status.

Yes, casual employees and contractors who recruit students or provide enrollment advice are classified as education agents under the new definition. Only permanent full-time or part-time employees are excluded from the education agent definition.

Yes, if an individual or business informally refers or recruits overseas students, provides enrollment advice, or deals with students on your behalf—even without a formal agreement—they are classified as education agents and must be recorded and managed accordingly.

Providers who fail to maintain accurate education agent records under section 13 of the ESOS Regulations or fail to publish required agent information on their website under section 21A of the ESOS Act face regulatory action by ASQA, including potential suspension or cancellation of CRICOS registration.

An education agent commission is any monetary or non-monetary benefit provided by a provider to an education agent in connection with recruiting overseas students, providing enrollment advice, or otherwise dealing with overseas or intending overseas students. This includes fees, bonuses, gifts, free services, subsidized travel, rewards, and performance incentives.

Yes, non-monetary benefits such as free training courses, subsidized travel, gifts, discounted services, rewards programs, and any other benefits provided to agents are classified as education agent commissions and must be recorded and reported.

No, providers who attempt to obscure education agent commissions under the guise of other payments (such as marketing services or consultancy fees paid at rates significantly higher than market rates) may be subject to regulatory action and penalties.

The ESOS Act amendments create the legislative foundation to ban commissions paid to agents for onshore student transfers between providers through complementary amendments to the National Code of Practice. Providers should cease transfer-related commission payments immediately pending formal National Code amendments.

Yes, under new section 21B of the ESOS Act, the Secretary of the Department of Education can request detailed information about education agent commissions, including amounts paid, students recruited, and transfer statistics. Providers must comply within the specified timeframe.

Providers who provide false, misleading, or incomplete information in response to the Secretary’s commission information request face penalties including infringement notices, regulatory action by ASQA, and potential prosecution under section 108 of the ESOS Act.

Failure to comply with the Secretary’s information request is an offence of strict liability with a maximum penalty of 60 penalty units (currently $19,800 under Commonwealth penalty unit rates). Providers may also face civil penalties and regulatory action by ASQA.

Providers must maintain complete records of all education agent commissions (monetary and non-monetary), including agent details, students recruited, payment amounts and types, transfer statistics, and ownership relationships, for a minimum of 2 years after the relationship ends.

ASQA must now consider ownership and control relationships between the provider (and associates) and education agents (and associates) when assessing whether a provider is fit and proper to hold CRICOS registration. ASQA must also consider whether the provider or related persons are under investigation for specified offences including fraud and migration-related conduct.

Yes, providers must notify ASQA when there is a new relationship or change in an existing relationship of ownership or control between the provider (or associate) and an education agent (or associate). Failure to notify can result in regulatory action and suspension.

If a provider or related persons are under investigation for specified offences (fraud, migration offences, or offences specified by the Minister), ASQA must consider this when determining whether the provider is fit and proper. ASQA can suspend CRICOS registration while serious investigations are underway.

Yes, the amendments give ASQA power to suspend a provider’s CRICOS registration while serious integrity investigations are underway, preventing the provider from continuing to recruit and enroll international students during the investigation period.

Yes, most new VET providers (except TAFEs) must deliver training and assessment to domestic students for at least two consecutive study periods totalling two years before they can apply for CRICOS registration. This requirement aims to prevent pop-up providers entering the market solely for international recruitment.

CRICOS registration (except for schools) is automatically cancelled if the provider has not delivered any training or assessment to overseas students for 12 consecutive months on or after 1 January 2026. This automatic cancellation applies even if the provider maintains RTO registration.

Yes, the Minister now has power to automatically suspend or cancel specific courses via legislative instrument where there are systemic quality concerns, limited alignment with skills needs, or public interest concerns.

Under section 21A of the ESOS Act, providers must publish a current list of all education agents (using the new activity-based definition) on their website. The list must be reviewed and updated regularly, with agents you’ve ceased working with removed promptly.

Under section 11 of the ESOS Regulations, providers must enter education agent details in PRISMS for every agent-facilitated enrollment. Providers should also flag transfer students and identify which agent (if any) facilitated the transfer, and prepare to enter commission data when PRISMS functionality is updated.

The Department of Education is expected to release updated PRISMS functionality to capture education agent commission data in line with the new requirements. Providers should monitor Department communications for implementation dates and system updates.

Providers should immediately: audit all education agent relationships using the new activity-based definition; update agent agreements to ban transfer commissions and add disclosure clauses; map ownership and control relationships between the provider and agents; notify ASQA of any ownership relationships; and update commission recording systems to capture monetary and non-monetary benefits.

Yes, all education agent agreements must be updated to reflect the new education agent and commission definitions, prohibit commissions for onshore student transfers, require disclosure of ownership relationships, and include reporting obligations for Secretary information requests.

Providers must document the value of non-monetary benefits (such as subsidized travel, free courses, gifts) in Australian dollars as part of commission records. Market rates and arm’s-length valuations should be used to determine the monetary equivalent of non-monetary benefits.

Training should be provided to admissions and enrollment teams (new agent definition, transfer ban, PRISMS obligations), finance teams (commission classification and valuation), compliance teams (reporting requirements and penalties), and marketing/international teams (ethical agent selection and transparency).

Penalties for non-compliance with ESOS Act requirements include infringement notices, civil penalties up to 60 penalty units ($19,800) for specific offences, criminal prosecution under section 108 for false information, and regulatory action by ASQA including suspension or cancellation of CRICOS registration.

While qualification cancellation primarily relates to assessment integrity under the Standards for RTOs, serious ESOS breaches that undermine the integrity of student outcomes may contribute to ASQA’s decision to cancel qualifications, particularly where systemic non-compliance affects student protection.

Providing false or misleading information to the Secretary or ASQA in relation to education agent commissions or other ESOS obligations can result in prosecution under section 108 of the ESOS Act, with penalties determined by the court including substantial fines and potential imprisonment for serious offences.

No, there is no grace period or transition period for the ESOS amendments. All provisions took effect on 5 December 2025, and providers must comply immediately with the new education agent definition, commission recording, ownership disclosure, and fit-and-proper requirements.

The Secretary can request commission information for any period from 5 December 2025 onward. Information gathered before commencement can also be used by ASQA and the Department for regulatory purposes under information-sharing provisions.

The Government has announced that complementary amendments to the National Code of Practice to formally ban commissions for onshore student transfers will be made “in due course” following the ESOS Act amendments. Providers should monitor ASQA and Department communications for National Code consultation and commencement dates.