Education Providers Regulations

New Legislation: The ESOS National code 2007 by Ahmad.

From 1 July 2007, a new version of the legislation regulation education providers came into force (previously known as the ESOS act 2002).This is an important change in legislation applicable to providers of education services for overseas students, and can have repercussions or implications for some students, implemented by the Department of Education, Science and Training in association with DIAC. The key changes brought in this legislation are:

(1) Change of provider time window is now reduced to six months from twelve months

(2) All students are now expected to complete their course within the stipulated time period as published and registered by the provider. (For example, if a course is listed by the provider as 18 months, the students will have to finish it within the 18 months unless necessitated by medical or other compelling circumstances). To enforce this, eCOEs for extension of the same course will no longer be issued, except in very limited circumstances.

An excerpt from the RMIT website:

"International students are required to complete their study within the expected program duration.

The expected duration is given on your eCoE (Electronic Confirmation of Enrolment). To complete your program in the expected duration, you will usually need to be enrolled in a 100% load each semester.

There are now situations, however, where you can enrol in a less than full-time load:

* as part of a documented intervention strategy authorised by your Dean of Academic Development;
* when you have compassionate or compelling circumstances, documented by your Dean of Academic Development;
* when you have undertaken extra study (i.e. summer semester courses);
* you only have a few courses left to complete and these do not constitute a full-time load.

Please note: if you do not maintain a full-time load and you do not have a valid reason, if you do not complete your program within the expected duration you will not have grounds to apply for a new eCoE."

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There is no definition of loading on students as such, but the stipulation that students are expected to complete their course within the time period shown on the initial eCOE means that students will need to enrol in a 100% load each semester, except for the final semester of study, if the courses left to completion of the degree/program make up for a part time load.

This legislation effectively closes all the remaining loopholes in the skilled immigration system, with students no longer eligible for visa extensions unless there are compelling circumstances.

The rest of the legislation remains more or less the same, such as attendance requirements etc.

80% attendance is still mandatory. Providers will have to report students if they fail more than 50% of the subjects in any given semester or year.

Dharma asked:
Does this new legislation dent the possibilities for pr for students from abroad after they complete their studies and have secured a job?

Ahmad Replied:
This legislation only governs students and providers during the course of study. This has nothing to do with immigration policies of the skilled migration streams as such.

But yes there is a possible link. Under the ESOS Act 2002, a full-time load was defined as a 75% load, with no restrictions on issuance of new eCOEs for the course. This sometimes meant that students were able to enrol in 75% load in 1.5 year degrees and have it counted as 2 years of study.

Under this legislation, the severely limited circumstances allowing for issuance of new eCOEs to extend the visa beyond what was issued in the initial eCOE will mean that students will be required (or forced) to finish degrees within the published time. If it says 1.5 years on the CRICOS register or your eCOE, you have to finish it in that time, unless medical or other compelling reasons are present.

New eCOEs (and hence visa extensions) will not be easy to get in simple terms. You cannot just enrol in a 75% load at your leisure and then have the visa extended by a semester at the end without a solid reason.

Reproduced from the Orkut Study in Australia Community with permission from Ahmad.