Australia introduces new rules restricting agent commissions for onshore student transfers

As of 31 March 2026, education agents will no longer be permitted to receive commissions from Australian schools and universities when an international student already in Australia (an “onshore student”) transfers from one institution to another without having completed their course with the previous provider.

Up to this point, institutions or schools have been able to compensate an education agent at any point during the student’s time in Australia.

Background

The new rule appears in revisions to the National Code of Practice – formally, the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students Amendment (Education Agent Commissions) Instrument 2026 – and is part of a package of amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act (ESOS). Those amendments passed in November 2025 and are aimed at closing loopholes in the international sector that had allowed:

• Unethical providers or agents to profit from shady transactions commonly referred to as “course hopping.” This is where a student obtains a visa for one programme and institution, usually a higher-level course, then progresses to an often lower-level programme and institution, sometimes with the intention of working more and studying less.

• Improving the integrity of the international education sector and protecting the interests of genuine students and quality institutions by removing the ability of unscrupulous businesses to continue poor practices.

A briefing from the Department of Education underscores the point:

“This change removes the incentive for unscrupulous education agents to facilitate unnecessary or non-genuine transfers. This change will support sector integrity and ensure that agents and providers are working in the best interests of their students.”

Unpacking the new rules

There are important points to surface about the new onshore agent commission rules:

• As per the November 2025 ESOS amendments, commissions are defined as any monetary or other benefit given on behalf of an institution to an agent in connection with international recruitment. This includes bonuses, service fees, gifts, etc.

• Included in the understanding of agent are “individuals or entities on casual or fixed-term contracts that are engaging in education agent activities would be education agents.”

• The ruling only applies to agents advising students who have not completed courses. It applies to any student who has begun a course/course package for which they have a visa, and it covers withdrawals, government-mandated cancellations of a course, and switching to another course or level without completing the first one. Providers cannot offer or give commissions to agents in these cases.

• However, agents can still receive commissions from providers for above-the-board transfers when students have completed their first course (the one for which they received a visa) and then progress to another qualification (which requires a new visa).

• Onshore students are still permitted to use agents to help them in their study planning and course progression, and agents are still allowed to receive commissions from students. The ruling only applies to provider-to-agent compensation.

• Onshore students are still able to transfer between providers if they wish, if they have completed the first six months of their principal course (or the first six months of their first school course if they are a school student). But providers are not permitted to pay an agent in this circumstance.

Adjustment period for providers

Providers have some time to adjust. A Department of Education Fact Sheet sets out that:

“To give providers time to adjust to the change, the ban will not apply where the relevant overseas student has been accepted for enrolment by a provider on or before 31 March 2026. The student does not need to have commenced study on or before 31 March 2026 for this exception to apply – only acceptance for enrolment is required, i.e. the student becomes an ‘accepted student’ as defined in the ESOS Act. This allows time for providers to adjust their business practices and honour existing contracts with education agents that involve future instalments of commission payments for previously recruited students.”

Illustrative examples

The Fact Sheet also provides a helpful example of student transfers that are not bound by the new rule on agent commissions:

“A student enrols in ELICOS at Provider A and a Bachelor of Laws at Provider B and is granted a student visa for this package of courses. In the final year of the Bachelor of Laws, the student decides to pursue further study, and seeks the help of an education agent to enrol in a Master of Laws course at Provider C after completion of the Bachelor of Laws. Provider C is permitted to pay a commission to the agent, because the course will start after completion of the student’s principal course.”

And the summary also includes an example of when a provider cannot compensate an agent in the case of a packaged course:

“A student is issued a student visa on the basis of two [Confirmations of Enrolment, or CoEs], an ELICOS course at Provider A followed by a Bachelor of Laws at Provider B. Six months into the student’s Bachelor of Laws at Provider B, the student transfers to the same course, a Bachelor of Laws, at Provider C. Provider C cannot pay the student’s agent a commission or this recruitment, as this is not the specified course at the specified provider in the student’s package of courses for which their visa was granted.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Australia passes integrity legislation; sharpens definition of agents and agent commissions”