List of recommendations

2.150The Committee recommends the Government lead a ‘Team Australia’ program to build a stronger national international education brand and platform and agree on a five-year prioritised Market Diversification Plan. An enhanced Team Australia approach will:

better coordinate through shared agreements, Australian Government agencies (Department of Education, Department of Home Affairs, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and Austrade), state and territory governments and the sector

build and maintain a national platform and approach to promote Australia’s quality education within a fiercely competitive international arena

address issues of fragmentation, duplication, and divisive competition in the current marketing of Australian education to the world.

Team Australia should prioritise the development of a five-year Market Diversification Plan into new and emerging geographic markets. The five-year plan should have shared governance and be resourced across the sector including federal, state and territory contributions. The plan should:

identify and agree on a limited number of priority countries for joint focus in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and South and Central America (considering for example Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia and Chile)

consider innovative ways to fund places for students of the Blue Pacific to study in Australia and seek to deepen international education ties within the Pacific Island Development (PID) Forum to advance democracy and support peace and prosperity within our region

form agreed migration and education settings to enable and encourage the best and brightest international students from identified priority countries to study in Australia, including Department of Home Affairs permitting lead providers to take approved and calculated risks in the early phases of market development without affecting their visa ratings

drive diversification of education offerings in traditional markets, with a focus on India

be jointly resourced by both the Government (via Austrade) and the sector, potentially via a light touch time-limited marketing levy on Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) providers subject to shared governance so those who pay a levy have influence over how it is spent.

2.151The Committee recommends the Government work with the sector to develop a more systemic approach to tracking and supporting alumni networks, including graduates of Australian education scholarships and programs, with the explicit aim of fostering enduring connections to Australia, with a focus on priority countries and strengthening Australia’s international research networks and partnerships.

2.152The Committee recommends the Government examine opportunities to expand programs that deliver development support to Australia’s near neighbours and contribute to Australian skills needs through practical on and offshore education and training ‘International traineeships’, with an initial focus on aged care and allied health in regional Australia. International Traineeships should be limited to Technical and Further Education providers (TAFEs) and approved Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and companies to maintain integrity.

3.134The Committee recommends the Government engage with the international education sector and industry bodies to develop and implement targeted campaigns to educate employers on the opportunities to hire international student graduates in sectors with high skilled job vacancies. Campaigns must combat employer confusion and misinformation about graduate work rights, visa conditions and pathways to permanent residency (where available). The first campaign focus should be for engineering, information technology and health industries, followed by other skilled occupations identified in high demand.

3.135The Committee recommends the Government establish a national work-integrated learning framework to oversight work-integrated learning placements. The work-integrated learning framework and any accompanying system changes should be developed in consultation with the international education sector, industry peak bodies and accreditation bodies and the work-integrated learning peak body, taking into consideration Fair Work Requirements and ensuring robust oversight of providers and businesses to prevent student exploitation and integrity loopholes.

The work-integrated learning accreditation system should support the integration of accreditation placements into the work-integrated learning program, where appropriate. Further sandwich courses, higher education apprenticeships and other paid work and learn integrated models of study are increasingly common in jurisdictions with whom Australia competes for international students. These models offer better integration between industry and educational entities, and should be given immediate consideration by a taskforce established by the Government.

3.136The Committee recommends the Government take a pro-active, interventionist approach in reviewing unreasonable barriers to qualified international student graduates filling skills shortage roles that are imposed by professional accreditation bodies, to identify opportunities to streamline and remove unnecessary requirements while preserving quality assurance. The Committee recommends these reviews target and assess, as a matter of priority, accreditation barriers and issues encountered by qualified international graduates in health and allied health professional fields. There should be a specific focus on accreditation issues in nursing, midwifery, and psychology, then professional trades and other critical skills shortage areas, as they emerge.

Consideration should be given to improving pathways to apprenticeships and work placements for both vocational education and training and university degrees for international students where skills shortages cannot be met domestically.

3.137The Committee recommends, in light of the highly dynamic nature of the international education sector and global markets and the continuously evolving policy and regulatory frameworks, an appropriate Parliamentary Committee hold a regular annual or biennial ‘check-in’ inquiry, either stand-alone or as part of a routine annual report inquiry by the Trade Subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade.

4.75The Committee recommends the Government develop an International Education Compact for the endorsement of National Cabinet, to clarify the roles and responsibilities of respective levels of government regarding the quality and integrity standards of Australia’s international education system and to improve international student experience. Such responsibilities, for example, may confirm:

the Federal Government has lead responsibility for visa policy and processing, quality regulation (with states and territories referring Vocational Education and Training (VET) regulatory powers where necessary), agent regulation, leading the international marketing of Australian education (in collaboration with states and territories), consumer protection (including tuition protection schemes) and prevention of workplace exploitation for students

state and territory governments have lead responsibility for domestic transport including committing to uniform public transport concessions, accommodation, student welfare, community integration measures such as volunteering and participation in Australian community life and celebrating the contribution that international students make to Australian society, and destination marketing in collaboration with the Commonwealth

local council mayors have a special leadership role in fostering a culture of welcoming students into Australian communities and championing community inclusion

a proposal that the Governor-General, State Governors and Territory Administrators host an annual reception with leading international students or sector and civic awards to recognise the contribution that international students make to Australia and champion greater community inclusion

shared responsibility to support the Council of International Students Australia (CISA) and similar international student organisations to build their capabilities as a support and resource bridge between domestic and international students, and for new international students to acclimatise to Australian life.

4.76The Committee recommends the Government use its convening power to encourage state and territory governments, local government authorities and universities to develop appropriate local accommodation models including home stay in their respective jurisdictions to help alleviate pressing student accommodation issues and deepen connections between international students and Australian society, highlighting the tax advantages for Australians who host up to two international students.

Best Practice Home Stay models should be informed by the Gold Coast Council's ‘Host for Coast’ program and developed in consultation with established reputable homestay organisations such as the Australian Homestay Network and international education peak bodies and include:

formal eligibility review processes and ongoing quality assurance

strong risk management focus in the lower end of the education provider market to prevent accommodation exploitation, and forms of worker exploitation such as rental debt bondage

focus on home stay opportunities that support providers and communities in regional Australia

a specific focus on home stay support for (domestic and international student) regional placements.

4.77The Committee recommends the Government urgently work to foster the expansion of the Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) sector including:

examining mechanisms to boost domestic and superannuation fund investment into PBSA (as the majority of capital invested at present is foreign) including support for a new asset class of PBSA, recognising that it is now a mature and specialist housing product

engaging with state, territory and local governments to remove planning and development impediments to PBSA developments

working with regional universities and considering incentives to support PBSA developments in regional Australia.

4.78The Committee recommends the Government review and consider the desirability of the widespread practice in the university sector whereby universities establish Central Business District (CBD) campuses largely comprising international students and sub-contract the teaching to private institutions. This could be considered as part of the University Accord process and may warrant adjustments to funding formulas to ensure genuine regional universities in particular are adequately funded and not forced in effect to chase revenue in this manner.

5.237The Committee recommends the Government significantly improve data sharing between agencies to address serious integrity concerns, including formal information and sharing agreements and platforms between the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Education, Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), and where appropriate, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Austrade and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Government should form or utilise an existing cross agency expert group to oversee the development of these platforms to ensure:

legislative basis and privacy considerations are appropriately addressed without preventing the effective sharing of information

platforms are sufficiently resourced to rapidly identify and track high-risk behaviours by education providers, education agents and related third parties and have capacity to map such behaviours to international student movements and student visa data

platforms can inform more effective and timely regulatory action to deter and disrupt international student exploitation and safeguard Australian international education and visa integrity.

5.238The Committee recommends the Government use whatever means at its disposal to compel education providers to develop information channels across sectors to share credible information and concerns regarding education agents, entities and student movements to inform and support integrity in student recruitment and delivery of international education and to disrupt non-genuine students and other entities seeking to exploit the international education sector, the student visa system, and international students.

5.239The Committee recommends the Government take firm action to address persistent and deep-seated integrity issues in the private Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, understanding this will be a difficult and long-term reform program. Actions may require legislative changes to strengthen regulatory oversight and tough decisions and could include:

structural reforms to improve the monitoring and assessment of current providers and increase vetting of new providers including a fit and proper person test to operate a VET provider

a pause for at least 12 months by Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) in processing new provider applications for Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) registered VET providers, with limited exceptions for legitimate applications such as industry linked entities, high economic value proposals or those endorsed by state and territory governments

requiring new providers seeking CRICOS registration to have operated and delivered to domestic students for at least 12 months

suspension of recruitment of international students to CRICOS VET courses identified with persistent quality and integrity issues and/or of limited value to Australia’s critical skills needs, such as management and leadership courses.

automatic suspension of new international student intake for providers under serious regulatory investigation

cancellation of a provider’s CRICOS registration if no training is delivered for a period of 12 months or more

an ongoing boost to the resources available to ASQA for compliance and enforcement of VET regulatory and quality requirements over time.

5.240The Committee recommends the Government implement or at least trial major reforms to how international student learning is assessed, and education quality assured for high-risk Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers and courses by working with the States and Territories to consider the following options:

developing a framework to assess all 932 Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) registered VET providers (excluding public Technical and Further Education providers (TAFEs)) to identify higher risk providers – the framework should be equitable and transparent, informed by both quantitative and qualitative information, though not all data sources and aspects may be public

subjecting identified higher risk providers to stricter compliance and accreditation requirements which may include:

otrialling external assessments of a random selection of students from high-risk providers / courses to accurately assess education training quality, identify systemic issues and provide Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) with better evidence to respond with and cancel the registration of non-genuine poor-quality providers, more rapidly

oa full re-accreditation process for providers identified as posing the highest integrity and quality risks where providers would have to reapply for their registration with ASQA

oa mechanism to separate the training function from the assessment function in limited circumstances for high-risk providers and / or course, requiring students to be externally assessed by an independent body or by a provider approved (such as TAFEs or a proven high-quality private provider permitted to undertake external assessments).

All of the above initiatives would be provider funded on a cost-recovery basis.

5.241The Committee recommends the Government consider differentiating visa applications for international students who choose to study at Technical and Further Education providers (TAFEs). Further considerations to support TAFEs should include:

Disaggregating Vocational Education and Training (VET) immigration data so that TAFE applications are reported separately

supporting the Department of Home Affairs to apply a risk regime that recognises TAFEs genuine commitment to providing a quality experience for international students, by providing TAFEs with the same benefits/recognition as universities under the Simplified Student Visa Framework (SSVF).

5.242The Committee recommends the Government review international education regulatory bodies to ensure the settings and frameworks empower proactive risk analysis, on-the-ground quality assurance practices and that individual complaints, especially complaints by students, are investigated within an efficient timeframe. The review should consider how:

agencies could maintain a list of ‘red flagged’ individuals and entities subject to serious regulatory action or serious integrity concerns, increase the degree and scope of penalties, and regulators could be empowered to be able to investigate provider and education agent or equivalent relationships

increase the capacity and resourcing of international regulatory bodies over time to enable the agencies to effectively conduct randomised provider checks including site visits and conduct scaled investigations into high-risk provider behaviour

ensure resourcing is sufficient so that agencies are equipped and capably resourced to take full advantage of, and contribute to cross-agency intelligence data gathering, pursue individual student complaints/whistleblowing allegations, and be able to report annual monitoring and investigation KPIs to be set by Government.

5.243The Committee recommends the Government amend Quality Indicators for Teaching and Learning (QILT) Surveys to include questions about education agents and equivalents that would provide more detailed information of the agent student interactions.

5.244The Committee recommends the Government:

review and improve protections for international students to safely report workplace exploitation, including reviewing the Assurance Protocol to ensure that students who report exploitation are protected from visa cancellation

examine the scale and use of Australian Business Numbers (ABNs) by international students to ensure this is not being abused as a device by employers to exploit students

consider a scheme of endorsement of ABN requests by international students that require oversight by their educational institution

consider requiring employers to undertake a very light touch registration when they employ international students (or potentially any temporary migrant), for example a simple website registration, enabling the Fair Work Ombudsman to undertake more targeted enforcement and to fine businesses found to be employing unregistered workers.

5.245The Committee recommends cross government agencies and the sector intensify efforts in implementing a targeted communication strategy to educate:

international students of their rights and obligations when studying in Australia

providers and education agents of their obligations to international students studying in Australia

employers and industries that are high employers of international students.

5.246The Committee recommends the Government:

better enforce the current rules prohibiting transfers within the first six months of commencement of a student’s primary course

if resources prohibit this from being enforced in all instances, at least take a risk-based approach and enforce where there is evidence of patterns of transfers linked to certain providers or agents

consider adjustments to the student visa system so that visa risk follows the student, shifting to the receiving providers when students transfer onshore to other providers.

5.247The Committee recommends the Government amend Education Services and Overseas Students regulations to provide that any medical letter or certification for consideration of early release can only be issued by a medical professional who is approved under the students’ Overseas Student Health Cover.

5.248The Committee recommends the Government tighten regulations to:

require providers to record the details of all education agents or equivalent that they receive students from into Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS) Agents Dashboard

require providers to have written agreements with all education agents or equivalent

require providers to actively monitor agent conduct including annually reviewed key risk indicators

enable mandatory requirements to report misconduct involving suspected trafficking to the relevant regulatory authorities.

5.249The Committee recommends the Government in consultation with the education sector and agent peak bodies develop model clauses for providers to use in their written agreements with education agents to improve integrity, consumer protection and enable more transparency of payments.

5.250The Committee recommends the Government use whatever regulatory levers necessary to mandate certain minimum requirements be included in all written agreements between providers and students to increase transparency and consumer protection including:

standard refund conditions

mandatory disclosure of agent commissions and all other payments to the agent, their employees or family, and all related entities (to avoid rorts and workaround payments that are not characterised as ‘commissions’) that are charged to the student.

5.251The Committee recommends an expansion of the current Education Agents Dashboard on Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS) to allow provider access to all education agents' information. Such an expansion should enable providers to consider an agent’s performance before entering contractual arrangements and to be able to compare agent performance or integrity concerns about individual agents across the sector.

5.252The Committee recommends, in implementing the decision to ban the payment of commissions by providers to education agents, migration agents or equivalent entities for all onshore international student transfers, the Government ensure this captures ‘marketing’ or equivalent payments to related entities and persons however they are characterised.

5.253The Committee recommends the Government accept that regulation of education agents is essential and long overdue, and that a model must be determined and implemented. Government should consider the most effective way of ensuring scrutiny of education agents given their key role in providing temporary migration advice and dealing with often vulnerable consumers. Any model will need to ensure compliance with a single Code of Ethical Practice for Education Agents setting expected standards for all education agents who work with Australian education providers. Any scheme should be industry funded through cost recovery mechanisms and have adequate resourcing for compliance and enforcement.

5.254The Committee recommends the Department of Education and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations are each empowered to take a lead approach as policy owners for International Education with respect to their relevant policy portfolios. The Minister for Education and the Minister for Skills and Training, and relevant departments, should ensure the ongoing coordination of policy development and implementation. The Departments should also ensure that appropriate and holistic measures are included in their annual performance statements.