Significant amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 came into force on 5 December 2025 . The reforms, administered by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), aim to strengthen tuition-assurance safeguards, enhance data-reporting obligations and crack down on non-compliant vocational colleges.
Key changes include stricter financial-viability tests for new providers, mandatory real-time reporting to the PRISMS visa database, and increased penalties for misleading marketing. From today, Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) must hold at least two years’ domestic delivery history before they can apply to enrol international students .
![Amendments to ESOS Act take effect, tightening oversight of providers to overseas students]()
For global-mobility managers, the amendments matter because 49 percent of temporary skilled visa holders arrive first on student visas. Tighter provider screening is expected to reduce instances of visa-linked wage exploitation but could also limit education-migration pathways in some low-margin sectors.
ASQA will run webinars throughout December to brief providers, while employers sponsoring graduate-visa holders should verify that qualifications were obtained from institutions still meeting the new ESOS standards. Education agents warn that processing times for new course CRICOS registrations may lengthen in early 2026 as regulators clear a backlog under the revised rules.
Key changes include stricter financial-viability tests for new providers, mandatory real-time reporting to the PRISMS visa database, and increased penalties for misleading marketing. From today, Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) must hold at least two years’ domestic delivery history before they can apply to enrol international students .
For global-mobility managers, the amendments matter because 49 percent of temporary skilled visa holders arrive first on student visas. Tighter provider screening is expected to reduce instances of visa-linked wage exploitation but could also limit education-migration pathways in some low-margin sectors.
ASQA will run webinars throughout December to brief providers, while employers sponsoring graduate-visa holders should verify that qualifications were obtained from institutions still meeting the new ESOS standards. Education agents warn that processing times for new course CRICOS registrations may lengthen in early 2026 as regulators clear a backlog under the revised rules.
