ESOS amendment: detail still to come

It’s taken six months to pass a Bill that seemed to have the Opposition’s blessings, and it’s going to take another three before the details become clear. Some 1300 colleges, universities and schools will have to reregister under tougher criteria if they want to keep enrolling international students next year, after amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act finally made it through Parliament last week. But it will be another three months before the details of the new arrangements – including controversial requirements involving education agents – become clear. The Bill’s main measure is to oblige institutions on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) – mandatory for any institution accepting international students – to reregister this year. Two new registration criteria will apply. Providers will need to be able to demonstrate their capacity to provide education of a satisfactory standard, and education will have to be their principal purpose. International education groups appear to support these changes, but there’s concern over new rules governing colleges’ relationships with agents. Every CRICOS-registered provider will now have to publish a list of its agents on its website and “in any other manner prescribed by the regulations”. The Bill also provides for additional agent-related requirements to be included in the regulations. The Opposition wants providers to be restricted to working with agents who belong to professional bodies and have completed recognised training courses, such as the one run by Professional International Education Resources (PIER). Education minister Julia Gillard has said the government broadly agrees with these ideas and will address them in the regulations. Some industry groups are uncomfortable about listing agents, which they see as a matter of commercial confidence. But they’re more worried about the other requirements which, they say, could make agents turn their backs on Australia. Sue Blundell, executive director of English Australia, said the PIER course covers far more ground than most agents need, and includes a test which can only be undertaken at a few overseas locations. Professional bodies are also a vexed area, she says, with some countries having none and some having several – sometimes in competition with each other and with colleges (CR, 26.10.09). If the Opposition’s requirements were implemented, Blundell says, some agents could decide it was all too much trouble and start referring students to countries like Canada or New Zealand instead. If that happened, the results could be devastating. Agents supply around 70 per cent of enrolments for English language colleges and 50 per cent or more of the overseas enrolments in many universities. Gillard has undertaken to consult stakeholders over the regulations. Blundell said stakeholders were still worried, even though a Senate standing committee inquiry had dismissed some of their concerns. “The only thing we can do now is to work with DEEWR in framing the regulations to minimise any damage,” she said. Blundell said the listing requirement was now a fait accompli, and questioned what difference it would make. “The ability of governments to monitor lists like that is not very strong at the moment. If you put a list up on a website, who’s going to check it, and against what?” Gillard’s office said consultations on the regulations were due to begin shortly and that six weeks had been set aside for discussions. Preliminary drafting of the regulations has also begun and the final versions are expected to be released in around three months, her spokesperson said. This will amount to a nine-month turnaround for a change which Gillard said, when she introduced the Bill last August, would be passed “hopefully in a timely way” so that the measures could start quickly. A Senate committee gave the Bill the tick in October, but it got caught in a logjam of legislation late last year. Then it was unexpectedly knocked back by the Senate last month, in an argument over the refund entitlements of students at failed colleges (CR online, 08.02.10). While the Greens and senators Xenophon and Fielding maintained their position on the entitlements issue last week, the Coalition decided to let it go.