This article applies to higher education providers and providers of education services to overseas students.

Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2025 (Cth)

On 5 December 2025, the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2025 (Cth) (the Amending Act) amended the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (Cth) (ESOS Act) and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth) (TEQSA Act).

What’s changed?

To ensure high-quality offshore education delivery, the TEQSA Act now requires registered higher education providers to obtain authorisation from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) to deliver Australian courses of study overseas, and to comply with ongoing reporting requirements.

In addition, the Amending Act has amended the ESOS Act to strengthen regulation with respect to the use of education agents.

Further Information

Authorisation for providing courses offshore

The Amending Act has introduced a new requirement in the TEQSA Act for registered higher education providers (providers) to obtain authorisation from TEQSA to offer or confer Australian higher education awards for Australian courses of study provided at offshore premises (i.e. premises outside Australia). This authorisation is at the provider level (and is not required for each individual course offered by the provider).

Importantly, a provider already delivering courses offshore will be taken to be already authorised if the provider:

• was providing (or had entered an arrangement to provide), an Australian course of study offshore as at 5 December 2025; and
• began to provide the course or entered an arrangement to provide the course before 9 October 2025; and
• provides TEQSA written notice of the above circumstance(s) within 60 days of 5 December 2025, and the notice meets any requirement specified by TEQSA in writing.

Further offshore delivery requirements and offences

It is now an offence under the TEQSA Act for providers offering a regulated higher education award offshore where they are not authorised to do so, and a civil penalty of 240 penalty units (currently $79,200) applies for a breach of this offence.

Providers should also be aware that to maintain an authorisation, the provider must comply with the following requirements, being the:

• requirement to notify TEQSA of changes in offshore course delivery, such as commencing new courses, or when an existing course begins to be delivered by a different entity;
• requirement to submit an annual report to TEQSA by 31 October each year (starting 31 October 2026); and
• any other conditions imposed by TEQSA.

Failure to comply with a condition of authorisation may also result in a civil penalty of 120 penalty units (currently $39,600) and TEQSA may cancel the provider’s authorisation or higher education provider registration.

In relation to the TEQSA annual report mentioned above, TEQSA will in due course specify the information required in this report. TEQSA has advised that providers should be assured that the Federal government is simply seeking a ‘light-touch’ to data reporting, with more information about the specific reporting requirements to come later this year.

Notifications regarding education agents

Registered providers of education services to overseas students under the ESOS Act (registered providers) should be aware that registered providers who begin to have ownership or control of an education agent, (or begin to be owned or controlled by an education agent), are now required to notify their ESOS agency of this. Education agents are defined as entities (within or outside of Australia) that are not full-time or part-time officers or employees of an education provider, but engage in one or more of the following activities in relation to an education provider:

• recruitment of overseas students or prospective overseas students;
• providing information, advice or assistance to overseas students or prospective overseas students, in relation to enrolment; or
• otherwise dealing with overseas students or prospective overseas students.

More specifically, registered providers must now under section 17A of the ESOS Act notify their ESOS agency within 10 business days after any of the following events occurring:

• the provider, or an associate of the provider, begins to own or control an education agent;
• there is a change in the ownership or control of an education agent by the provider or an associate of the provider;
• an education agent, or an associate of the education agent, begins to own or control the provider;
• there is a change in the ownership or control of the provider by an education agent or an associate of the education agent.

What you should do

If your organisation is an existing offshore provider delivering courses offshore your organisation should familiarize itself with the new TEQSA requirements mentioned above.

If your organisation is intending to deliver Australian courses of study offshore but does not already do so, your organisation should ensure it applies to TEQSA for authorisation, (keeping in mind that it is now an offence to offer a regulated higher education award offshore if you are not authorised to do so). Applications to TEQSA for new authorisation can be made using the approved online application form through the TEQSA Provider Portal. More information about the application process can be found here on the TEQSA website.

Finally, registered providers of education services to overseas students under the ESOS Act should ensure they update their processes to ensure their ESOS agency is notified within 10 business days after any of the events occurring, as mentioned in section 17A of the ESOS Act (as discussed above).