Education Services for Overseas Students

Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000

The provision of education and training services to overseas students in Australia is regulated by the Department of Education, Science and Training through the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act and associated legislation. The purpose of the legislation is to protect the interests of people coming to Australia on student visas, by providing tuition and financial assurance and by ensuring a nationally consistent approach to provider registration. Further information for the ESOS Act can be found at the following website: http://aei.gov.au/AEI/ESOS.

Background

The Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 came into force on 4 June 2001. This act covers all international students studying in Australia on a student visa. The purpose of the legislation is to protect Australias reputation as a provider of quality education and to provide consumer protection for students coming to study here.

Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for
Overseas Students (CRICOS)

All institutions offering programs to international students in Australia are required to register on CRICOS. The QUT institutional number is 00213J. All courses offered on-shore to international students are required to be registered on CRICOS. Courses only offered externally or as an off-shore program do not have to be registered.

The CRICOS guide provides information on where the CRICOS code must be shown, how it should be written, and where it should be placed.

The National Code of Practice

The National Code is a part of the ESOS Act and sets out the rules and guidelines for adherence to the Act. A full copy of the National Code can be downloaded from the following website: http://aei.gov.au/AEI/ESOS All providers on CRICOS are required to comply with the Codes requirements and one of the compliance items is to make all staff involved in the teaching and administration of international students aware of the Code. There is a punitive system in place to deal with non-compliance with the requirements of the Act.

Institutional and Staff Requirements

• The institution is required to maintain qualified and well-trained staff both in the teaching and admissions area.
• The institution must maintain appropriate and adequate resources including technological resources
• The institution must provide appropriate support services.
• The institution must provide independent grievance procedures.
• The institution must provide an orientation program; provide advice on academic progress; advice on further study and accommodation.
• The institution must report to DEST any breaches by students of their student visa conditions relating to attendance and unsatisfactory academic performance.
• All publications (both paper-based and computer-based), signature plates (email & letter) and name cards of staff who have any interaction with international students are required to include the institutional CRICOS code.

Marketing of Courses and the Institution

• Marketing must be performed with integrity and honesty, i.e. no false or misleading comparisons with competitor institutions
• Full details of the course, facilities, equipment and learning resources must be given to the student. (This can be provided in electronic format.)
• No courses can be advertised until they have been granted a CRICOS code. Application for a code can only be made after final Council approval of a new course. CRICOS code approvals usually take about 2 weeks to obtain. You are, however, permitted to test the waters by alerting students to the possible availability of a new course and calling for expressions of interest.

Course Requirements

• For CRICOS registration, all courses must be offered in full time mode. For QUT purposes, full-time means 75% or above of the semester workload.
• Where credit is granted, students must be made aware of the correct duration of their program and a signed copy of their credit must be placed on their file. This is handled, in most cases, at the offer and acceptance stage. Therefore, wherever possible we ask that credit be assessed before the arrival of the students.
• After granting of credit we must still be able to offer the student a full-time workload.

Student Requirements

• Students must maintain a full-time workload, except in their final semester.
• International students can no longer take Leave of Absence except on medical grounds or exceptional compassionate circumstances, such as bereavement.
• Students who leave the country on fieldwork must alert OIS to this as we are required to inform DEST.
• Students are only permitted to repeat a unit once when they are studying in part-time mode.
• Students must advise QUT of their address within 7 days of arrival and then within 7 days if they change address.
• Students must attend at least 80% of their program. We are not required to keep registers for our degree programs but we do have to record attendance for students in the ELICOS, Foundation and University Diploma courses.
• Students must maintain satisfactory academic progress. We report students who are excluded and who are unsuccessful in an appeal against exclusion.