Australia will require international students to obtain a separate visa to transfer courses, tightening the state’s control over students already navigating a system the government says it wants to shrink. The restriction forms part of a broader push to curb what officials call “permanently temporary” migration.
The State Sets the Terms
The new rules build on existing restrictions that stop students moving to a lower-grade course, such as leaving a bachelor’s or master’s degree for a vocational program. Assistant minister for international education Julian Hill said the measures would make it harder to “course hop.”
For now, students can’t transfer courses within 12 months of starting one. From 1 July 2027, their visa won’t be extended even if they transfer to a different course, Hill said. The government’s rules put the burden on students to fit their education plans to visa conditions set from above.
Hill said the measure would prevent “rorting and ensures students can’t just not turn up for the first 6 months, fail their subjects then go to a cheaper provider”. The government has also proposed restrictions on migration agents, barring them from helping with applications when they “know, or reasonably ought to know,” the application lacks a reasonable factual or legal basis. Hill said the Department of Home Affairs would consult on how migration lawyers could be held accountable for similar practices.
More Control, Fewer Routes
The changes are part of a wider reform package meant to lower net overseas migration. Labor wants to reduce it from an annual level of almost 300,000 to 225,000 by 2028. More than 400,000 people are on bridging visas, which can be issued when a visa expires while someone awaits a decision on another application, or to asylum seekers and non-citizens. The government is seeking to reduce that number, which includes a large cohort of international students applying for a different visa.
The government has had to amend rules without separate legislation because it lacks support from the Coalition or the Greens. The policy is still moving through the machinery of government. The parliamentary obstacle hasn’t stopped the executive from changing the rules through other means.
Home affairs minister Tony Burke wrote on social media: “As of today there are new rules to put an end to student visa hopping. It’s all about ensuring we have a migration system that Australians can be confident in.” Burke announced last month that transfers could only be to courses of equal or higher value.
Officials Define the Problem
Hill described migration-related misconduct as increasingly sophisticated. He said a small number of bad actors cause disproportionate harm, often targeting people at vulnerable points in their lives with “misleading claims, false promises and unrealistic assurances.” “Taking cash in those circumstances is not helping people – it’s exploiting them and selling false hope,” he said.
Hill also described a lawyer who submitted an application intending it to be refused, appealed to the administrative appeals tribunal, received another refusal, and then sought ministerial intervention. He said some online ads by lawyers appeared to coach people on claiming to be bisexual when they weren’t, or claiming persecution when they weren’t, to support a protection claim. Hill said the current system for lawyers “authorises and arguably requires them to act for clients in ways that damage the administration of and public confidence in Australia’s migration system.”
Hill backed comments by NSW premier Chris Minns about post-Covid migration, broadly agreeing that too many people arrived in too short a space of time while noting “a couple of nuanced points.” Hill said that after the government won office in 2022, Australia had its lowest unemployment in more than 50 years, and employers including cafes, farmers and businesses were seeking workers. Net overseas migration peaked “a bit too high” after the border reopened and fell “a bit too slowly” because fewer people were leaving, he said. Hill said it had fallen by about 50% from its peak and needed to decline further “to get back to a sensible balance and give housing a chance to catch up.”