International students in Australia will need a separate visa to transfer courses, the government announced on Friday. The change also aims to hold migration agents to account for helping people lodge applications based on false hope or invented claims.
The rules extend existing restrictions that prevent students from moving to a lower-grade course, such as switching from a bachelor's or master's degree to a vocational program. Assistant minister for international education Julian Hill said the aim is to make it harder to "course hop." 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 students could transfer only to courses of equal or higher value.
Who Pays the Price for Bad Actors
Hill described part of the package as protection for people at their most exposed. "Increasingly sophisticated forms of migration-related misconduct and a small number of bad actors cause disproportionate harm, often targeting people at vulnerable points in their lives when they are highly susceptible to misleading claims, false promises and unrealistic assurances," he said. "Taking cash in those circumstances is not helping people – it's exploiting them and selling false hope."
The government wants rules to stop migration agents from helping with applications "they know, or reasonably ought to know, does not have a reasonable factual or legal basis." Hill said the Department of Home Affairs would consult on how migration lawyers could face accountability for similar practices.
He described a lawyer who filed an application intending it to be refused, appealed to the administrative appeals tribunal and lost again, then sought ministerial intervention. "We have also seen some pretty outrageous online advertising by lawyers," Hill said, citing ads that appear to coach people on how to claim they're bisexual when they're not, or how to convince the department they're being persecuted when they're not, to support a protection claim. The current system for lawyers, he said, "authorises and arguably requires them to act for clients in ways that damage the administration of and public confidence in Australia's migration system."
The Timeline and the Limits
From 1 July 2027, a student's visa won't be extended, even if the student transfers to a different course. 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." Until then, students can't transfer within 12 months of starting a course.
The government has had to amend the rules without separate legislation because it lacks support from the Coalition or the Greens. The changes therefore rely on administrative rule-making, not a parliamentary vote.
Numbers Behind the Push
Labor wants to bring net overseas migration down from almost 300,000 a year to 225,000 by 2028. More than 400,000 people hold bridging visas. Authorities can issue these temporary visas when a visa expires and someone awaits a decision on another application, or to asylum seekers and non-citizens. The government wants to reduce that total, which includes a large cohort of international students applying for a different visa.
Hill also backed comments by NSW premier Chris Minns, who said on Kylie Sandilands' show that "too many people came into the country in too short a space of time" after Covid. Hill told ABC's Afternoon Briefing he hadn't seen the specific comments but "broadly" agreed, while noting "a couple of nuanced points." After Labor won the election in 2022, he said, Australia had its lowest unemployment in more than 50 years, and cafes, farmers and other businesses needed workers. Net overseas migration peaked "a bit too high" after the border reopened and fell "a bit too slowly" because fewer people left. Hill said it has since dropped by about 50% from its peak and needs to fall further "to get back to a sensible balance and give housing a chance to catch up."
Why This Matters: The package joins two aims: cutting migration numbers and cracking down on those who profit from vulnerable applicants. Hill's description of people targeted "at vulnerable points in their lives" captures the exploitation in a system where people pay for claims with no basis. Whether the consultation on lawyers leads to real accountability will show if that protection is more than rhetoric. The figures matter, too. More than 400,000 people are on bridging visas, awaiting decisions, while the government changes rules without legislation because it lacks support in parliament. Students who switch providers and the housing pressures Hill cited are both caught up in how public institutions manage a system employers, universities and households depend on.