International students in Australia will need a separate visa to switch courses, the federal government announced on Friday. Ministers say the change targets what they call “permanently temporary” migration.
The rule builds on existing limits barring students from moving to a lower-grade course, such as leaving a bachelor’s or master’s degree for a vocational program. Home affairs minister Tony Burke said the goal is “ensuring we have a migration system that Australians can be confident in.” Last month, he announced that students could transfer only to courses of equal or higher value.
The New Rules
The changes will take effect in two stages. Until 1 July 2027, students can't transfer within 12 months of starting a course. From that date, a student’s visa won't be extended even if they move to a different course.
Assistant minister for international education Julian Hill said the measure would stop “rorting.” He said it ensures “students can’t just not turn up for the first 6 months, fail their subjects then go to a cheaper provider.”
Hill didn't soften his message in a speech to the Migration Institute of Australia. “When Australians go to another country they do not believe they have some God-given right to hop around from visa to visa for years or decades and game other nations’ appeals and courts systems – and neither should guests in our country,” he said.
Agents and Lawyers in the Frame
The government is also proposing 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.
His examples were pointed. Hill said one lawyer filed an application intending it to be refused, appealed to the administrative appeals tribunal and lost again, then sought ministerial intervention. He also cited online ads that “appear[s] 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, in order 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.” A small number of bad actors, he added, cause “disproportionate harm,” often by targeting people at vulnerable moments with “false promises and unrealistic assurances.”
Numbers and Politics
The changes form part of a wider package intended to cut net overseas migration from almost 300,000 a year to 225,000 by 2028. There's a catch: the government has had to amend rules without separate legislation because it lacks support from the Coalition or the Greens.
More than 400,000 people hold bridging visas. These temporary visas cover people whose visa has expired while they wait for another application, as well as asylum seekers and non-citizens. The group includes many international students applying for a different visa. The government wants that number to fall.
Hill also backed NSW premier Chris Minns, who said “too many people came into the country in too short a space of time” after Covid. Hill said he hadn't seen the specific comments but “broadly” agreed, with “a couple of nuanced points.” He noted that when the government took office in 2022, unemployment was at its lowest in more than 50 years and cafes, farmers and other businesses were short of workers. Net overseas migration peaked “a bit too high” after the border reopened, he said, then fell “a bit too slowly” because fewer people were leaving. It has dropped by about 50% from its peak. Hill said it needs to fall further “to get back to a sensible balance and give housing a chance to catch up.”
Why This Matters: The government is tightening student visa rules by changing existing settings rather than passing new law, because neither the Coalition nor the Greens will support separate legislation. That raises questions about how durable the changes are and how much scrutiny they've received. The stakes extend beyond immigration. Hill’s account links the pace of post-Covid arrivals to housing pressure, while acknowledging that employers lacked workers when the border reopened. Any further cuts will affect businesses that depend on that labor and education providers that recruit overseas students. With more than 400,000 people on bridging visas and a target of 225,000 net arrivals by 2028, ministers must show that tighter rules can restore public confidence without choking off the workers the economy still needs.