International students in Australia will need a separate visa to transfer courses, under rules announced Friday as the government seeks to lower net overseas migration from almost 300,000 a year to 225,000 by 2028. The changes restrict students’ ability to move between courses and form part of a wider package aimed at reducing the number of people on temporary visas.
Course Transfers Restricted
Assistant minister for international education Julian Hill said the new rules would make it harder to “course hop.” Existing rules already prevent students from moving to a lower-grade course, such as switching from a bachelor’s or master’s degree to a vocational program. Hill said students can’t transfer within 12 months of beginning a course until the later measure takes effect.
From 1 July 2027, a student’s visa won’t be extended even if the student transfers to a different course, Hill said. He described the measure as preventing “rorting” and said students would no longer be able to “not turn up for the first 6 months, fail their subjects then go to a cheaper provider”.
Home affairs minister Tony Burke wrote on social media that the rules would “put an end to student visa hopping.” He said the changes were intended to ensure Australians could have confidence in the migration system. Burke announced last month that transfers could only be to courses of equal or higher value.
Hill defended the restrictions by comparing international students’ visa use with Australians travelling abroad. “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 in a speech to the Migration Institute of Australia.
Migration Targets and Visa Backlogs
The transfer rules form part of a wider reform package to lower net overseas migration. Labor’s target is to reduce migration from an annual level of almost 300,000 to 225,000 by 2028. More than 400,000 people are on bridging visas. Authorities can issue these when a visa expires while another application awaits a decision, or to asylum seekers and non-citizens. The government is seeking to reduce that number; it 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 announcement focuses on course transfers, visa status and migration applications. Hill said lower migration would “give housing a chance to catch up,” but the announcement did not describe a housing measure.
After the government was elected in 2022, following Covid, Australia had its lowest unemployment in more than 50 years, Hill said. Employers, including cafes, farmers and businesses, were seeking workers. He said net overseas migration peaked “a bit too high” after the border reopened and fell “a bit too slowly” because fewer people were leaving. It had fallen by about 50% from its peak, he said, and needed to decline further “to get back to a sensible balance.”
Agents, Lawyers and Accountability
The government is also proposing rules to stop migration agents from helping with applications they “know, or reasonably ought to know” lack 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.
Hill said misconduct by a small number of agents could harm people vulnerable 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.” He cited a lawyer who submitted an application intending it to be refused, appealed to the administrative appeals tribunal, received another refusal and then applied for ministerial intervention.
Hill also described online advertisements that appeared to coach people on claiming to be bisexual or persecuted when they were not. He 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.” There’s no response from a union or student organization in the announcement.