Australian Immigration Daily News

Overview of the Bill

The Australian Government decided, as part of the 2021–22 Budget, to implement an updated cost recovery model for registration on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students(CRICOS) and associated regulation costs. These changes will be achieved through amendments in four separate bills:

- the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 (Bill) will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Act 1997 (Registration Charges Act)

- the ESOS Amendment (Cost Recovery and Other Measures) Bill 2021 will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act)

- the Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Amendment Bill 2021 will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Act 2012

- the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 will amend the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Act 2021. 

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Registration Charges Act to update the registration charges to recover the costs for certain regulatory activities under the ESOS Act. The Bill establishes new registration charges that are consistent with the Australian Government Charging Framework(available from www.finance.gov.au).

The Bill will enable ESOS agencies to implement their own cost recovery arrangements to support the regulation of education providers registered under the ESOS Act. The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA), the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) and the Secretary of the department are the ESOS agencies for providers registered under the ESOS Act.

The Bill sets out the annual charges payable by providers who are registered on CRICOS, as well as the charges related to ESOS Agency functions for applications by schools for initial registration and renewal of registration on CRICOS.

Source: Education-Services-for-Overseas-Students-Bill-2021.pdf and Education-Services-for-Overseas-Students-Bill-2021-explanatory-memorandum.pdf