Australian Immigration Daily News

Purpose and Operation

Subsection 53A(1) of the Act provides that a registered higher education provider must not confer a regulated higher education award on an individual unless the individual has been assigned a student identifier.

Subsection 53A(3) of the Act provides that the Education Minister may, by legislative instrument, provide exemptions to the requirement in subsection 53A(1).

The Student Identifiers (Higher Education Exemptions) Amendment (Education Minister Exemptions) 2022 (the Instrument) specifies that the requirement in subsection 53A(1) does not apply in relation to certain types of individuals.

The extension of the student identifiers scheme to higher education is intended to provide the ability to track a student through the higher education and vocational education and training systems to provide insight into the pathways individuals take throughout their education and, ultimately, to employment.

Student identifiers have replaced the Commonwealth Higher Education Support Student Number for administering Commonwealth assistance, including the Higher Education Loan Program to which international offshore students are not entitled. These students are required to be exempted from applying for a student identifier under this Instrument as it is currently not possible to provide non-Australian citizens residing outside of Australia with a student identifier, as non-citizens are required to provide an Australian visa as proof of identity.

Source: Student-Identifiers-Higher-Education-Exemptions-Amendment-Education-Minister-Exemptions-2022.pdf 

and

Student-Identifiers-Higher-Education-Exemptions-Amendment-Education-Minister-Exemptions-2022-Explanatory-Statement.pdf