In a bid to strengthen the quality and integrity of its education sector, Australia Wednesday introduced changes to the Education Services for
Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 into Parliament that will provide additional support to foreign students, including Indians.
According to an official statement, Education Minister Julia Gillard said the changes will provide additional support for foreign students and will make sure their experiences studying in our country are positive.
The changes form the first stage of the government's response to the Baird Review which made 19 recommendations to make the sector stronger, simpler and more sustainable.
The first set of proposed changes include strengthening the provider registration criteria to certify the viability of businesses, risk-based monitoring which shifts the regulatory burden to those providers that present the greatest risk to the integrity of the sector, the
ability to put conditions on providers' registration if required and an increase to the range of breaches that will incur financial
penalties.
Apart from this, it will also include publishing of industry targets and reporting of regulatory activities and expanding the role of the Commonwealth Ombudsman for external complaints relating to private providers.
The ESOS Act is the framework for the regulation of the international education sector and is crucial in maintaining the integrity of our fourth largest export.
Under the new changes, higher risk providers may have additional conditions placed on their
registration such as a cap on enrolments, restrictions on the fees that can be collected in advance and more frequent and more detailed auditing.
The incentive of less onerous monitoring will act as a reward for providers who reduce their risk.
The changes introduced today have been built on amendments made at the beginning of the year
which require all providers to re-register their business by the end of this year.
The next set of legislative changes will focus on risk management and tuition protection, with consultation expected to start shortly.
The Government has also started consulting on proposed changes to student recruitment practices,
both onshore and offshore.
Other areas to be addressed in the government's response to the Baird Review include integrity of student visas, quality of courses offered, setting of appropriate English language entry levels, complaints and appeals processes, student transfer process; and provider
information for students.
Government's response to the Baird Review complements the International Students Strategy for Australia were announced by the Council of Australian Governments in April 2010.