Category: International students

Points-tested visas and international students – possible changes to the points

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In a previous post I described the three points-tested visas that international students use to achieve permanent residence or a clear pathway to it. These are the subclass 189 Skilled Independent visa, the subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visa, with the nomination by state and territory governments, and the subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa, which is also state and territory nominated.

The total number of these visas awarded to identifiable former international students peaked in 2022-23 at just under 40,000. It was 31,783 in 2024-25, the latest available full financial year data. The chances of former international students getting points-tested visas dropped more sharply, due to increased demand but fewer places.

This post looks at potential changes to the points available in the points-tested visas and how these might affect international students.

Maximum points for different attributes

The chart below shows the maximum points available in categories relevant to all three points-tested visas. For study location, credentialed language (interpreting or translating), a professional year (training linked to work experience), Australian study, and a specialist educational qualification (research degree in science, IT or engineering) the points are a flat number. Applicants either meet the criteria or they do not. The other categories offer graded points up to the maximum shown, for example the system favours more over less skilled work experience and ‘superior’ over ‘proficient’ English.

The maximum standard points total 145, although some combinations are unlikely. Somebody with extensive skilled work experience probably does not need a professional year. Combining maximum points for both Australian and overseas skilled work experience would block maximum points for age.

For the subclass 190 visa, applicants receive an extra 5 points for state or territory agency sponsorship and for the subclass 491 visa this sponsorship is worth an extra 15 points.

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The student places capping and needs based funding bill has passed – with amendments

Andrew Norton1 Comment

The government’s capping student places and needs-based funding bill – with considerable spin officially called the Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026 – won Senate approval on Monday. A total of 43 amendments were made, 32 from the Australian Greens, 6 from the government, and 5 from the Coalition. In some cases, a bundle of related amendments was needed to make a single substantive change.

The amended bill then returned to the House of Representatives for approval. The House made a purely technical change, replacing a Senate equity grant expenditure provision with its own identical amendment. This was due to section 53 of the Constitution, concerning the Senate’s power to amend financially-related provisions. So the amended-but-not-amended bill went back to the Senate and secured final approval today.

This post outlines the major changes to the original bill. It revises an earlier post on proposed amendments. The key changes are: a more secure sector-level floor number of Commonwealth supported places; a higher over-enrolment limit for larger universities; removal of a power to designate courses, which would have let ATEC allocate and cap places for specific courses; a better definition of equity student; and limits on the minister’s power to add conditions.

The Senate also inserted an amendment unrelated to the original bill, moved by the Coalition, to add two new institutions to Table B of the Higher Education Support Act 2003. This achieves more favourable public funding for them and their students. I suspect this amendment also has section 53 issues and will need to be revisited. In the interests of not further lengthening this post, I discuss this issue in a separate post.

A sector-level floor number of places

On the bill’s introduction the explanatory memorandum indicated a floor number of Commonwealth supported places was intended, but this was not reflected in the bill itself.

In the House of Representatives a government amendment created a ‘core student load’ minimum number of places for public universities, although the amendment does not preclude year-on-year reductions in places.

But there was no corresponding requirement that the minister set a ‘total allocation pool’ of Commonwealth supported places sufficient to cover all the minimum ‘core student load’ allocations.

A government amendment in the Senate ensures that a year’s total allocation pool will be at least the previous year’s level: new section 30-5(1A).

That could still leave continuing student enrolment growth without sufficient places in the total allocation pool, which would force a reduction in commencing places. But overall this amendment improves the bill’s internal coherence.

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Restrictions on secondary student visa holders – the legal detail

Andrew Norton1 Comment

After Tony Burke gave his National Press Club address on migration I wrote a blog post on new limits on secondary visa holders, the partners and children of the primary visa holders. Not much detail was available at the time. This post draws on the since enacted legislative instruments to provide this detail.

The new rules on student secondary visa holders interact with new restrictions on onshore student visa applications. So it is not just who can apply for a secondary visa, it is where they can be when they do so.

The main categories of students who can bring partners and children are: students from the Pacific region or ASEAN countries, doctoral students, students sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Department of Defence, and students with fully-funded scholarships from a foreign government. Data on foreign scholarships is not available, but based on recent history the other categories would support about 10,000 secondary visa holders per year.

In addition to this 10,000, transitional categories of current secondary student visa holders already in Australia can remain while their primary visa holder gets another visa for a higher AQF course or due to delays in completing their course.

New restrictions on secondary student visa holders

The default position is now that secondary applicants are not permitted unless they fall into an exempt category.

DFAT and Defence sponsored students

Primary applicants sponsored by the Department of Defence or Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade can bring their partner and/or children: new paragraph 1222(3)(da)(i) of the Migration Regulations 1994.

In 2025-26 3,397 primary student visas were granted to Defence and Foreign Affairs students, accompanied by 1,066 secondary visa applicants.

Exempt countries

Students from Pacific-regional countries can bring partners and children as secondary applicants: new paragraph 1222(3)(da)(i) of the Migration Regulations 1994.

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New restrictions on onshore applications for student visas

Andrew Norton3 Comments

As foreshadowed in Tony Burke’s September 2026 National Press Club speech, the government has now implemented a range of policy changes for onshore student visa applications. There is a new general rule against onshore student visa applications, from which there are exceptions, the most significant of which is letting current students apply for a new student visa if it is at a higher qualification level. The Department of Home Affairs summary of the changes is here.

Why is policy changing?

The reason for this change is to limit the number of current visa holders applying for a student visa to prolong their stay in Australia.

Onshore applicants for a student visa get a bridging visa while their application is processed. As of December 2025 the median processing time for an onshore student visa application was 134 days, delivering another 4 to 5 months living and working in Australia even if the visa application is unsuccessful.

Rejected onshore student visa applicants can appeal the decision in the Administrative Review Tribunal. As of 31 August 2026 the ART had a backlog of 53,347 student visa appeals. Applicants receive a bridging visa while waiting for their case to be decided. The official indication of median processing time to decide a student visa refusal is 17 months, but that might be too low. For the first two months of 2026-27 the ART resolved only 1,500 applications per month, although ending in-person hearings in most cases may speed things up.

As of 31 December 2025, 107,449 people were on bridging visas while waiting for a student visa application to be resolved.

Onshore applications – key statistics

Due to other policy changes, onshore student visa applications were already trending down prior to this announcement. In 2025, 135,979 onshore student visa applications were made, 30,000 below 2019 pre-COVID levels. In 2025, 54% of onshore student visa applications were for higher education, with the absolute number still above 2019 levels. Policy change has hit VET and ELICOS harder than higher education.

For 2026 up to August, 95,936 onshore applications have been made, 4.7% fewer than by August 2025. For higher education as of August 2026 56,898 applications have been made, down 1.3% on the same time last year. The higher education share of the total is 59%. Note that in the Department of Home Affairs statistics ‘higher education’ does not include postgraduate research or DFAT or Department of Defence sponsored students taking higher education courses.

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Points-tested visas and international students – demand and supply

Andrew Norton1 Comment

As explained in a previous post, former international students have a new possible employer-sponsored route to permanent residence via the Skills in Demand visa. But their options for points-tested visas are likely to decline.

In this post, I outline the points-tested visas, report on international student success in obtaining these visas, and describe the level of demand for them. I conclude with migration planning levels for 2026-27, which allocate fewer total places to points-tested visas.

In a following post, I will look at long-foreshadowed changes to points-tested visas and how these may affect international students.

What are points-tested visas?

The key idea behind points-tested visas is that applicants get ‘points’ for various attributes. The more points applicants accrue the more likely they are to get a visa. The theoretical maximum number of points from standard attributes across all three visas is 145. The minimum points to be eligible for a points-tested visa is 65.

But a specific number of points does not equal a visa. People who want points-tested visas submit expressions of interest. An EoI lasts for up to two years. Periodically the Department of Home Affairs invites people from the EoI pool to apply for a visa linked to listed occupations.

Three points-tested visas are currently available: the subclass 189 Skilled Independent visa, the subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visa, with the nomination by state and territory governments, and the subclass 491 Work Regional (Provisional) visa, also state and territory nominated. Some older visas are included in the data below: the subclass 489 Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa, which was replaced by the subclass 491 visa from November 2019, and the subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment visa, which closed to new applicants on 31 July 2024.

International students and points-tested visas

As noted in my earlier post on international students and permanent residence, only former students moving directly from a student visa or a temporary graduate visa can be tracked using my main data source. This misses people who previously held a student-related visa but hold a different visa when seeking or receiving a points-tested visa. The figures presented are therefore at the lowest end of a range.

The subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visa is the most significant points-tested visa for international students. It has been the largest single category since 2019-20, on several occasions making up more than half the total. It was 48% of former international student visa grants in 2024-25.

Bar graph showing the number of former international students and points-tested visas by various visa types from 2016-2025, including 188 Business Innovation, Regional 489 & 491, 190 Skilled Nominated, and 189 Skilled Independent.
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Proposed amendments to the student places capping and needs based funding bill

Andrew Norton1 Comment

Jason Clare’s student places capping bill appeared in the Senate several times last week, but there were no votes on substantive amendments. Parliament does not sit again until 12 October.

It is clear, however, that agreement has been reached on amendments that will secure its passage through the Senate. Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi said in the Senate on Wednesday 16 September that the Greens had ‘secured’ twelve amendments. There are twelve Greens amendments on the bill’s home page, so I will assume that this is the same twelve, although I could be mistaken.

This post summarises the proposed amendments, focusing on the Greens and the Liberals, as both have the numbers to get an amendment through if Labor agrees. The Greens, the Coalition and cross-benchers combined could also pass amendments Labor does not support.

I mostly do not discuss Senator David Pocock’s proposed amendments, because on his own he cannot sway a Senate decision. But he had a high level of intellectual engagement with the bill and proposed sensible changes. He is particularly good on something that the government is particularly bad at – putting rules scrutinised by parliament over ministerial and administrative discretion.

A floor number of places

On the bill’s introduction the explanatory memorandum indicated a floor number of Commonwealth supported places was intended, but this was not reflected in the bill itself.

In the House of Representatives a government amendment created a ‘core student load’ minimum number of places for public universities, although the amendment does not preclude year-on-year reductions in places.

But there was no corresponding requirement that the minister set a ‘total allocation pool’ of Commonwealth supported places sufficient to cover all the minimum ‘core student load’ allocations.

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Tony Burke’s changes to student visa policy – first draft on secondary visa holders

Andrew Norton1 Comment

Update 9/10/2026: More up-to-date detail on this subject is now available at this post on the legal detail of the secondary student visa policy.

As foreshadowed in recent weeks, Tony Burke has today announced changes to student visa policy. Unfortunately at the moment – about 5.30pm on 17 September – there is little detail other than what has been given to journalists and Burke’s National Press Club address. I will update this post as necessary when more information is available.

The key changes are restrictions on secondary visa holders, for both students and temporary graduate visa holders, and additional limits on changing courses.

It appears that the secondary visa holder changes are prospective and won’t apply to students already in Australia, but this needs cross-checking against more policy detail. In the first draft of this post I will focus on secondary visa holder restrictions.

Summary of secondary student-related visa numbers

I analysed secondary student visa holder numbers earlier this month. Some key points from this analysis:

  • In recent years, annual secondary student visa holder grants have been in the 45,000-49,000 range.
  • Based on age group analysis, 27-28% of them are the children of students (proxy of age 19 years or less).
  • The ‘stock’ of secondary student visa holders present in Australia on a given day is already well off its peak of 84,846 in mid-2024, and was 67,549 on 31 July.
  • The flows and stocks of secondary student visa holders look anomalous. I think this is largely explained by a surge in secondary student visa grants in 2022-23 (77,599). Their primary visa holders have now mostly completed their courses and moved to temporary graduate visas or left the country, so outflows from secondary student visas have exceeded inflows.
  • As a result, as of 31 July secondary temporary graduate visa holders outnumber secondary student visa holders, 73,704 to 67,549.
  • Adult secondary student visa holders are likely to be an important aspect of the economics of coming to Australia for some students, with declared earnings of $1.3 billion in 2022-23. Secondary temporary graduate visa holders earned a similar amount.

New restrictions on secondary student visa holders

In line with recent policymaking preferences, the following groups will be exempt from restrictions on secondary student visa holders: research students, foreign affairs and defence sponsored students, students from the Pacific Islands, Timor-Leste and ASEAN countries. We can track their numbers through the student visa grants data. Over the last decade these visa categories have typically led to 10-11,000 annual secondary student visa grants. There was a spike in 2022-23, which included pent-up demand from the COVID border closure years.

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Pathways to permanent residence for former international students

Andrew Norton1 Comment

The Australian government is trying, without much success to date, to reduce the number of long-term temporary migrants. For student-related visa holders – people with student visas, temporary graduate visas, or former international students on bridging visas – this is primarily about reducing inflows of new visa holders and increasing outflows of existing visa holders. Another important element, however, is moving former students to permanent visas.

This post looks at recent trends in former international students achieving permanent residence. It concludes with a discussion of the subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa, which offes a new route to PR.

Permanent visas

My main data source is the Department of Home Affairs Student visa and Temporary Graduate visa program report. It only reports former students transitioning from these visas, and not those with another temporary visa prior to PR. An ABS analysis up to the 2021 Census found that over half the 587,000 former student visa holders with PR had first held three or more temporary visas. This total includes secondary applicants, who made up about a quarter of the total.

The Home Affairs data includes former students moving to visas that are probable sources of PR, which I discuss below. There is no primary/secondary visa holder split. As I showed in an earlier post, secondary visa holders are a significant share of the potential PR population, especially for temporary graduate visa holders.

Since 2022-23 the annual number of former international student visa holders getting PR has increased significantly. Before COVID it was around 20,000 a year, after COVID it was around 31,000 a year. These are primarily work-related visas, with the subclass 190 state or territory Skilled Nominated visa the largest category.

One-step moves from a student visa have become less common. Their share of the total halved from 40% of the total in 2019-20 to 20% in 2024-25. The two-step track – student, temporary graduate visa – to PR has become more common.

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The coming cuts to student-related secondary temporary visa holders

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Last week The Australian reported on apparent forthcoming limits on student secondary visa holders, the partners and children of the primary visa holder students. This has been rumoured for months. Along with long-foreshadowed changes to points-tested permanent visas, restricting secondary visa holders is a major yet-to-be-deployed policy weapon against temporary migration.

This post looks at the characteristics of and trends in student-related secondary visa holders.

Student-related secondary visa population trends

While students rather than temporary graduate visa holders seem to be the main policy target, as the chart below shows the secondary student visa holder population is already trending down, while temporary graduate secondary visa holders are increasing. The overall totals have fluctuated in a narrow range around 140,000 since late 2023.

Student secondary visa grants

As the chart above suggests, the relationship between student and temporary graduate secondary visas has changed over time. The recent temporary graduate takeover partly reflects a prior spike in secondary student visa grants, shown in the chart below. This was part of a high general increase in student-related visa numbers due to pent-up demand and policy incentives I described in an earlier post.

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The proposed new funding system, part 6: Private universities and non-university higher education providers

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The funding system I have described parts 1 to 5 of this series of posts applies in full to the higher education providers listed on ‘Table A’ of the Higher Education Support Act 2003. The public universities and the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education appear on Table A.

This post looks at the situation of other higher education providers. This includes 5 private universities, 8 university colleges and 166 other higher education providers.

Provider registration by TEQSA does not confer any funding entitlements. It is necessary but not sufficient for funding.

No non-Table A provider has any statutory right to Commonwealth supported places. Four of the five private universities are, however, listed on Table B of HESA 2003. This entitles them to research funding and some other government funding but not CSPs. This post describes how non-Table A providers can get CSPs under the new system.

All legislative references in what follows are to the Higher Education Support Act 2003 unless otherwise specified, ‘current’ signalling the legislation now in force, ‘new’ signalling the amending bill, the  Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026.

Eligibility for Commonwealth supported places

In the new funding system, as now, eligibility for Commonwealth supported places is based on history and politics, not any objective criteria.

The minister, rather than ATEC, will decide whether a provider should be eligible for CSPs. This is done by putting providers on a list in the Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines: new section 30-1(1)(a)(ii).

We can see the current policy on adding providers from the 2026 funding agreements. They make reference to CSPs for TAFEs and ‘other high-quality not-for-profit specialist providers’. Five TAFEs have been added since last year. NIDA is also new to the list. The only new not-for-profit is Excelsia University College, although I would not call it a specialist provider, as CSP allocations to teaching, early childhood, social work and counselling courses suggest.

There is no specific power for ATEC to advise on provider additions, but possibly it could do so as incidental to advisory subjects in section 41 of the ATEC Act 2026 including (a) policy settings for higher education and (e) the ‘diversity of the higher education system’.

While eligibility is conferred by the minister ATEC will decide whether or not to allocate CSPs.

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