ISA consulted with the state and territory Associations of Independent Schools (AISs) and the NCEC in preparing this submission. It summarises ISA’s key supports and concerns related to Schedule 1 of the ELA Bill 2025 Parts 1-8 Amendments relating to overseas students and education.
The Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025 proposes to give the Minister and the Australian Government Department of Education (the Department) what are effectively the same wide-reaching powers to amend the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act)3 as did the Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024, with the exception of Part 7 – Enrolments limits.
While supporting many of the integrity measures in the ELA Bill 2025, ISA continues to have reservations about over-reaching powers that will allow the Minister and the Department of Education to exert unprecedented control over activities that can adversely impact international education and training (IET) sector more widely, and that, if entrenched in the ESOS Act, may change perceptions of Australia being a study destination that welcomes and provides protections to overseas students during their stay and studies in Australia to being a country that only seeks to recruit overseas students to serve our national interests.