30th Nov 2015, 8:52 PM – Senate Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Streamlining Regulation) Bill 2015 and one other - in Committee - Keeping fees in separate account

The majority voted in favour of amendment (1), introduced by Labor Senator Kim Carr.

This means the amendment was successful, though it still needs to be agreed to by the members of the House of Representatives before it can be included in the bill (read more about the process of making amendments in Parliament).

What is the amendment?

The amendment relates to item 3 of schedule 5, which says:

Division 2 deals with tuition fees. In general, a registered provider must not receive more than 50% of the total tuition fees for a course before an overseas student begins the course.

The amendment proposed to add the following words: 'The provider must keep those fees in a separate account' into item 3 or Schedule 5.

Senator Carr explains that this amendment has been introduced to reduce financial risk to the Tuition Protection Service, which assists students who are struggling to get a refund where their education provider cannot deliver their course.

What do these bills do?

These bills amend the Educational Services for Overseas Students regulatory framework, which has three main objectives:

• 'to provide tuition assurance, and refunds, for overseas students for courses for which they have paid and
• to protect and enhance Australia’s reputation for quality education and training services and
• to complement Australia’s migration laws by ensuring providers collect and report information relevant to the administration of the law relating to student visas.'

Read more in the bills digest.