CRICOS cost recovery charges in 2026: what a provider may and may not pass on to a student

In 2026 the CRICOS Annual Registration Charge (CARC) and the related CRICOS registration charges fall on the education provider, not on the student. That is how the Australian Government Department of Education describes them on its Fees and Charges Frequently Asked Questions page (last modified 27 November 2025) and its Fees and charges page (last modified 2 December 2025), as of September 2026. The pages define the CARC as a cost recovery charge payable by all CRICOS registered and suspended providers each year, and they set out no student-side liability for any of these amounts.

Who is legally liable for the CARC — the provider or the student?

The provider is liable. The Department of Education states that the CARC is "the cost recovery charge, payable by all Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Course for Overseas Students (CRICOS) registered and suspended providers each year." The obligation attaches to registration status, not to enrolment by any individual.

The providers caught by these charges are schools, vocational education and training providers, higher education providers, ELICOS providers and Foundation Program providers — in the department's words, education providers on CRICOS "who provide, or seek to provide, education services to overseas students." Seeking to provide is enough; the charge is triggered by the provider's own decision to enter or remain in the regulated market.

For 2026 the charge applies to all providers registered or suspended on CRICOS on 1 January 2026 and must be paid by late March 2026, with a late payment penalty applying to any payment received after the due date. None of those mechanics involve a student as payer.

What does "cost recovery" mean, and why does it point to the provider?

Cost recovery is a charging principle, not a tax on students. The department says its CRICOS cost recovery arrangements are compliant with the Australian Government Cost Recovery Guidelines and the Australian Government Charging Framework, and it states the key principle directly: "whoever creates a need for regulation should bear the cost of the regulation being provided, rather than those costs being met by taxpayers."

In this scheme the entity that creates the regulatory need is the provider. What the CARC recovers is the department's cost of regulating providers:

national oversight of the regulation of all CRICOS providers under the ESOS Act, including stakeholder education and policy guidance;
management of the Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS) and the CRICOS online register, including system upgrades and maintenance;
school-sector-wide components of the department's role as the ESOS agency regulating school providers, including engagement with Designated State Authorities and monitoring of school providers.

Each of those is an activity performed on, or about, the provider. That is why the levy is structured as a registration charge rather than as a fee collected from the people being taught.

The legal basis is recent and specific. The Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Act 2021 and related Acts received Royal Assent on 27 August 2021, and the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Regulations 2021 were made on 16 December 2021, prescribing the method and amounts used to calculate three new CRICOS registration charges applied from 1 January 2022. The revised arrangements removed the Entry to Market Charge for all providers and replaced the Annual Registration Charge with the CARC. The department developed the model in consultation with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) and the Department of Finance, and notes that TEQSA and ASQA are also implementing cost recovery and are consulting separately with higher education and skills and training providers respectively on the CRICOS charges that form part of their whole-of-agency revised cost recovery models.

What is actually in the 2026 CARC?

Element	Provider cohort	Allocation	2026 amount (rounded)
Part A Base – CRICOS Systems	All	Equally to all providers	$215
Part A Base – ESOS Regulation and Support	All	Equally to all providers	$310
Part A Pro Rata – CRICOS Systems	All	Pro-rata based on number of CARC enrolments	$5
Part B – School Regulation – Education and Engagement	Schools	Equally to all school sector providers	$139
Part C – School Regulation – Oversight and Management	Schools	Equally to school sector providers with at least 1 CARC enrolment	$832

The element amounts are for 2026 and are estimated to increase over the forward estimates, reflecting the ABS wage price index. Indexation applies under Section 7 of the ESOS Registration Charges Act, in the CARC invoice each year commencing 1 January 2023.

There is one further amount worth separating from the rest. If, in the past 12 months, the Minister has imposed sanctions on the provider for non-compliance under section 83 of the ESOS Act, the provider is liable to pay $1,387. This is a consequence of the provider's own compliance record. No reading of the department's framework turns a sanction imposed on a provider into a charge owed by the students enrolled with it.

How enrolments are counted — and why that matters on a bill

Enrolments enter the calculation as an allocation key for the provider's bill, not as a per-student government fee. A Confirmation of Enrolment that was in "Studying" status for at least part of the previous calendar year is calculated for CARC, and multi-year CoEs are counted as CARC enrolments for each year the CoE remains in Studying status. The duration used is the proposed study period on the CoE, which may differ from the period actually studied.

The weighting rules are:

a course of 26 weeks or more: 1 enrolment;
a course of less than 26 weeks: 0.5 of an enrolment;
a course of less than 13 weeks: 0.25 of an enrolment.

If a student changed course during the calendar year, each course actually undertaken is counted separately, using that course's proposed length. And an enrolment counts even if the student was enrolled for only a few days — what matters is whether the proposed period on the CoE was more or less than 26 weeks.

Suppose a student enrols in a 20-week ELICOS course and then a 30-week VET course in the same calendar year. On the department's rules the provider's CARC count for that student is 0.5 plus 1 enrolment. Both figures move the provider's own assessment. Neither creates a government charge of a particular dollar amount that the student owes.

Which charges apply only to schools, and where does the TPS levy sit?

The department is the ESOS agency for schools, and it charges schools application-based fees set by the efficient time it takes to assess an application and a renewal:

a school initial registration charge of $3,228 for assessing and registering new school providers;
a school renewal registration charge of $1,299 for assessing and registering renewing school providers.

The renewal charge is separate from, and additional to, the CARC: registered schools recommended to the Department of Education by their Designated State Authority for renewal have to pay it, and it is paid in association with the renewal application.

The Tuition Protection Service (TPS) initial Levy comprises an administrative fee of $111 and a base fee of $223 (2020 figures). Once a provider has paid both the initial registration charge and the initial TPS Levy, it will be registered on CRICOS. The department notes that dollar amounts for the initial registration charge and the TPS initial Levy are subject to indexation under the regulations. Like the CARC, these are costs of getting and holding registration.

Reading a student's bill: what is defensible and what should raise a question

The distinction that matters is between a provider's commercial price and a government charge. Providers set tuition and other fees as their own prices, and nothing in the department's charging framework regulates what those prices are. But the CRICOS charges are different in kind: they are levied on the provider, calculated from the provider's registration status and PRISMS data, and invoiced to the provider.

That has three practical consequences when a line item appears on a student's statement.

First, an item labelled as a "government CRICOS charge" or "CARC fee" owed by the student is misdescribed. The department's model has no student-facing amount of that kind. The only element that varies with student numbers — Part A Pro Rata, at $5, allocated pro-rata by reference to CARC enrolments — feeds the provider's assessment; it is not a fee schedule the department applies to students.

Second, if a provider does allocate its regulatory costs across its enrolments, that allocation is a business decision priced into what it charges, not a pass-through of a statutory debt. A student is entitled to see it described as what it is.

Third, a $1,387 amount could only ever arise from a sanction imposed on the provider under section 83 of the ESOS Act in the preceding 12 months. That is the cost of the provider's own non-compliance.

If a charge on your statement looks wrong, work through it in this order: find the fee schedule you were given when you enrolled, and compare the disputed item against it. Check whether the item is described as a government charge. Check whether the figure matches any amount published for providers rather than students. Keep the written record of what was disclosed at enrolment.

This article is general information about how the department's charges are structured and is not advice on any particular enrolment, invoice or dispute; where a specific amount of money is at stake, rely on the department's latest published figures and on professional advice about your own circumstances. Amounts, indexation and payment dates should always be confirmed against the official pages, since they are revised over time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a provider add the CARC to a student's invoice as a separate government charge?

Not as a government charge. The Department of Education describes the CARC as payable by all CRICOS registered and suspended providers each year, and its 2026 components are allocated among providers, not among students. A provider remains free to set its own prices, but a regulatory levy it owes cannot accurately be billed as a statutory amount the student must pay.

Who pays CRICOS charges in Australia in 2026 — the provider or the student?

The provider pays. The Australian Government Charging Framework principle the department applies is that whoever creates a need for regulation bears the cost of that regulation, and for CRICOS that is the provider that provides or seeks to provide education to overseas students.

When is the 2026 CARC due?

The charge applies to all providers registered or suspended on CRICOS on 1 January 2026 and must be paid by late March 2026. A late payment penalty applies to any payment received after the due date.

Will these amounts rise after 2026?

Yes, they are expected to. The 2026 element amounts are estimated to increase over the forward estimates reflecting the ABS wage price index, and CRICOS activity costs are subject to indexation under Section 7 of the ESOS Registration Charges Act in each annual CARC invoice from 1 January 2023 onward.

Do schools pay anything on top of the CARC?

Yes. Schools face a $3,228 initial registration charge and a $1,299 renewal registration charge, both charged by the department as the ESOS agency for schools. The renewal charge is paid with the renewal application and is separate from the CARC.

Is the $1,387 ESOS sanction amount a student's cost?

No. It becomes payable where the Minister has imposed sanctions on the provider for non-compliance under section 83 of the ESOS Act in the past 12 months. It is triggered by the provider's own compliance history and is not part of any student's enrolment costs.

Does a short course change what the provider owes?

It changes the enrolment count, not the payer. A course of 26 weeks or more counts as 1 enrolment, less than 26 weeks as 0.5, and less than 13 weeks as 0.25, using the proposed dates on the CoE. These weights adjust the provider's pro-rata element; they are not amounts charged to students.