How Are Education Agents Regulated Under Australia's ESOS Act in 2026?

Education agents in Australia are regulated indirectly. Rather than holding a licence of their own, they are governed through the obligations that the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act) and the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 place on the education providers that appoint them. That framework was amended in 2025: changes were made to the ESOS Act regarding education agents and education agent commissions, and the National Code was changed regarding the payment of education agent commissions, including a ban on commissions for onshore transfers. This article works from the Australian Government Department of Education's official pages — the 2025 fact sheet Changes to requirements around education agents and commissions, Ban on the payment of agent commissions for onshore transfers, and the International Education Agent Performance Reports page — checked as of September 2026.

One caution belongs up front. The Department states that its agent fact sheets are intended as plain-language guides, that they should not be relied upon as legal advice, and that where there is doubt, reference should be made to the ESOS Act and the National Code. The same limit applies here: this is general information about how the framework is built, not advice about any individual's enrolment, payment dispute or visa matter, and anything specific to your situation needs to be confirmed against the instruments themselves or with a qualified professional.

Who carries the obligation — the education agent or the provider?

The provider does. The full title of the National Code — a code of practice for providers of education and training to overseas students — signals who bound-by-it is, and it explains why the Commonwealth changes agent behaviour by changing what providers are permitted to do. When a student signs a representation agreement with an agency, the agency is contractually involved, but the regulatory pressure in the ESOS framework lands on the registered provider that accepts the enrolment.

This framing answers most of the question people actually have. "How are education agents regulated" is really "what must the provider do about the agents it uses." The providers themselves must be registered to deliver education to overseas students, and both the ESOS Act and the National Code sit behind that registration. An agent's conduct therefore becomes visible to the regulator through provider compliance rather than through the agent's own permit — a structure with real consequences for what students can verify, discussed further below.

What did the 2025 changes touch?

The 2025 fact sheet describes its own scope precisely: a plain-language guide to the changes made to the ESOS Act regarding education agents and education agent commissions. Two objects are named — the agents, and the money they receive. A separate Department fact sheet records the parallel change to the National Code regarding the payment of education agent commissions. Read together, the two documents indicate that the reform operated at both the statute level and the provider-code level, rather than only in guidance.

The dates matter for currency. The 2025 agent and commissions fact sheet carries a Department last-modified date of 3 December 2025, while the onshore commission ban fact sheet carries a last-modified date of 26 August 2026. A later refresh on the ban page suggests the guidance was still being maintained after the amendments, so it is the more current read on that specific point.

What this article will not do is state a commission cap, percentage, threshold or payment deadline. None appears in these pages, and inventing one would be worse than useless. If a figure exists in your case, it has to come from the ESOS Act, the National Code, or the provider's own written terms.

Is there really a ban on commissions for onshore transfers?

Yes. The Department publishes a dedicated fact sheet titled Ban on the payment of agent commissions for onshore transfers, which opens by confirming there has been a change to the National Code regarding the payment of education agent commissions. "Onshore" carries its ordinary meaning here: the student is already in Australia, rather than applying from abroad.

Suppose a student already studying in Australia asks an agent to arrange a move from their current course to a different provider. To the extent that arrangement falls within the concept used in the National Code, the receiving provider cannot pay the agent a commission for it. The commercial incentive to steer an already-enrolled student onward is removed at source — or, stated more carefully, removed as far as the instrument reaches, since the pages here do not set out every edge case.

That caveat is not hedging for its own sake. It is the difference between a rule that is real and a rule whose boundary you can describe accurately. Where the line is drawn in a particular fact pattern is a question for the National Code itself and for the official material as most recently published.

Where do the International Education Agent Performance Reports fit?

The Department maintains a resource titled International Education Agent Performance Reports, which it describes by saying the page contains statistics of agent performance. This is the transparency limb of the framework: instead of a licence check for each individual agent, the public is given data about how agents perform.

Two observations about reliability are worth carrying into how you read it. First, that page carries a Department last-modified date of 16 April 2025, which is earlier than both commission fact sheets — so for anything touching the new agent or commission requirements, the later pages take priority, and the most recently published official material governs. Second, the page also carries the older departmental name "Department of Education, Skills and Employment," indicating parts of the resource set have not been refreshed to match the current department.

The Department also maintains an earlier Agents reports fact sheet dated May 2018, last modified by the Department on 9 September 2021. Material of that vintage predates the 2025 amendments entirely and should not be treated as a statement of current requirements.

For practical reading: any performance statistic is only as informative as the method behind it, and the Department's page describes the resource only as a page containing statistics of agent performance. Treat the data as one input into a decision — evidence about a track record — rather than as a verdict, and note that an absence of published data about an agent tells you nothing by itself.

How does this differ from the regulation of migration advice?

The Department of Education's ESOS Framework pages cover the education framework only, and that boundary is important. Migration and visa advice is handled under a separate Commonwealth regime that determines who may charge for that assistance; nothing in the education material establishes what that regime requires, so this article makes no claims about it.

What can be compared is structure. ESOS regulates a transaction: the enrolment, the payments around it, and the provider that takes the student's money. The visible enforcement tool is provider obligation, backed by published performance statistics. The two frameworks also overlap in practice. A single business may arrange an enrolment and also discuss visa strategy, and nothing described here tells you whether that business may charge for the visa side. The education and advice halves of a client relationship can sit under different rules at the same time.

What should you settle before signing with an education agent?

These are the points worth putting in writing before any money moves, and none of them requires contacting anyone official:

Which provider will actually enrol you, and whether that provider is registered to teach overseas students.
Whether the provider will pay the agent a commission for placing you, and how that compares with the other options you are weighing.
Whether your situation is an onshore transfer, since the commission ban may then apply.
Whether there is published performance data covering that agent.
What you are being charged personally, what it covers, and what the refund terms are if the enrolment does not proceed.

Getting these answers in writing costs nothing and converts a set of oral assurances into something you can hold a party to later. It is also the point at which evasive answers become informative.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who regulates education agents in Australia?

Education agents are regulated through the ESOS Act and the National Code of 2018, which place obligations on the education providers that appoint them rather than licensing the agent directly. The Australian Government Department of Education publishes the official guidance materials. Where there is doubt about the application of either instrument, the Department directs readers to the ESOS Act and the National Code themselves.

Is it illegal for a provider to pay an education agent commission for an onshore transfer?

The Department of Education maintains a fact sheet titled Ban on the payment of agent commissions for onshore transfers, which states there has been a change to the National Code regarding the payment of education agent commissions. The precise boundaries of that prohibition are set by the National Code, not by the summary guidance. Anything published later by officials supersedes an earlier statement.

Where can I check ESOS education agent commission rules for Australia?

The Department of Education publishes its material under the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Framework resources, including its 2025 fact sheet on changes to requirements around education agents and commissions. Those pages describe the changes and how they apply to the provider–agent relationship. Because guidance is revised over time, the most recently published official version is the one to rely on.

What information do the International Education Agent Performance Reports contain?

The Department describes this resource as a page containing statistics of agent performance. It does not publish performance statistics about every agent, and no published data about a particular agent is itself a finding of misconduct. Treat the statistics as evidence about track record, alongside the other checks described above.

Are education agents regulated the same way as migration advisers?

The Department of Education's ESOS Framework pages cover the education framework only, so no conclusion about the requirements governing migration advice is drawn here. Structurally, the ESOS model regulates the enrolment transaction through provider obligations and published performance statistics. Whether the same person may charge for immigration assistance is a separate question under that other framework.

Do the 2025 changes cap what an education agent can charge or receive?

The Department's 2025 fact sheet describes changes to the ESOS Act regarding education agents and education agent commissions, and a related change to the National Code regarding the payment of commissions. Neither page states a specific percentage, cap, threshold or timeframe, so no figure should be assumed. Any actual amount will be found in the provider's written terms or the instruments themselves.