ESOS amendments education agents must know for 2026

Three changes to Australia's Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act) carry the most weight for education agents in 2026: a new commission-information provision (section 21B), an amended obligation to maintain and publish a list of education agents (section 21A), and amended notification duties where a provider and an agent own or control each other (section 17A). All three were made by the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2025 (Act No. 74, 2025) and appear in the current text of the Act published by the Federal Register of Legislation, together with the Act's legislation history and amendment history endnotes, checked as of September 2026. This is a general reading of the compiled Act rather than advice on any particular agency arrangement, and the official text as currently published is what governs.

The first thing agents should notice is who owes the duty. Section 21A, section 21B and section 17A all place the obligation on the registered provider, not on the agent. Agents are the subject of the information, not the duty-holder — but they are also the party the provider will turn to when it has to produce the numbers, publish the list, or report a change of control.

When did the 2025 amendments start applying?

Act No. 74, 2025 received assent on 4 December 2025, and Schedule 1 items 1–51 commenced on 5 December 2025. The Act's endnotes record application, saving and transitional provisions in Schedule 1 items 19, 22, 38, 43, 47 and 51, so the detail of how a change applies to a particular provider depends on those items as well as on the operative provision.

For agents, the practical point is that these rules are already in force for the 2026 recruiting year. There is no separate "start date" for agents — the provider's duty is live, and the provider will push the information-gathering work downstream.

Do agents have to report their commissions to the government themselves?

No. Section 21B lets the Secretary request a registered provider to give specified information about education agent commissions given by, or on behalf of, the provider to one or more education agents over a specified reporting period, in connection with the recruitment of the provider's accepted students.

The request has to meet a fixed set of requirements. It must be in writing, specify the reporting period, specify the day by which the information is due, specify the manner or form in which the information is to be given (including, if required, entry into the computer system established under section 109), and specify any documents that must accompany the information.

Provision	Who must act	Timing set by the Act	What the Act records if it is not done
Section 21B — commission information	Registered provider, on written request from the Secretary	By the day specified in the request, which must be at least 30 days after the request is given, or any later day allowed by the Secretary	Offence carrying 60 penalty units, strict liability; ESOS agency may act under Division 1 of Part 6
Section 21A — agent list	Registered provider	Maintain the list and publish it on the provider's website, and in any other manner prescribed by the regulations	Offence carrying 60 penalty units, strict liability; ESOS agency may act under Division 1 of Part 6
Section 17A(4A) — ownership and control	Registered provider	Within 10 business days after the event occurs	ESOS agency may act under Division 1 of Part 6

What commission information can the Secretary ask for?

Section 21B(3) sets out three categories, without limiting what the request may cover: the total amount in dollars given to each education agent; the value and description of non-monetary benefits given to each education agent; and the number of the provider's accepted students recruited by each education agent.

The second category is the one most likely to catch agencies out. Non-monetary benefits have to be reported with both a value and a description, which means anything a provider supplies in kind rather than in cash needs to be identified and priced before the provider can answer. Agencies that keep a commission ledger but no record of in-kind support will be the ones creating delays inside the provider's 30-day minimum window.

Two consequences attach to non-compliance. Failing to comply with the request before the specified day (or any later day allowed by the Secretary) is an offence with a penalty of 60 penalty units, and the Act makes it a strict liability offence; the Act also states that section 4K of the Crimes Act 1914, on continuing offences, does not apply. Separately, the note to section 21B records that providing false or misleading information in complying, or purporting to comply, engages the offence in section 108 — and the amendment history shows section 108 was itself amended by Act No. 74, 2025.

What changed for the published list of education agents?

Section 21A requires a registered provider to maintain a list of all its education agents and to publish that list on its website and in any other manner prescribed by the regulations, and to comply with any requirements set by regulations made under subsection (2). Failing to comply is an offence of strict liability carrying 60 penalty units. The amendment history records section 21A as originally added by Act No. 10 of 2010 and amended by Act No. 74 of 2025, among other amendments.

For agencies, the operative change is visibility. A provider that recruits through an agent it has not listed is carrying its own compliance exposure, and the natural reading of the provision is that an agent should be able to find itself, by the correct legal entity name, on every provider's website it recruits for. Where an agency operates through several trading names or entities, the risk is a mismatch between the name on the published list and the name on the commission records the provider later reports under section 21B.

What changed in the ownership and control notification rules?

Section 17A was added by Act No. 83 of 2017 and amended by Act No. 74 of 2025. The provision already required providers to notify their ESOS agency of events that would significantly affect their ability to comply with the Act within 10 business days after the event occurs, and to notify prospective changes to ownership as soon as practicable before the change takes effect, and any prospective or actual change in relation to a related person of the provider as soon as practicable before the change takes effect or, if the change cannot be determined until it takes effect, within 10 business days of the change taking effect. Notices about a new owner or related person must carry enough information to let the ESOS agency make a decision under section 7A on whether the provider is fit and proper to be registered.

What Act No. 74 of 2025 added is a set of agent-specific events in subsection (4A). A registered provider must notify its ESOS agency if:

the provider, or an associate of the provider, begins to own or control an education agent;
there is a change in the ownership or control of an education agent by the provider or an associate of the provider;
an education agent, or an associate of the education agent, begins to own or control the provider;
there is a change in the ownership or control of the provider by an education agent or an associate of the education agent.

Notice of any of these events must be given within 10 business days after the event occurs, and must be given in the manner and form specified by the ESOS agency for that provider.

To see how short that window is in practice, assume a provider acquires a controlling stake in an agency that already recruits for it. The event triggers subsection (4A)(a), the clock runs from the date the event occurs rather than from the date the paperwork settles, and the provider — not the agency — carries the notification duty. The agency's exposure is indirect but real: if it learns about the transaction late, the provider may already be inside its 10 business days before it has the details it needs.

What should agencies do before the next reporting cycle?

None of the following is a statutory duty on agents; each is a way of staying ready for a provider that has one.

Keep a per-provider commission ledger that separates cash amounts from non-monetary benefits, and attach a value and a description to every in-kind item — that is the shape of what section 21B(3) allows the Secretary to request.
Reconcile counts of accepted students recruited with each provider on a set cycle, because section 21B(3)(c) covers the number of accepted students recruited by each agent.
Maintain an up-to-date ownership register for the agency, its parent entities and its associates, and treat any share transfer, new parent entity or change of control on either side as starting the 10-business-day clock under section 17A(4A) and (4B).
Confirm the legal entity name under which you appear on each provider's published list under section 21A, and flag any mismatch with the name used in commission records.
Put information-sharing terms into the written agency agreement — what each party supplies and by when — so that the provider's minimum 30-day window under section 21B(4) is not consumed by internal back-and-forth.

How do these three changes sit beside the rest of Act No. 74 of 2025?

The agent-facing provisions are a small part of a wider amendment. The amendment history records that Act No. 74 of 2025 added sections 6BA and 6BB, added Part 2 Division 5 (sections 14C to 14G), added Part 6 Division 1AB (sections 96B to 96E), re-added sections 92A and 92B, added section 21B, added section 176E, and amended sections 7A, 8A, 9, 10, 10D, 10H, 10J, 11, 17A, 21A, 38, 83A, 86, 108, 132, 169AB, 169AD, 169AF, 170 and 175.

Two of those cross-references matter for the agent story. Section 7A, amended by the same Act, is the fit-and-proper test that notices under section 17A(3), with the information required by section 17A(4), feed into. Section 108, also amended by the same Act, is the false-or-misleading-information offence that section 21B's second note points to. Agents do not need to master the full list, but they should expect providers to treat commission data as reportable data rather than commercial-in-confidence from now on.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the 2025 ESOS amendments take effect?

The Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2025 (Act No. 74, 2025) received assent on 4 December 2025, and Schedule 1 items 1–51 commenced on 5 December 2025. The Act's endnotes identify application, saving and transitional provisions in Schedule 1 items 19, 22, 38, 43, 47 and 51.

Do education agents have to report their own commissions?

No. Section 21B places the duty on the registered provider, which the Secretary may request in writing to give specified information about education agent commissions over a specified reporting period. The agent supplies the underlying records; the provider answers the request.

What commission information can the Secretary request?

Section 21B(3) allows the request to cover the total amount in dollars given to each education agent, the value and description of non-monetary benefits given to each education agent, and the number of the provider's accepted students recruited by each education agent. The subsection states that it does not limit what the request may relate to.

How much time does a provider have to respond to a commission information request?

The day specified in the request must be at least 30 days after the request is given to the provider, and the provider must comply before that day or any later day the Secretary allows. Where the request specifies it, the information must be entered into the computer system established under section 109.

What happens if a provider does not comply?

Failing to comply with section 21B(5) is an offence carrying 60 penalty units, and it is an offence of strict liability. The Act also records that the ESOS agency may take action under Division 1 of Part 6, and that providing false or misleading information engages the offence in section 108.

How quickly must a provider notify when it and an agent become connected by ownership?

Notice under section 17A(4A) must be given within 10 business days after the event occurs, in the manner and form specified by the ESOS agency. The trigger covers a provider or its associate beginning to own or control an agent, a change in that ownership or control, and the same events in the reverse direction where an agent or its associate comes to own or control the provider.

Are agents required to appear on a published list?

The duty to maintain and publish the list sits with the registered provider under section 21A, which requires publication on the provider's website and in any other manner prescribed by the regulations. Failing to comply is a strict liability offence carrying 60 penalty units, and the ESOS agency may take action under Division 1 of Part 6.