New Australian agent commission rules in 2026: what students should know
Since 21 January 2026, an Australian education provider generally cannot pay an education agent a commission for recruiting you if you have already started studying in a course with another registered provider. Three exceptions can still allow payment, and the broadest of them only covers students who became an accepted student of the new provider on or before 31 March 2026. The restriction sits in Standard 4.7 of the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training for Overseas Students 2018 (National Code 2018), added by the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students Amendment (Education Agent Commissions) Instrument 2026 — registered 20 January 2026 and commenced 21 January 2026 — as recorded in the compilation on the Australian Federal Register of Legislation. The same instrument added Standard 4.8 and amended the definitions section.
Why would a rule about commissions affect your study choices?
Because commissions are paid for recruitment, and recruitment is defined narrowly in the National Code as the pre-enrolment work of engaging and assisting an overseas student to apply for a place in a course, up to formal enrolment, including help with administrative issues and issuing a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) for a visa application. Standard 4.7 removes the payment for one specific slice of that work: recruiting someone who is already enrolled and studying at another registered provider.
Read alongside the exceptions, the shape of the rule is fairly clear. Payments still flow where a student moves into a course the visa was granted for, or into a course that starts after they finish the main course they came to Australia to do. What stops being payable is the mid-course switch that has no relationship to your original study plan — the enrolment move that exists mainly because someone can earn from it.
That is the practical reason this matters to you. It does not ban transfers. It removes the financial motive behind one category of transfer advice, and it gives you a vocabulary for checking which category a particular suggestion falls into.
When can a provider still pay commission for placing you?
Standard 4.8 lists three situations in which the 4.7 prohibition does not apply. If your move fits one of them, the new provider may pay your agent a commission; if none of them fits and you had already commenced study elsewhere, the provider must not.
| Exception | What the National Code says | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted before the cut-off (4.8.1) | You became an accepted student of the provider on or before 31 March 2026 | A transitional window for students who become an accepted student of the provider on or before 31 March 2026; it does not extend to later acceptances |
| Courses named in your visa CoEs (4.8.2) | The commission relates to courses delivered by that provider, as specified in the CoEs for which your student visa was granted | If your visa package already lists that provider's course, the move is treated as part of the original plan, not as poaching |
| After your principal course (4.8.3) | The course commences after you complete your principal course of study with the other provider | Genuine progression once the main qualification you came for is finished can still attract commission |
Notice what none of the exceptions says. There is no general allowance for "the student is unhappy", or for transfers arranged partway through the first course of a package. Absent a fit with 4.8, the answer under 4.7 is a prohibition on payment.
Which course counts as your "principal course of study"?
This one definition decides a lot, so it is worth getting precise. Under the National Code, the principal course of study is the main course of study to be undertaken where a student visa has been issued for multiple courses of study; it would normally be the final course of study where a student arrives in Australia on a visa covering multiple courses.
Assume a student arrives holding two CoEs — an English language course followed by a bachelor degree. The bachelor degree is the principal course of study, even though it starts second. The consequence under Standard 4.8.3 is that commission for recruiting that student into a different course becomes payable only once the bachelor degree is complete, not once the English course finishes. A suggestion made during the English stage to abandon the degree and move elsewhere is exactly the situation Standard 4.7 was written to make unprofitable.
How do you check whether transfer advice is about your study plan?
Start from documents rather than from the conversation, because the documents are what the Standard keys on: the CoEs your visa was granted for, and where you sit relative to your principal course.
Ask yourself which of the three exceptions the proposed move would rely on. If the course you are being moved to already appears in the CoEs behind your visa grant, Exception 4.8.2 covers it and the payment is legitimate. If you have completed your principal course at your current provider, Exception 4.8.3 applies. If you became an accepted student of the new provider on or before 31 March 2026, Exception 4.8.1 applies. If none of those is true and you have already started studying at your current provider, no commission can lawfully be paid for your recruitment — which makes it worth looking hard at why the move is being pushed.
A useful second test is the quality of the reasoning you are given. Agents already owe you more than enthusiasm: under Standard 4.3 they must declare conflicts of interest in writing and take reasonable steps to avoid them, act honestly and in good faith, act in the best interests of the student, observe appropriate confidentiality and transparency in dealings with overseas students, and hold appropriate knowledge of the Australian international education system, including the Australian International Education and Training Agent Code of Ethics. Advice that can be traced to your course outcomes — entry requirements, credit, cost, campus, employment aims — is consistent with those duties. Advice that is heavy on urgency and light on reasons, or that discourages you from reading your own offer and visa documents, is not.
This article explains published rules in general terms and is not personalised legal or migration advice; which part applies to you depends on your own CoEs, enrolment history and visa record, and anyone assessing your situation should work from those documents and the official text.
What happens to agents who recruit dishonestly?
Standard 4 puts the enforcement burden on the provider, not on you. Every engaged education agent must be covered by a written agreement and listed in PRISMS (4.1), and that agreement must set out how the provider monitors the agent's activities and ensures the agent gives students accurate, up-to-date information about the provider's services (4.2.3).
If a provider becomes aware, or has reason to believe, that an agent or their employee or subcontractor has not met the responsibilities in the written agreement or under Standard 4.3, the provider must take immediate corrective action (4.4). Where the issue is false or misleading recruitment practices, the provider must immediately terminate the relationship with the agent, or require the agent to terminate with the individual responsible (4.5).
There is also a refusal rule. Under Standard 4.6, a provider must not accept students from an agent it knows or reasonably suspects is providing migration advice without authorisation under the Migration Act, engaging in or having previously engaged in dishonest recruitment practices — including a deliberate attempt to recruit a student where that clearly conflicts with the provider's obligations under Standard 7 (Overseas student transfers) — facilitating the enrolment of a student the agent believes will not comply with their visa conditions, or using PRISMS to create CoEs for anyone other than bona fide students.
Note that these are duties placed on registered providers. They describe how your current and prospective providers are meant to police their own agents; they are not a complaint pathway, and this article does not describe one.
Can the same person give you both enrolment and visa advice?
Only with the right authorisation. A migration agent is defined in the National Code as a person registered as a migration agent under section 286 of the Migration Act 1958, and Standard 4.6.1 bars a provider from accepting students from an education agent that provides migration advice unless that agent is authorised to do so under the Migration Act. In other words, enrolment advice and migration advice sit in different regulatory boxes, and it is a warning sign when one person blurs them without mentioning registration.
Keep the two regimes separate in your own head, too. The rules discussed here come from the National Code made under the ESOS framework, which governs providers and their agents. Your visa conditions come from migration law. A change in what a provider may pay an agent does not by itself change your visa obligations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Australia ban education agent commissions outright in 2026?
No. Standard 4.7 prohibits commission in one defined case: recruitment of an overseas student who has already commenced studying in a course with another registered provider. Standard 4.8 then carves out three situations where payment remains permitted, so the practical effect is a restriction on recruiting students mid-course rather than a general ban.
I started my course in mid-2026 — can an agent be paid if I transfer?
Only if one of the Standard 4.8 exceptions applies: you became an accepted student of the new provider on or before 31 March 2026, the course is one delivered by that provider and specified in the CoEs your student visa was granted for, or the course commences after you complete your principal course at your current provider. If none applies, the provider must not pay commission.
What does 31 March 2026 actually protect?
It is a transitional cut-off rather than an ongoing rule. Standard 4.8.1 permits commission where the student becomes an accepted student of the provider on or before that date, which means students accepted later have to rely on the other two exceptions. It does not create any new entitlement for transfers arranged after March 2026.
My visa covers English plus a degree — which is my principal course?
Normally the final course of study. The National Code defines the principal course of study as the main course where a visa is issued for multiple courses, and says it would normally be the final one, so a degree following an English course is usually the principal course rather than the English course.
Can my agent legally advise me on my student visa at the same time?
Only if authorised under the Migration Act. Standard 4.6.1 requires a provider to refuse students from an education agent suspected of providing migration advice without that authorisation, and the National Code defines a migration agent by reference to registration under section 286 of the Migration Act 1958.
If the rules already punish bad agents, do I need to do anything?
The duties fall on providers, not on students: immediate corrective action for breaches of the agency agreement or agent responsibilities (4.4), immediate termination for false or misleading recruitment (4.5), and refusal to accept students from certain agents (4.6). Your side of it is simply knowing which exception a proposed transfer would rely on, and treating vague or pressured advice with caution.