What happens to my course if my Australian provider loses CRICOS registration in 2026?
If your Australian provider loses its CRICOS registration, the course you are enrolled in is no longer something that provider can lawfully deliver to you while you hold a student visa: under the Australian Government Department of Education's ESOS legislative framework pages, education institutions can only enrol and deliver education services to students in Australia on a student visa if they are registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS). What is new for 2026 is the route by which that registration ends. As of September 2026 official pages, the Department of Education's "Changes to the legislative framework for overseas students" page sets out two separate paths — an automatic cancellation after a provider has not delivered any registered course to any overseas student at any onshore location for 12 consecutive months, and a new power for the Minister for Education to cancel a class of courses by legislative instrument.
What does CRICOS registration actually cover?
CRICOS is the register of providers and courses approved for overseas students, and it is the gatekeeper for your enrolment rather than a quality badge you can ignore. The Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act) governs the registration process and the obligations of registered providers, and the Department of Education states that registered providers must have met, and continue to meet, the requirements of the ESOS Act and the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (National Code 2018), which sets nationally consistent standards for how providers conduct themselves and how their courses are registered.
The registration also produces the document you actually hold. A Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) is an official document issued by a provider registered on CRICOS; it confirms your eligibility to enrol with that provider and records the provider, course and duration of study. Department of Education material notes this evidence is required before the Department of Home Affairs issues a visa to a student — which is why the registration status of the provider sits underneath everything else in your enrolment.
How can a provider lose CRICOS registration in 2026?
Path one: automatic cancellation after 12 months of not teaching overseas students
Under the changes described by the Department of Education, if a provider has not delivered any registered course to any overseas student at any onshore location for a period of 12 consecutive months, its CRICOS registration is automatically cancelled for all courses at all locations. Nothing in that trigger turns on misconduct, complaints or a regulator's investigation — the operative fact is simply a year of non-delivery to overseas students onshore, and the cancellation covers the whole registration rather than one campus or one course.
Path two: the Minister cancels a class of courses
The second path runs at the level of courses rather than providers. The Department of Education's page states that the Minister for Education may issue a legislative instrument to cancel a class of courses where either of two grounds applies: there are or have been systemic issues in relation to the standard of delivery of the courses included in the class, or the courses provide limited value to Australia's current, emerging and future skills and training needs and priorities.
The practical difference matters when you are trying to work out which risk you are exposed to. The 12-month rule is about whether your provider has been teaching overseas students at all; the Minister's power is about what is being taught and how well, judged at the level of a class of courses. Suppose a student is enrolled in a course that is cancelled as part of a class under the second path — the enrolment problem comes from the course itself, not from anything that student's provider did or failed to do.
Which parts of my enrolment are affected?
Scope is where the two paths diverge most sharply. The automatic cancellation is stated to apply to all courses at all locations, so a provider that stops delivering to overseas students does not keep registration alive for a different course or a different campus. The Ministerial power, by contrast, is expressed as cancellation of a class of courses.
On the enrolment record itself, Department of Education PRISMS guidance states that a registered provider must advise the Department of Home Affairs via PRISMS of any change to an accepted student's enrolment, and that these changes are submitted as student course variations. Where an approved CoE is modified through that process, the original CoE is cancelled and a replacement CoE is created with the amended information — so changes to your enrolment are recorded as a new CoE rather than an invisible edit. The same guidance records that, since 1 January 2018, releases under Standard 7 of the National Code 2018 are recorded in PRISMS by the releasing provider, and that a release allows a new provider to enrol the student without breaching Standard 7.
What about the tuition fees I have already paid?
Australia funds a tuition protection arrangement through provider levies rather than through a government guarantee of any particular outcome. The Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Act 2012 contains provisions requiring providers to pay fees and levies to fund the Tuition Protection Service, and the first annual TPS levy was applied in 2013.
Refund amounts are a separate calculation. The Education Services for Overseas Students (Calculation of Refund) Specification 2014 sets out requirements for refunds and a method for working out the amount of "unspent tuition fees", and the Department of Education states that education providers cannot retain more of students' unspent tuition fees than the refund instrument or their written agreement with the student allows. What you would actually receive therefore depends on the refund instrument and your own written agreement, and no specific amount or outcome is promised here.
Who handles the visa side of this?
Registration and course delivery are administered by the Department of Education and monitored by the responsible regulator for the sector, while the visa itself is a Home Affairs matter. Department of Education PRISMS guidance states that all student visa enquiries go to the Department of Home Affairs and that student visa information is on the Home Affairs website; it also notes that CoE evidence is required before Home Affairs issues a visa. So a question like "is my visa still valid, and what happens to it" is answered under migration law and Home Affairs processes, not under the ESOS registration changes described on the education pages, and the two should not be treated as the same question.
This article is a general explanation of how the 2026 rules are structured, not personalised advice about your enrolment, your refund or your visa; your own position depends on your records and on the current wording of the instruments, so rely on the official pages and, where the consequences are significant, on a qualified professional.
Are there other 2026 changes that affect switching providers?
Several 2026 changes sit around the edge of this problem and are easy to confuse with it:
- The onshore transfer commission ban. The National Code was amended in January 2026 to introduce a ban on the payment of education agent commissions in relation to onshore transfers, meaning the recruitment of overseas students who have already commenced studying with another registered provider. The ban does not apply where the student was accepted for enrolment by the provider on or before 31 March 2026, and because it applies only to transfers it does not affect students enrolling in further study after completing their principal course, or progressing through the package of courses for which their visa was granted.
- A pause on new registrations. Under the ESOS Act, the Assistant Minister for International Education has temporarily suspended the making of new applications for CRICOS registrations and courses to the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), in place between 19 May 2026 and 19 May 2027, responding to integrity concerns in the VET sector including poor quality and non-genuine new market entrants.
- Reviews can hold enforcement. ESOS agencies now have a longer period — 120 days — to review decisions, and the ability to stay the enforcement of the original decision while an internal review is underway.
- Tighter entry for new VET providers. Most prospective VET providers, excluding TAFEs, must first deliver courses to domestic students for two years before they can apply to teach overseas students.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a provider lose CRICOS registration without doing anything wrong?
Yes, on the first path. The 12-month trigger is purely about delivery: if a provider has not delivered any registered course to any overseas student at any onshore location for 12 consecutive months, registration is automatically cancelled for all courses at all locations. No finding of misconduct is part of that trigger.
What are the two grounds for cancelling a class of courses?
The Department of Education lists systemic issues in relation to the standard of delivery of the courses in the class, and courses that provide limited value to Australia's current, emerging and future skills and training needs and priorities. Either ground is enough for the Minister for Education to issue a legislative instrument cancelling that class of courses.
Does automatic cancellation affect courses at other campuses of the same provider?
Yes. The automatic cancellation applies to all courses at all locations, so a provider cannot retain registration for a different course or a different campus once the 12-month trigger has been met.
Does my Confirmation of Enrolment simply vanish?
Enrolment changes are reported rather than silently absorbed: a registered provider must advise the Department of Home Affairs via PRISMS of any change to an accepted student's enrolment, submitted as student course variations. Where an approved CoE is modified through that process, the original CoE is cancelled and a replacement CoE is created with the amended information.
Is my visa question answered by the Department of Education or Home Affairs?
Home Affairs. Department of Education PRISMS guidance states that all student visa enquiries go to the Department of Home Affairs and that student visa information sits on the Home Affairs website, while also noting that CoE evidence is required before Home Affairs issues a visa. Registration questions and visa questions therefore run through different agencies.
Can a cancellation be paused while it is reviewed?
ESOS agencies have a longer period of 120 days to review decisions, and they have the ability to stay the enforcement of the original decision while an internal review is underway. Whether that happens in a given case is a matter for the agency handling the review.
Does the 2026 commission ban stop me from transferring to another provider?
No. The January 2026 amendment bans the payment of education agent commissions for onshore transfers; it does not bar a student from transferring. It also does not apply where the student was accepted for enrolment on or before 31 March 2026, or where the student is progressing through the package of courses for which the visa was granted.