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What must an Australian provider publish on the register in 2026 — including third-party teaching arrangements

Plain-language guide · general information, not immigration advice

Yes — if your classes are taught by an organisation other than the provider named on your offer, that arrangement has to appear on the register, together with the name, phone number and email of the individual responsible for running that campus day to day. That is what section 8 of the Education Services for Overseas Students Regulations 2019 prescribes for the purposes of paragraph 14A(4)(i) of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, and this article reflects the Federal Register of Legislation text as of September 2026. What follows describes what a register entry must contain; it is general information about the rules, not advice on any individual enrolment, and decisions about your own course or visa should rest on the official entry and, where you need help with your circumstances, on a qualified professional.

Does the register have to say who actually teaches the course?

It does. For each registered course, the entry must state whether the course will be provided:

Two details in that wording matter to a student reading an entry. The arrangement is tied to that particular course, so delivery can differ between courses offered by the same provider. And the regulations cover arrangements the other party "has or will have" — an entry can therefore reflect a teaching arrangement that is already in place or one that is still to be put in place.

Whose contact details appear for the campus?

The answer follows from the delivery flag above. For every location at which the provider is registered to deliver the course, the entry must carry the location's address and its phone number and email address, plus the name, phone number and email of a responsible individual — but which individual depends on who teaches:

What the entry says about delivery Who must be named for that location
Provided by the provider itself The individual responsible for the day-to-day operation of the provider at the location
Provided by another registered provider The individual responsible for the day-to-day operation of that other registered provider at the location
Provided by a person who is not a registered provider The individual responsible for the day-to-day operation of that other person at the location

So when teaching is outsourced, the campus contact on the register is the person running the outside organisation's operation at that site — not a generic campus mailbox. That is usually the fastest way to work out who you would actually be dealing with once classes start.

What else must be recorded about the outside provider or person?

More than a name. Where a course is delivered under one of the two third-party options, the regulations require the same set of identity and contact details as if that other registered provider, or that other person, were the provider itself:

Under the definitions in section 5 of the same regulations, a public provider means a government school, a registered VET provider owned or controlled (directly or indirectly) by a State or Territory, or a Table A provider within the meaning of the Higher Education Support Act 2003. ABN and ACN carry the meanings given in the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999 and the Corporations Act 2001.

This is the part of the entry that lets you see whether the organisation in front of you is a registered provider in its own right or a business that is not registered at all — the regulations treat the two cases differently on the register, and both have to be disclosed.

What does the register show about the provider itself?

Separately from the per-course fields, the entry must state, for the provider's registration to deliver a course or courses at a location or locations:

The maximum is recorded twice: once for the provider overall, and once for each location, as the maximum number approved by the ESOS agency to whom the course may be provided at that location. An approved cap is a ceiling set by the ESOS agency, not a measure of how many students are currently enrolled or how full a class is.

What else appears for each course and each location?

Alongside the delivery and responsible-person fields, each registered course must carry its level and field of study, its duration including any breaks between study periods, the estimated total of tuition fees payable for an overseas student, the estimated total of non-tuition fees payable for an overseas student, and whether the provider will only accept payment of tuition and non-tuition fees for that course in arrears.

Level and field are defined in the regulations rather than left open. The level may be — but is not required to be — an Australian Qualifications Framework level as existing at the commencement of section 8, non-award, foundation studies, or English language intensive courses for overseas students. The field of study must be either a detailed field under the Australian Standard Classification of Education published by the Australian Statistician in 2001, as existing on 1 October 2019, or English language study.

For the location itself, the required items are the address, the phone number and email address, the responsible individual described above, and the approved maximum number of overseas students for that location.

What an entry does and does not settle

An entry is a disclosure record. It tells you who is registered, who is contractually delivering a given course, who is answerable for a campus day to day, and what limits the ESOS agency has approved. It is not an assessment of teaching quality, and it does not tell you whether a particular arrangement will continue for the length of your enrolment — that depends on the arrangement between the parties, which can change. The value of the register is that the change has to be reflected there: the fields above are prescribed matters, not optional marketing copy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the register show whether my course is taught by the provider itself or by someone else?

Yes. For each course the entry must state whether the course is provided by the provider, by another registered provider under an arrangement for that course, or by a person who is not a registered provider under such an arrangement. The wording covers arrangements the other party has or will have, so a planned arrangement can appear as well as an existing one.

If another organisation teaches my course, is its campus contact listed?

Yes. Where delivery is by another registered provider or by a non-registered person, the entry must give the name, phone number and email of the individual responsible for the day-to-day operation of that other provider or person at each location. Where the provider teaches the course itself, the named individual is the one responsible for the provider's own operation at that location.

How much detail about the outside organisation has to be published?

The same identity and contact details required of a provider: principal place of business, registered office where it is a non-public body corporate, postal address if different, phone number and email, ABN or ACN if any, trading names if any, and — where it is neither a public provider nor an individual — the name, phone number and email of its principal executive officer.

Are the fees on the register the exact amount I will pay?

The regulations require the estimated total of tuition fees payable for an overseas student for the course and the estimated total of non-tuition fees, so the figures are estimates rather than a fixed quote. The entry also states whether the provider will only accept payment of tuition and non-tuition fees for that course in arrears.

Does the register record a limit on overseas student numbers?

It does, at two levels: the maximum number of overseas students approved by the ESOS agency for the provider to whom the course or courses may be provided, and the maximum approved for the course at each location. These are approved ceilings, not current enrolment counts.

Is the course level always an AQF level?

Not necessarily. The level may be an Australian Qualifications Framework level as existing at the commencement of section 8, but it may instead be recorded as non-award, foundation studies, or English language intensive courses for overseas students. The field of study must be an ASCED detailed field as existing on 1 October 2019, or English language study.

Do these requirements change from campus to campus?

The delivery flag, the responsible individual and the approved maximum are all recorded per course and per location, so two campuses of the same provider can legitimately show different entries — different teaching arrangements, different contact persons, and different approved numbers.

References