Ministerial Direction 111 has now been live for a little over 1 month. The Koala has tested the pulse of the sector, the result being somewhat of a mixed bag.
What is MD11?
Here’s what the government said when it was enacted:
Ministerial Direction 111 Order for considering and disposing of offshore Subclass 500 (Student) visa applications (MD111) came into effect on 19 December 2024 replacing MD107. MD111 applies to onhand, unfinalised Student visa applications lodged from offshore, as well as those lodged on or after that date, and sets out priority categories for processing Student visas applications.
Under MD111, priority processing (Priority 1 – High) will apply to offshore Student visa applications associated with a provider in the higher education and vocational education and training sectors who have not yet reached their prioritisation threshold as indicated by PRISMS, the Department of Education’s system that manages enrolment information.
Once the prioritisation threshold has been reached for a provider, visa processing will continue at Priority 2 – Standard priority.
In brief, Priority 1 – High, processing will apply to Student visa applications associated with providers who have not yet reached their prioritisation threshold, which is 80 percent of their 2025 indicative allocation of new overseas student commencements in the higher education and Vocational Education and Training sectors.
Indicative allocations for both higher education and vocational education and training providers can be found at:
- Indicative allocations for higher education new overseas student commencements 2025 – Department of Education, Australian Government and
- Indicative allocations for VET new overseas student commencements 2025 – Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government
Priority 1 – High visa processing will also apply to a range of sectors and student types, for example, the schools and higher degree by research sectors, as well as scholarship and TAFE students, and those from the Pacific and Timor-Leste.
Priority 2 – Standard visa processing will apply to providers who have reached their prioritisation threshold, subsequent entrants, and any other offshore Student visa application.
For complete details, please see Ministerial Direction 111.
What the sector is saying
There appears to be quite a wide range of responses from those with whom the Koala has spoken in the past few days.
Some say it’s an improvement (with a caveat). This group appears, by their own admission, to be under the 80pc threshold and largely were previously an EL1 institution. These institutions report that visas are generally being turned around in a respectable time frame from most markets; Pakistan was mentioned as an exception, with processing still slow and largely inconsistent.
The large caveat placed by this group was that while things are “moving” now, there is a large amount of uncertainty around what will happen when they hit the 80pc threshold and what this may do to their program.
The next group fear they may have already gotten to their threshold. They report visa processing is slower than what it was 12 months ago. There is considerable frustration among these institutions. Clearly, institutions do share their experiences, so to hear of institutions that are receiving visas more readily is clearly providing angst. More than one institution spoken to wasn’t clear on where they currently stand against their threshold.
Commonality across these two groups exists on two main points. The first is that Brand Australia has taken a beating over the past 12 months, and stakeholders globally do not share the confidence that the government may portray in the issuance of MD 111. They report that key stakeholders lack confidence that this will be the end of change, believing Australia will continue to tinker with the systems and processes that facilitate a student’s journey. Secondly, there is a large amount of angst as to how recruitment partners will work amongst institutions when they hit their 80pc threshold. In simple terms, if institution A is receiving visas relatively quickly and hits its 80 thresholds, will students opt for B because it is simpler to receive a visa? This is a very valid point and perhaps is an outcome that the government is seeking to achieve.
English Australia CEO, Ian Aird, told the Koala, “We’re very happy to see ELICOS Only enrolments be treated as Priority 1 because there is no threshold or New Overseas Student Commencements (NOSC) for ELICOS Only enrolments. Faster visa processes for ELICOS students is fantastic news! We also applaud the separation of Evidence Levels from Priority Levels. The Evidence Levels are increasingly problematic and misconstrued, and the system needs attention.
Aird also said, “I think there is a lot that is unclear about the calculation of the 80% NOSC threshold and how it will be applied. We’re communicating with the government to clarify matters so we can help our members navigate this system better.”
There are also sector stakeholders who are questioning the system in terms of its intention and its legality. Some sector stakeholders the Koala has spoken to have said they feel like the government is actively trying to introduce one confusing change after another to disrupt the sector and push student numbers down so they can claim to have reduced immigration in time for the coming election. Others are asking aloud, ‘If the Senate didn’t vote for the legislation that enabled the ‘NOSC’ then how are the government still able to use it in a legislative instrument?’
The concept of NOSCs and allocations remains an issue
The NOSC figure allocated to providers is proving difficult to recreate, what more understand (if the provider is inclined to do so). This applies more to private colleges than to universities. Many have said to the Koala, just as they did when the number was connected to the failed ESOS Amendment Bill, that it appears to be an arbitrary number rather than a consistent or clear algorithm. Institutions that have attempted to recalculate it have difficulties doing so. Some may remember that the Department itself acknowledged only it could calculate the number. For such an important measure, this approach is causing a lot of frustration, and greater transparency is required. The 80% threshold also appears to be an arbitrary ratio, blunt in nature as a point at which to go slow on visa processing.
At the beginning of the process for creating allocation lists there were statements made that the government would have conversations with each provider and their NOSC allocations would take into account their specific circumstances. It would appear that only a very select few had the privilege of a conversation. There is a feeling that these conversations would impact providers’ allocations more positively if they were to occur in a meaningful way.
The NOSC does not appear to be a legally defined term. The ‘definition’ the department was working with when it was part of the Bill was not made clear or fully defined. That is, there were a number of questions regarding when a student became a ‘NOSC’, how cancellations or non-starters would be removed from a provider’s NOSC count, and what would happen with an ‘unused NOSC allotment’. Many still seek answers to these questions.
One stakeholder the Koala spoke to asked a different question: “How is it that prospective students are paying double to apply for a visa but the process takes twice as long and they are far more likely to get refused?”
The other issue that has a lot of providers worried is what MD111 will mean for onshore visa applications. They aren’t part of the priority system and rumours are that the processing times are getting longer and longer. One college’s marketing director the Koala spoke to mentioned a student who is still waiting for a response to their student visa application after well over a year on a bridging visa.
Release of Fact Sheet
Yesterday, the government released a fact sheet on MD111. This fact sheet may help providers address the issues described, and the Koala hopes so. The Koala will be following up to see if this is the case or not. You can read Tracy Harris’s piece on the fact sheet here.
The Koala will check the pulse again closer to the Semester 1 intake.
