No Australian Immigration Minister has exercised their power to issue a suspension certificate to an education provider in the 24-year history of the ESOS Act. That could be about to change, following the release of the Migration (Suspension Certificate Matters) Specification (LIN 24/034) 2024 by Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon Clare O’Neil MP, on Thursday 21 March 2024.
Section 97 of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 provides for the Immigration Minister to personally exercise powers to issue a suspension certificate to an education provider. A suspension certificate prevents a provider from marketing, making offers and accepting international students for a six-month period.
The new instrument, which came into force on 23 March, outlines a method for determining a ‘score’ for each provider, and could be interpreted as the Albanese Government signalling an appetite to exercise its power under the ESOS Act.
What appears to be a complicated mathematic methodology, the fourteen-step scoring system considers the following:
- Number of visa cancellations
- Total number of student visas
- Visa grants and refusals
- Public interest criterion
- Unlawfulness
- Protection visas
The final ‘score’ will be used to inform the Minister’s decision about whether a suspension certificate should be issued. Scores will be calculated twice yearly (once in the period between 1 January and 30 June and once in the period between 1 July and 31 December).
What the new instrument doesn’t do, however, is provide guidance to providers about what scale is to be used and what it means if the score is X or Y.
Further transparency is needed for Australian education providers to understand the parameters of the scale and how it will be used by the Minister to inform any decision about issuing a suspension certificate.
