As foreshadowed by the Koala a matter of hours ago, a new Ministerial Direction 111, to replace 107, has been announced and came into effect as of midnight. That is right, it is now live and operational.
What the government via home affairs says:
Ministerial Direction 107 has been revoked and replaced by Ministerial Direction 111
The international education sector is important to Australia, and the Australian Government is committed to ensuring its equality, quality, integrity and sustainability.
MD107 has been revoked
Ministerial Direction 107 Order for considering and disposing of Student Guardian visa applications and offshore Subclass 500 (Student) visa applications (MD107) was designed to support providers with strong recruitment practises for international students and support the Department of Home Affairs at a time of increasing volumes and of risk in the caseload. The Australian Government acknowledges that the Student visa processing arrangements in accordance with MD107 unevenly impacted education providers.
MD107 was revoked on 18 December 2024.
New Ministerial Direction 111
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.
This new approach creates a more even approach to visa processing across a range of different provider types and locations, including for regional and small providers. MD111 will continue to support the well-managed and orderly processing of visa applications that supports the education sector equitably, while achieving Government’s wider international education objectives.
Priority 1 – High will move faster through processing relative to Priority 2 – Standard. MD111 is not a cap, nor does it set the criteria to approve or refuse a student visa application.
As always, the department will continue to prioritise the offshore Student visa caseload as we move into Semester 1 2025, while the onshore caseload will also continue to be processed.
What is most important, is that intending students lodge their visa applications as early as possible, and complete with all requested information at time of lodgement to support smooth processing.
The development of MD111 and its prioritisation approach has been informed by consultation with the international education sector undertaken by the Department of Education and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations throughout 2024. The Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Education and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations are working with the education sector to provide information about this new processing arrangement for Student visas. This will include targeted engagement through webinars, discussions with peak bodies in the education sector, as well as our website updates and social media outreach.
So who is eligible for ‘Priority 1 – High’ visa processing?
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.
SMH Story
In last night’s piece, the Koala referred to a story that was being developed by the SMH. It is now live and can be seen here, noting it is behind a paywall.
In what may be considered perplexing against the backdrop of the above media release by the government, the story by Paul Sakkal and Natassia Chrysanthos opens with “Labor will plough ahead with its plan to limit international student numbers after new laws were torpedoed by Peter Dutton, instead issuing a go-slow on visa processing to tame the flow of foreign enrolments.”
One may be forgiven for thinking this new Ministerial Direction is actually about visa processing becoming more efficient. Not so, a point well made by Sakkal and Chrysanthos who say “Under pressure on immigration amid a housing and cost-of-living crisis that will define next year’s election, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will on Thursday order department officials to put the brakes on processing student visa approvals once a university nears the target the government set for it.”
Right they are.
Where the rubber hits the road
MD111 is not a cap, nor does it set the criteria to approve or refuse a student visa application.
This is the statement in the media release.
In its own right, MD111 is not a cap. However, it is a mechanism that at its very core leans on “indicative allocations”, which government communication states have been set by the Department of Education, Australian Government for Higher Education programs and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government for VET programs. These indicative allocations, it is anticipated, will come under scrutiny with the Koala already hearing the question, “What legal basis are these brought in under?” and “These allocations are going to kill the private sector”.
An initial look by the Koala would support the latter notion; as for the former, well, the Koala isn’t a lawyer, but it can’t see anywhere in the announcement where it refers to the legal authority to bring in indicative allocations. In the signed direction the interpretation of indicative allocations states:
Indicative allocations refer to the 2025 indicative allocations of new overseas student commencements for providers under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 developed by the Department of Education and the Department of Workplace Relations and which were the subject of consultations with providers during 2024.
The signed Direction can be seen here.
VET and Private Education
The VET and private colleges again appear to be out of favour with the government. A rapid assessment of indicative allocation against CRICOS registered allocation (that is, Total Capacity across all provider’s locations), not against last year’s figures or pre-pandemic levels, sees a fairly large disparity between public universities and private/ VET providers.
| Provider | Cricos Allocation (Total Capacity across all provider’s locations)* | Indicative Allocation (2025 New Overseas Student Commencements) | % of Cricos Allocation |
| Australian Film, Television and Radio School | 60 | 10 | 16.6 |
| Bond University | 3000 | 360 | 12 |
| Flight Training Adelaide | 550 | 150 | 27 |
| IH Sydney Training Services | 9812 | 941 | 9.6 |
| Melbourne Polytechnic | 2190 | 101 | 4.6 |
| Department of Training and Workforce Development (WA TAFE) – VET | 8251 | 771 | 9.3 |
| University of New England | 1282 | 700 | 54.6 |
| Griffith University | 11592 | 3600 | 31 |
| The University of Sydney | 44600 | 11900 | 26.7 |
* https://cricos.education.gov.au/default.aspx
Some may ask what the point of this exercise is. The question the Koala wanted to explore was, under this new allocation, which institution could even come close to taking advantage of their Cricos allocation limits? Given indicative NOSC allocations in 2025 are commencing and not enrolling students, the answer is the Universities, except Bond.
And for those with a keen eye, yes IH Sydney Training Services ceased trading last Monday.
