If your Australian provider is deregistered in 2026: enrolment, tuition protection and where to get help
By Aurum Legal · 19 September 2026
If your education provider loses its CRICOS registration in 2026, three things are put at risk at once: the Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) that supports your student visa, the tuition money you have already handed over, and the course itself. In Australia an institution can only enrol and teach students who are here on a student visa if it is registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), and a CoE can only be issued by a CRICOS-registered provider — both points are set out on the Australian Government Department of Education's official pages (the PRISMS FAQs and The ESOS legislative framework), current as at September 2026. The education side of this problem and the immigration side sit with different parts of government, and one does not resolve the other.
What follows is general information rather than advice about your own matter. Your entitlement depends on the written agreement you signed and on your visa record, so confirm current requirements against the departments' own publications and, if you need help applying them, get guidance that is specific to your circumstances.
What actually ends when CRICOS registration ends?
Registration is a continuing obligation, not a one-off badge. Registered providers must have met, and must continue to meet, the requirements of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (the ESOS Act) and the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (National Code 2018), which provides nationally consistent standards for the conduct of registered providers and the registration of their courses. Once registration goes, the provider has left the only group legally able to enrol you.
Your CoE is the document caught in the middle. It is official evidence issued by a CRICOS-registered provider, confirming your eligibility to enrol in a particular course and recording the provider, the course and the duration of study — evidence the Department of Home Affairs requires before it issues a visa. The system is also designed to notice change: a registered provider must advise the Department of Home Affairs via PRISMS of any change to an accepted student's enrolment, reported through student course variations. That reporting obligation is the mechanical link between your provider's registration status and your immigration record.
How can a provider lose its registration, or lose its courses, in 2026?
Two formal pathways appear in the Department of Education's account of recent changes, and they remove different things:
| Pathway | Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic cancellation | The provider has not delivered any registered course to any overseas student at any onshore location for 12 consecutive months | CRICOS registration is automatically cancelled for all courses at all locations |
| Ministerial cancellation of a class of courses | The Minister for Education issues a legislative instrument, on the ground of systemic issues in the standard of delivery of the courses in the class, or because the courses provide limited value to Australia's current, emerging and future skills and training needs and priorities | The class of courses covered by the instrument is cancelled |
The practical difference matters to you. Automatic cancellation removes the institution's registration everywhere, while a ministerial instrument can leave the provider standing and take away only the specified courses — which affects whether you are looking for a new provider or a new course.
Behind those pathways sit tighter entry and suitability rules. When deciding whether a provider is fit and proper to be registered, an ESOS agency must now consider ownership and control arrangements between education providers and education agents, and whether the provider or a related person is being investigated for a specified offence. At the entry end, most prospective VET providers excluding TAFEs must first deliver courses to domestic students for two years before they can apply to teach overseas students, and the Minister for Education can pause the making or processing of registration applications. New CRICOS registration and course applications to the Australian Skills Quality Authority are suspended between 19 May 2026 and 19 May 2027, in response to emerging integrity concerns in the VET sector — poor quality and non-genuine new market entrants, and concentrated growth in certain course areas.
Can a decision against a provider be revisited?
Sometimes. ESOS agencies now have a longer period — 120 days — to review their decisions, and they have the ability to stay the enforcement of the original decision while an internal review is under way. So an announced decision is not always operating at full force the following week. That says nothing about the eventual result, but it does mean "the decision has been made" and "the decision has taken effect" are not the same statement.
How much of my tuition is the provider allowed to keep?
Less than you might fear, and the answer is written down rather than negotiated on the spot. The Education Services for Overseas Students (Calculation of Refund) Specification 2014 sets out the requirements for refunds and the method for working out the amount of "unspent tuition fees" for the purpose of calculating them. There is also a hard ceiling: education providers cannot retain more of a student's unspent tuition fees than the refund instrument or their written agreement with the student allows. The same framework recognises at least one refund entitlement directly — an international student is entitled to a refund from their provider if the student's visa application is refused.
So two documents set the boundary: the refund instrument and your own written agreement. Take a hypothetical case: suppose an applicant has paid for two semesters in advance and completed six weeks of the first one. Nothing about that payment is refunded as a lump; the starting figure is whatever counts as "unspent" under the specified method, and the ceiling on retention comes from those two documents read together. That is why the refund clause you signed is worth more attention at this point than any promotional material you were given at enrolment.
Where does the Tuition Protection Service fit?
The Tuition Protection Service is funded, not discretionary. 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.
Note how this differs from the refund rules above. The levies Act explains where the scheme's money comes from; the Calculation of Refund Specification 2014 and your written agreement explain what portion of your unspent tuition can lawfully be kept. They answer different questions, and reading one as a substitute for the other is where confusion usually starts. The procedural rules for how protection is delivered in an individual case operate within that framework and are set out in the Department's further published material, which should be read as it stands at the time you need it.
Which department handles your question: Education or Home Affairs?
Getting this wrong costs weeks. The Australian Government, through the Department of Education, administers the ESOS Act, which sets out the legal framework governing delivery of education to international students in Australia on a student visa and governs the registration process and obligations of registered providers. Student visa matters sit elsewhere: the Department of Education's own PRISMS FAQs state that all student visa enquiries go to the Department of Home Affairs, and that student visa information is published on that department's website.
| Your question | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| Whether a provider is, or remains, CRICOS-registered | Department of Education (ESOS framework) |
| Whether the provider met the National Code or its refund obligations | Department of Education (ESOS framework) |
| How "unspent tuition" is calculated, and what the written agreement allows | Refund instrument and your written agreement, under the ESOS framework |
| Whether your visa continues, what your conditions require, and how your enrolment record appears to immigration | Department of Home Affairs |
Sorting questions into those two columns before asking either department generally produces a faster answer than asking one about the other's job.
What happens if I transfer to a different provider?
The replacement provider also has to be CRICOS-registered to enrol you, and it will issue a fresh CoE. If you are moving from a transfer-restricted enrolment, the transfer runs through Standard 7 of the National Code 2018: since 1 January 2018, releases must be recorded in PRISMS by the releasing provider rather than through a physical letter of release, and once that release is recorded the new provider can enrol you without breaching Standard 7.
One 2026 change is worth knowing if someone is urging you to move quickly. The National Code was amended in January 2026 to ban the payment of education agent commissions in connection with onshore transfers — recruiting overseas students who have already started studying with another registered provider — with the stated aim of removing incentives for unnecessary transfers that may not be in the student's best interests. The ban does not apply where the relevant student was accepted for enrolment by the relevant 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 students progressing through the package of courses for which their visa was granted.
What should I check first?
A short, ordered list is more useful than a long one at this stage:
- Which event hit you — automatic cancellation of the whole registration, or a ministerial instrument cancelling a class of courses. The answer changes your next step.
- Whether an internal review is under way, given the 120-day review period and the ability to stay enforcement.
- Your written agreement's refund clause, read next to the refund instrument's definition of unspent tuition.
- Your CoE and any student course variation the provider has recorded in PRISMS, since that feeds the immigration record.
- The Standard 7 release route if you are moving from a transfer-restricted enrolment, and whether the January 2026 commission ban applies to your timing.
None of the above promises an outcome, and none of it substitutes for advice given on your own documents; it is the sequence in which the rules usually have to be read.
Frequently Asked Questions
If my provider is deregistered, does my student visa stop immediately?
The education and immigration tracks run separately. A CoE can only be issued by a CRICOS-registered provider and is the evidence used before the Department of Home Affairs issues a visa, and providers must report enrolment changes to Home Affairs through PRISMS student course variations. Whether your visa itself continues is a Home Affairs matter.
What is the difference between automatic cancellation and the Minister cancelling a class of courses?
Automatic cancellation follows 12 consecutive months in which the provider delivered no registered course to any overseas student at any onshore location, and it cancels CRICOS registration for all courses at all locations. A ministerial cancellation works through a legislative instrument issued by the Minister for Education cancelling a class of courses, on delivery-standard or skills-value grounds.
How do I work out what part of my fees is refundable?
Start with "unspent tuition fees", the figure the Education Services for Overseas Students (Calculation of Refund) Specification 2014 sets a method for calculating. A provider cannot retain more unspent tuition than the refund instrument or your written agreement allows, so both documents need to be read together.
Who pays for the Tuition Protection Service?
Providers do. The Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Act 2012 requires providers to pay fees and levies to fund the Tuition Protection Service, and the first annual TPS levy was applied in 2013. It operates alongside the refund rules rather than replacing them.
Does the 2026 onshore transfer commission ban affect me?
The January 2026 National Code amendment bans education agent commissions tied to onshore transfers, to remove incentives for unnecessary transfers. It does not apply if you were accepted for enrolment by that provider on or before 31 March 2026, and being limited to transfers it has no effect on further study after your principal course or on progressing through the package of courses your visa was granted for.
Can a decision affecting my provider be reviewed?
Yes, on a longer timetable. ESOS agencies now have 120 days to review decisions and can stay enforcement of the original decision while an internal review is under way, so an announced decision may not yet be taking effect.
Do I need a lawyer to sort this out?
Nothing here recommends any agent, migration adviser or law firm, and none of the steps described above requires one. What you do need is your own documents — the written agreement, receipts of payment and your CoE — because those determine which rules apply to you.