In December 2017 the Federal Government published its updated 2018 National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (the 2018 National Code).
The 2018 National Code modernises the previous 2007 Code and reworks the previous 15 compliance standards into 11 streamlined, yet comprehensive standards.
Compliance with the 2018 National Code, which took effect on 1 January 2018, is mandatory for all schools that provide education to overseas students as part of their CRICOS registration requirements.
In numerous jurisdictions around Australia, compliance with the 2018 National Code is audited at the same time as non-government school registration, which many schools are preparing for as we speak. The fact that state-based regulators are empowered by legislation to initiate an inspection and audit of a school’s compliance at any time means that all CRICOS registered schools need to have policies and procedures in place that comply with the 2018 National Code.
Schools don’t just have to comply with the 2018 National Code to ensure that they keep their CRICOS registration – they have to comply with the entire Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Framework.
The ESOS Framework is made up of seven key laws, regulations and legislative instruments:
Various Standards in the Code directly require compliance with elements of the ESOS Framework in addition to the Code itself. It is up to schools to understand what parts of the legislation they need to comply with. Additionally, various jurisdictions have state or territory-based legislation and guidelines that schools must meet to ensure their continued registration to educate overseas students.
If your school participates in overseas student exchanges, it will also need to meet national guidelines and state and territory requirements.
In our previous School Governance article, we provide a detailed explanation of the 2018 National Code. In summary the most significant changes to the 2018 National Code are:
An essential part of compliance with the 2018 National Code is knowing why, and when, to notify the Commonwealth DET via PRISMS. Section 19 of the ESOS Act and regulation 3.01 of the ESOS Regulations prescribe a comprehensive list of circumstances when the school must notify the Commonwealth DET about a change in its, or an overseas student's, enrolment and/or circumstances. To ensure compliance with the PRISMS notification obligations, a school must understand its notification obligations, which could be triggered on a daily basis in the school environment.
Section 21 of the ESOS Act sets out record keeping obligations which are supplemented by state and territory record keeping obligations. NSW in particular has detailed obligations which essentially require NSW schools to keep records of all their activities and actions in relation to managing overseas students. Schools must have an efficient record keeping process in place to meet their overseas students' record keeping obligations.
CRICOS-registered schools will need to review their policies and procedures relating to the management and education of overseas students at their school as soon as possible to ensure they are compliant with the 2018 National Code that has been in effect since 1 January.
Given the restructure of the Code, it is likely that schools will need to review, restructure and re-draft a considerable amount of their policy content to ensure that they are compliant. Also, given the requirements for staff training under the Code, schools will also need to re-train all of their staff to ensure they are aware of their increased obligations under the 2018 National Code.
In light of this significant update to the Code, CompliSpace’s Managing Director, David Griffiths will be hosting a webinar on the subject on Thursday 15th March 2018.
The webinar, “Schools with Overseas Students: What Does the New ESOS National Code Mean for You?” will include:
Click here to register for the webinar.