Starting November 14, 2025, Australia's student visa system will undergo a comprehensive restructuring. Ministerial Direction No. 115, signed by Assistant Minister for Immigration Julian Hill, will replace the current Direction 111 as the new guideline for processing student visas.

Core Logic: Tiered Processing System

Direction 115 mandates that all offshore student visa applications will be processed under three priority levels (Priority 1-3). The central idea is to allocate limited resources efficiently by prioritizing educational institutions and course types that best align with national interests.

Priority 1 (Highest Priority)
Includes:

Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers that have not reached their new student intake caps

Specific student categories:

TAFE students

Pilot training programs

Postgraduate Research courses

Public scholarship recipients, and students sponsored by Defence or Foreign Affairs

School and ELICOS students

Students from Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste

 

Priority 2
Applies to higher education or VET institutions that have reached but not exceeded their caps.

Priority 3
Applies to education providers that have exceeded their caps, including some private colleges or universities that have over-enrolled.

What Direction 115 Signals

The importance of regional and public TAFE institutions is re-emphasized. This means public vocational colleges including:

TAFE International Western Australia

Box Hill Institute

Holmesglen Institute

 

are all directly included in Priority 1 processing.

For students at these institutions, the most direct benefits are prioritized processing speed and reduced risk. TAFE and skills-based courses are entering a favorable period.

After Direction 115, Australia is shifting focus from blindly encouraging "quantity of international students" to emphasizing "quality of international education." The Department of Home Affairs will use processing speed and priority to reward compliant, skills-oriented public education institutions, providing students with different dimensions for school selection beyond just rankings.

 

 

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