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Overseas Student Tuition Assurance Scheme (OSTAS)

In 1994, the ACPET Board established an Overseas Student Tuition Assurance Scheme (OSTAS) as a cost-effective service available to ACPET members.  The scheme is in compliance with the requirements of the Commonwealth's Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000.  The purpose of the ESOS Act is to protect the interests of people coming to Australia on student visas, by providing tuition and financial assurance and by ensuring a nationally consistent approach to provider registration.

For further information on the ESOS Act, the ACPET By-laws under which it operates and regulates its OSTAS, and the Code of Ethics required of ACPET members.

The Scheme ensures that overseas students displaced from any course conducted by an ACPET member participating in OSTAS, due to the member's inability to continue the course, will be efficiently relocated with minimal disruption to studies in a comparable course with another ACPET member participating in OSTAS or other approved provider.

ACPET will arrange the relocation to a comparable course for any overseas student who has not withdrawn from the course and  requires to be placed, due to:

  • the course not commencing on the agreed starting date;
  • the course ceasing to be provided after it has started; or
  • the full course not being delivered because a sanction has been imposed on the provider.

Under the Scheme, the new provider receiving the overseas student can make no additional tuition charge for the portion of the previous course for which full payment has been made to the original provider.  The new provider is entitled to charge the normal tuition fee for any portion of a course not previously paid for by the overseas student, and the student will normally be responsible for meeting any relocation expenses and the purchase of any texts or materials required by the new provider.

If no member of the Scheme offers a suitable comparable course, the ACPET OSTAS will make the necessary financial and administrative arrangements to commission or obtain access to an appropriate course for the specific purpose of offering these students placement. These courses may be delivered by a member of the Scheme, or may be delivered by another registered provider commissioned by the ACPET OSTAS for that purpose.


Participation in OSTAS

Registered independent providers of post-secondary education and training or of courses at a pre-tertiary and other level courses in applicable circumstances, such as English for secondary schools and Foundation Studies, who wish to enrol overseas students are eligible to join in the ACPET OSTAS provided that they are financial members of ACPET. 

A member must be included in a Tuition Assurance Scheme if:

  • the member and its courses are listed on the DEEWR CRICOS list;
  • the member has not been provided by DEEWR with a specific exemption from being a member of such a Scheme;
  • the member, or specific courses offered by the member, have not been refused coverage in the Scheme, or a similar scheme; and
  • the member, complied with the AQTF, as applicable.

The annual fee payable for the OSTAS is determined by the Category (and Type) members are assigned upon acceptance of their application for OSTAS membership.  The determining factor in assigning the category will be the maximum number of students as approved for inclusion in the member's individual Provider Approved Courses Report on the CRICOS.

Organisations interested in participating in OSTAS are invited to download the ACPET information kit, which includes information on the Overseas Student Tuition Assurance Scheme.  It is important to have read the Informtation Kit before completing the application form.  Applications can be made by completing the application form, and forwarding this along with other required documents as detailed in the application form. 

Making changes to course cover under the Overseas Student Tuition Assurance Scheme (OSTAS)

Under the requirements of the ESOS Act, ACPET is obliged to maintain a schedule of all the courses covered under the Overseas Student Tuition Assurance Scheme (OSTAS) for each member of the Scheme.

It is the responsibility of each member to ensure that ACPET is advised of any changes to their scope for the purposes of tuition assurance and their subsequent compliance with Section 22 of the ESOS Act.  ACPET receives no such advice from either DEEWR or the State/Territory accrediting body and relies entirely on information supplied by the member.

Further, ACPET is not an accrediting body and has no ability to authenticate any changes to a provider’s scope.  ACPET must be notified solely for the purposes of tuition assurance.  In some instances, tuition assurance may need to be sought first in order for the changes to take effect.

Any changes to a provider’s scope must be handled through the State or Territory training recognition authority through which they were first registered.  This State or Territory authority should then advise the federal authority, DEEWR, of these changes such that the CRICOS registration is updated.

At any given time, any course which is listed on CRICOS with either a registered or suspended status requires tuition assurance, whether this is with ACPET or another TAS operator.

It is important that any changes made to your scope, especially additions or deletions of courses, are made known to ACPET, as these will affect your tuition assurance.  ACPET is then obliged to notify DEEWR of these changes to your tuition assurance cover.  A copy of this notification is always sent to the member.

For the purposes of consistency, changes to the duration or cost of a course should be made available to ACPET, however there is no need for ACPET to notify DEST of such changes.

To notify ACPET of any changes to your OSTAS cover as outlined above, please use the “Request for amendments to OSTAS cover” form, which can be downloaded by clicking here. Please ensure that you allow a minimum of a week for processing of any requests for amendments.

How do I print out an Individual Provider Report from PRISMS?
(Provider Registration and International Students Management System)

ACPET requires a copy of your Individual Provider Report as part of the processing procedures for both the renewal and the confirmation of all memberships of the Overseas Student Tuition Assurance Scheme (OSTAS).

Such a document is available to all providers who have a current CRICOS registration and access to PRISMS.  Instructions for access to this report follow:

  • Go to the website: https://prisms.deewr.gov.au
  • At the Login screen type in your Identifier and Password and press 'login'.
     (Your identifier and Password should have been given to you at the time of registration, if you are having difficulty, please contact the PRISMS help desk on 02 6240 7647 or prisms [at] deewr [dot] gov [dot] au
  • You will be presented with a window advising:
    Microsoft Internet Explorer - The conditions of use for PRISMS have been imposed under the ESOS Act 2000.  You must read these carefully prior to using PRISMS (refer to the hyperlink on this page for details
  • Press OK to proceed or cancel to read the conditions.
  • You will be presented with a new window, 'Welcome to PRISMS' in the top right corner.
  • Click on Admin box (next to Help)
  • Using the drop-down menu, select ‘Reports and Exports'.
  • On the left hand side is the Individual Provider Report, select this report.
  • This report should now be on your screen.
  • Go to File on the top menu bar and press Print

Once the report has been obtained it can be faxed (02 9264 4550) or emailed to the membership [at] acpet [dot] edu [dot] au (ACPET Membership Team).

Should you experience any technical difficulties, please contact the PRISMS helpdesk (details above).  If you have any queries relating to your OSTAS membership, please contact the membership [at] acpet [dot] edu [dot] au (ACPET Membership Team) or call on 02 9264 4490.