Deferring, suspending or cancelling an overseas student’s enrolment

Deferring, suspending or cancelling an overseas student’s enrolment

Policy Overview

An overseas student’s enrolment can be deferred, suspended or cancelled. This may be initiated by either the overseas student for compassionate and compelling circumstances, or the School  for an overseas student’s breach of visa conditions, failure to pay fees, misbehaviour, or other condition listed in the School’s policy.

The School will manage the enrolment of overseas students and maintain up-to-date enrolment information in the Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS) database.

The School has a documented process for assessing, approving and recording a deferment, suspension or cancellation of study.

The School will notify the overseas student in writing of the intention to suspend or cancel their enrolment.

Overseas students should seek advice from the Department of Home Affairs on the potential impact on their visa if enrolment has been deferred, suspended or cancelled.

The School will not let a suspension or cancellation take effect until the overseas student has been given a chance to complete an internal appeals process, unless their health or wellbeing, or the wellbeing of others, is likely to be at risk.

Key Requirements

Deferral, suspension or cancellation

The School will maintain a record of any decisions to defer or suspend an overseas student’s enrolment and will notify the Department of Education and Training through PRISMS. The Department of Home Affairs is notified of a student whose course has been deferred, suspended or cancelled through PRISMS.

An international student’s visa will not be cancelled if the deferral is for compassionate or compelling reasons. If the School defers or suspends a student’s studies for compassionate or compelling reasons, the School should ensure the student visa holder has a valid CoE in PRISMS with a start date that reflects the student’s intended date of return to studies.

The deferral will be assessed by a delegated member of the senior staff such as the Principal, Registrar or other staff member that they may direct to assess the deferral request.

An international student’s visa may be cancelled if the deferral or suspension:

• is due to the conduct of the student 
• is for reasons other than compassionate or compelling circumstances
• the compassionate or compelling circumstances which warranted the deferral or suspension of studies cease to exist 
• is based on fraudulent evidence or documents given to the School.

Effect on Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE)

Deferring, suspending or cancelling their enrolment on any grounds may affect a student’s visa. Under this standard of the National Code, there are three possible outcomes for an overseas student’s CoE:

1. The School notifies the Department of Education and Training through PRISMS that they are deferring or suspending an overseas student’s enrolment for a period without affecting the end date of the CoE. There will be no change to the CoE on PRISMS – the overseas student will still be listed as studying. However, the notice of deferment or suspension will be recorded in PRISMS.

2. The School notifies the Department of Education and Training through PRISMS that they are deferring or suspending an overseas student’s enrolment for a period which will affect the end date of the CoE. PRISMS will cancel the original CoE and immediately offer the School the opportunity to create a new CoE with a more appropriate end date. If the School does not know when the overseas student will return, it can choose not to create a new CoE at that point, but to wait until the overseas student has notified the School of the intended date of return before creating a new CoE. 2 Standard 9: Deferring, suspending or cancels the overseas student’s enrolment

3. The School notifies the Department of Education and Training through PRISMS that it wishes to permanently cancel (terminate) the overseas student’s enrolment. Once this process is complete, the overseas student’s CoE status will be listed as ‘cancelled’.

Regardless of the reason, if an overseas student’s enrolment is deferred or suspended the period of suspension of enrolment (as entered in PRISMS) will not be included in attendance monitoring calculations.

Student-initiated deferrals, suspensions or cancellations of their enrolment

The School may defer or suspend the enrolment of an overseas student at their request if there are compassionate or compelling circumstances.
The School will assess the deferral of commencement of study or suspension of study with regard to

• The students course progress and attendance record.
• Any documentary evidence the student submits in support of the request.
• Any other factors the School considers relevant in making a decision.

Compassionate or compelling’ circumstances are generally those beyond the control of the overseas student and which have an impact upon the overseas student’s course progress or wellbeing. These could include, but are not limited to: 

• serious and/or illness or injury, where a medical certificate states that the overseas student is unable to attend classes; 
• bereavement of close family members such as parents or grandparents (where possible a death certificate should be provided); 
• major political upheaval or natural disaster in the home country requiring emergency travel and this has impacted on the overseas student’s studies; 
• a traumatic experience, which could include: involvement in, or witnessing of a serious accident; 
• witnessing or being the victim of a serious crime, and this has impacted on the overseas student (these cases should be supported by police or psychologists’ reports);
• where the School was unable to offer a pre-requisite unit, or the overseas student has failed a prerequisite unit and therefore faces a shortage of relevant units for which they are eligible to enrol.

These are some examples of what may be considered compassionate or compelling circumstances.

The School delegates will use their professional judgement to assess each case on its individual merits. When determining whether compassionate or compelling circumstances exist, the School will consider documentary evidence provided to support the claim, and will keep copies of these documents in the overseas student’s file.

This policy complies with the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 – Standard 9