A significant change to how education agents get paid took effect this year. Under ESOS integrity reforms, registered providers are banned from paying commissions to agents for onshore student transfers that occur after 31 March 2026.

The target is “course hopping” — where a student obtains a visa for one course and provider, then moves to an often lower-level course, sometimes to work more and study less. Restricting the commission removes the financial incentive to facilitate those transfers.

What’s actually prohibited

  • If a student transfers to a new provider without completing their principal course, the new provider cannot pay an agent a commission for that transfer.
  • “Commission” is defined broadly — direct cash, per-student fees, bonuses, service fees, gifts or any other incentive connected to recruiting an overseas student.
  • Transition rule: the ban does not apply to students accepted for enrolment at the new provider on or before 31 March 2026, even if they start later.

It sits inside a wider ESOS integrity package — including new expectations that providers assess ownership and control links with agents, and monitor that affiliated agents act ethically and in students’ best interests.

What this means for your practice

For legitimate agents, the risk isn’t the rule — it’s proving which transfers are commissionable and which aren’t. You need a clean record of each student’s principal course, enrolment dates, and transfer history to know whether a commission is payable at all.

Tracking commissions and sub-agent splits in a spreadsheet makes that hard and error-prone. Handling it in the same system that holds the student’s enrolment record — so a commission can’t be raised against a transfer the rules now exclude — keeps you on the right side of the line. That’s part of what Centrio is built to do across the education desk.

This is general information, not migration or legal advice. Details and dates were accurate at publication and can change — always confirm against the primary source before relying on them.

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