IHEA Acknowledges Passage of Higher Education Reforms

Independent Higher Education Australia acknowledges the passage of the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025 (the ELA Bill) through Parliament today.

IHEA played a very strong role in progressing amendments made to the ELA Bill in the Senate last night, said the Hon Dr Peter Hendy, Chief Executive Officer of IHEA.

“We actively advocated in our submission on the ELA Bill for amendments, and engaged in detailed discussions with both the Government and the Opposition to secure the amendments agreed to by the Senate late yesterday,” Dr Hendy said.
The amendments improve the ELA Bill for independent higher education providers and provide important safeguards by strengthening transparency and fairness, exemptions to the operation of the ELA Bill and guardrails and requirements around the Minister’s ability to cancel or suspend courses.

“This is a great win for IHEA members. It improves a bill that, while still not perfect, at least has more safeguards against ministerial overreach and less bias against independent providers, said Dr Hendy.

IHEA’s success with the ELA Bill follows its significant win since the 2025 federal election to have the Government abandon the “hard capping” regime for international students as proposed in last year’s scrapped Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill 2024, as well as securing healthy growth in New Overseas Student Commencements allocations for all independent providers for 2026.

“As always, we will keep fighting the good fight to get equal treatment across the higher education sector,” Dr Hendy said.

Ends

Media contact: Mitch Tanner, Head of Advocacy (mitch.tanner@ihea.edu.au)