Higher education providers compliance with the Student Identifiers Act 2014 (Cth)

Types of non-compliance under the Act in higher education fall into 3 primary categories:

• not meeting privacy requirements
• issuing qualifications and awards to a student without a Unique Student Identifier (USI)
• creating duplicate USIs.

Privacy

To remain compliant with privacy requirements we remind you of your obligations to obtain permission from students when creating, or finding a USI. A Privacy Notice must be issued to the student if you are creating a USI on their behalf.

Under section 11 of the Act, any personal information and identity documents obtained to create a USI must not be retained, unless you are required by another law to keep the information.

If storing a record of a USI you must take reasonable steps to protect that record from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Issuing Qualifications

Under section 53A of the Act, a registered higher education provider must not confer a regulated higher education award to an individual without a verifiable USI, or an exemption from being assigned one. If an exemption letter is provided on official Office of the Student Identifiers Registrar (OSIR) letterhead, it should be accepted without asking the student:

• why they are exempt, and/or
• requesting they sign a government-based privacy notice.

International students who either complete 100% of their study offshore or commenced their studies before 1 January 2023 and will not be in Australia on the date their award is conferred, are auto-exempt from the requirement to provide a USI. These students are not required to apply for evidence from OSIR confirming their auto-exemption status.

From 1 January 2023, there is no exemption from the requirement to have a USI. All higher education students must have a USI in order to graduate and receive their award. This extends to all international students who completed part or all of their studies in Australia.

To remain compliant students must be encouraged to provide a USI at the earliest opportunity but no later than:

• the census date for eligible students accessing a Commonwealth Supported Place or Commonwealth financial assistance
• before international students leave Australia at the conclusion of their studies, or at the point of award conferral.

The Registrar is not inclined to approve exemption requests for international students who leave Australia without creating a USI.

Creating Duplicates

There are civil penalty provisions under Part 3A of the Act where it is an offence for an individual to knowingly make an application to create a duplicate USI or authorise an entity to do so. To remain compliant, you must attempt to find an existing student’s USI before creating one on their behalf.

Organisations who have access to use Document Verification Service Override (DVSO) have additional obligations to ensure this process does not create duplicate accounts. DVSO can only be used for students who do not have access to verifiable identification and:

• identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, or
• are incarcerated.

For additional information please see our Provider Guide.

If you think you have identified non-compliance with the Act you can complete the report non-compliance form.

Please circulate this email to all relevant members of your team, along with any appropriate departments within your organisation.