What an Australian points assessment does with a branch-campus degree: three items in one table, three different tests

Australia’s points schedule reads one qualification three separate times, under three separate items, asking three unrelated questions. Nothing about a transnational award is anomalous in that system; it simply lands differently under each item, and the items do not talk to each other.

The three questions are: what level is the award and is it of a recognised standard; where was the applicant physically while studying; and what did the assessing authority for the nominated occupation decide. Each is a separate part of Schedule 6D of the Migration Regulations 1994, with its own wording and its own points.

This page quotes those provisions and the assessing authorities’ own published statements about their role. It is not migration advice, and it does not tell you what any application will score. Points are determined by the Department of Home Affairs, and the assessing authorities say so themselves.

Item 6D72 and 6D71: level and standard, with no location test

Part 6D.7 of Schedule 6D is headed “Educational qualifications”. Item 6D72 awards points where, at the time of invitation, the applicant had:

“met the requirements for: (a) the award of at least a bachelor degree by an Australian educational institution; or (b) the award of at least a bachelor qualification, by another educational institution, that is of a recognised standard”

Item 6D71 does the same for a doctorate. Item 6D73 covers a diploma “by an Australian educational institution” and 6D74 a trade qualification.

Read limb (b) of 6D72 carefully. It contemplates a qualification from an institution that is not an Australian educational institution, and the only test it applies is that the qualification be “of a recognised standard”. There is no test of where the applicant was sitting while studying. The item is about the award.

How “recognised standard” is decided is set out in regulation 2.26AC(5): in determining whether an educational qualification is of a recognised standard, the Minister must have regard to whether the qualification “had been recognised by the relevant assessing authority for the applicant’s nominated skilled occupation as being suitable for the occupation”, whether it “is recognised by a body specified by the Minister in an instrument in writing”, “the duration of the applicant’s study towards the educational qualification”, and “any other relevant matter.”

One drafting point is worth naming because it is the source of most confusion in transnational cases. The phrase “Australian educational institution” is used repeatedly in Schedule 6D and in regulation 2.26AC, and it is not defined in the Regulations — we searched the compilation in force on 1 July 2026 and found no definition of it in regulation 1.03 or in regulation 2.26AC(6), which defines “degree”, “diploma”, “employed”, “professional year” and “trade qualification”. Where a term is not defined, its meaning is a matter for the decision maker applying the law, not for a website. This page therefore does not say which limb of item 6D72 any given award falls under.

Item 6D81: where you physically were

Part 6D.8 is headed “Australian study qualifications” and contains a single item. Item 6D81 awards points where, at the time of invitation, “the applicant met the Australian study requirement.”

That requirement is defined in regulation 1.15F, and it has five conditions. The person must have completed one or more degrees, diplomas or trade qualifications “for award by an Australian educational institution” as a result of courses:

• “(a) that are registered courses; and
• (b) that were completed in a total of at least 16 calendar months; and
• (c) that were completed as a result of a total of at least 2 academic years study; and
• (d) for which all instruction was conducted in English; and
• (e) that the applicant undertook while in Australia as the holder of a visa authorising the applicant to study.”

“Registered course” is itself defined, in regulation 1.03, as “a course of education or training provided by an institution, body or person that is registered, under Division 3 of Part 2 of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, to provide the course to overseas students.”

Condition (e) is a physical-presence test and condition (a) is a registration test. Neither is about the awarding body’s name, and neither can be satisfied by an award alone. That single provision is the subject of its own page: why offshore study does not meet the Australian study requirement.

Item 6D75: whatever the assessing authority decided

Back in Part 6D.7, one item does not describe a qualification at all. Item 6D75 awards points where the applicant had:

“attained a qualification or award recognised by the relevant assessing authority for the applicant’s nominated skilled occupation as being suitable for the occupation”

This is a pointer to another organisation’s decision. It is satisfied not by what your certificate says but by what the assessing authority for your nominated occupation concluded.

The assessing authorities publish what they do and, more usefully, what they do not do.

On the limits of their role. Engineers Australia states: “Engineers Australia is not allowed to give you migration advice. We also do not award the points for migration as part of our process.” It directs all migration and visa questions to the Department of Home Affairs. The Australian Computer Society, which “is authorised to assess the skills and qualifications of IT, Data Science and Cyber Security professionals on behalf of the Australian Government”, directs applicants that “For information on the different kinds of visas available and requirements for migration to Australia, visit the website of the Department of Home Affairs.”

On what an opinion about level is worth. VETASSESS describes its Points Test Advice as “an opinion of how the educational level of your qualifications compares against the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF)”, and then states its status: “The Points Test Advice will be taken into consideration by the Department of Home Affairs when assessing your eligibility for points, but the VETASSESS advice is not binding on the Department. The Department may undertake further investigations to verify the qualification claims made in your application. Determination of the points remains at the discretion of the Department.”

On what accreditation attaches to. On its own public page, Engineers Australia states the mechanism that matters most for a transnational engineering award: “Accreditation applies to a program, not an individual.” The conditions it publishes for recognising a qualification under the Washington, Sydney or Dublin Accords are set in terms of a programme, a signatory country and an intake period — the programme has to fall within the time period the signatory publishes as accredited for that country, and provisional accreditation is not enough. Those conditions, and what follows from them, are set out on this site’s page about professional accreditation and academic recognition; read them at the source before relying on them.

Note that the pathway is chosen first by geography. The same page says the assessment pathway is determined by the country the qualification was received in, the type of qualification, and whether it is accredited.

Part 6D.10: location again, in stricter form

Part 6D.10, “Study in designated regional area qualification”, contains item 6D101, which requires all four of the following at once:

“(a) the applicant met the Australian study requirement; (b) the location of the campus or campuses at which that study was undertaken is in a designated regional area; (c) while the applicant undertook the course of study the applicant lived in a designated regional area; (d) none of the study undertaken constituted distance education.”

Three of those four paragraphs are about physical location and mode. This is the clearest published demonstration anywhere that the schedule treats “where you were” as an independent fact from “what you hold”.

One item per Part, and the highest one counts

Two mechanical rules in regulation 2.26AC(4) shape how these interact. The Minister “must not give the applicant a prescribed number of points for more than one prescribed qualification in each Part of the Schedule”, and where more than one is satisfied within a Part, points are given “for the qualification that has been satisfied that attracts the highest number of points.”

So items 6D71 to 6D75 compete with one another inside Part 6D.7 — only one of them scores — while Part 6D.8 and Part 6D.10 are separate Parts and are assessed separately.

That is the structural answer to “does my branch campus degree count?” It is not one question. Under Part 6D.7 the award is read for level and standard. Under Part 6D.8 the study is read for presence and registration. Under Part 6D.10 it is read for region and mode. A single answer would have to be wrong about at least two of them.

And a fourth system that scores nothing

Professional accreditation sits outside the points table entirely, and Australia’s education standards say so: “Where professional accreditation of a course of study is required for graduates to be eligible to practise, the course of study is accredited and continues to be accredited by the relevant professional body.” A skills assessment for migration and a licence to practise are obtained from different bodies under different rules. Neither implies the other.

What to do with this

1. Ask which item you are actually asking about. “Recognised for migration” is not a thing; 6D71/6D72, 6D75, 6D81 and 6D101 are. Name the item before you look for an answer.
2. Go to the assessing authority for your nominated occupation, and read its published pathway rules. Item 6D75 is a pointer to that body’s decision, and its criteria are published.
3. For an engineering award, establish which accrediting body accredited the programme, in which country, and for which intake years. The published Accord conditions are written in exactly those terms.
4. Treat any level opinion as an opinion. At least one assessing authority states in terms that its advice is not binding on the Department and that determination of points is at the Department’s discretion.
5. Take visa questions to Home Affairs and to a registered migration agent. The assessing authorities say this on their own pages, and so does this site.

What this page does not do

It does not tell you how many points any qualification will attract, whether an application will succeed, or which visa to apply for. It quotes the published provisions and the assessing authorities’ own statements, with the date each was read. Discretion under these provisions belongs to the Department of Home Affairs, and nothing here anticipates how it will be exercised.

Related

• Why a degree earned at an offshore campus does not meet the Australian study requirement — regulation 1.15F, condition by condition.
• One award, four rulebooks — the four bodies, and the fact each one reads.
• Does studying at a branch campus count as “studying overseas”? — the definitions, and where they diverge.
• Professional accreditation and academic recognition — the system that scores nothing in the points table.
• What a skills assessment outcome says — reading the document item 6D75 points at.