Only international students who intend to study onshore in Australia on a student visa require a CoE.

International online students or international students who are not on a student visa but may be on a temporary residence visa or temporary business visa, are considered international students for fee purposes only, but do not require a CoE. All other international students must always have a valid CoE.

Yes. An international student who is on a student visa must always have a valid CoE – even if your visa is still valid.

If your CoE finishes or is cancelled before your student visa expires, your visa is at risk of being cancelled because you have no CoE.

For example, if your CoE finished on 30/03/2013 and your visa expires on 30/08/2013, you must get a new CoE if you intend to continue studying. If your CoE is finished or is cancelled for any reason before your visa expires, your visa may be cancelled.

Information on how to apply for a new CoE

No. The University is only permitted to extend the duration of a student's study where it appears that the student will not complete the course within the expected duration, as specified on the student's CoE, as a result of:

• compassionate or compelling circumstances (for example in the case of illness where a medical certificate is evidence of the student's inability to attend classes for an extended period or where the course progression rules prevent a student from completing certain units because they may have failed a prerequisite unit)
• Deakin implementing its intervention strategy for students who are at risk of unsatisfactory academic progress
• an approved deferment or intermission has been granted.

As an international student you are required to complete your course within the expected duration. Deakin is not permitted to issue a CoE to enable you to extend your visa except in the case of one of the above exceptions.

If you have failed a unit and that failure will impact on your expected course duration, you will receive a letter notifying you of the fail and how to seek assistance within the University. You will receive an intervention note on your student record that will indicate that, in these circumstances, you can be issued a new CoE. If you are not successful in your application for a pass concede for your final result, you may be issued a CoE to repeat that unit.

If you have deliberately under-enrolled each trimester without faculty approval and not made up the time in T3, you may not be allowed to get a new CoE. In the case that a new CoE cannot be issued, you may transfer to online study and complete your degree from your home country.

Yes. If you are a continuing student and you request a CoE to apply for a new student visa, you must use your CoE to apply for your new visa within 45 days of the date the CoE is issued, otherwise it will expire and you won't be able to lodge a visa application. You must also lodge your visa application before the course start date on the CoE, otherwise the online visa application system will not allow you to lodge the application. 

You can apply for a CoE extension before your results for the current trimester are released, however, it is not recommended.

If you fail a unit in the current trimester and you have applied for a CoE before your results are released, the CoE end date may be affected. If you apply for a visa using a CoE that has an incorrect course end date as a result of this, you may be required to lodge a further visa application in the future, which will be at your own expense.

The CoE start and end dates are listed on your CoE. You are expected to complete your course within that date range. If you have applied for a new CoE to allow yourself additional time to complete your course, the CoE start and end dates will be the date range for your approved extension period.