Indian degree recognition in Australia: what the 2023 mechanism does and does not do

On 2 March 2023, in New Delhi, India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Australia’s Education Minister Jason Clare signed a Framework Mechanism for Mutual Recognition of Qualifications. Nine days later, in a joint statement dated 11 March 2023, the two prime ministers “welcomed the signing”. Yet the Australian Department of Education’s own answers to frequently asked questions about the agreement state that it “does not cover assessments for migration purposes”, and the health practitioner regulator Ahpra warns that “You can’t work in your profession before you’re registered.” The department’s guidance treats Indian degree recognition, like the recognition of any overseas qualification, as separate questions about study, employment and migration.

What was signed in New Delhi

The Press Information Bureau’s release of 2 March 2023 describes a mechanism covering education and skill qualifications, intended to ease the mobility of students and professionals. It grew out of a joint taskforce set up after the second India-Australia Virtual Summit in March 2022. The release reports Mr Clare saying the agreement “will make it easier for students to study in each other’s countries”.

The mechanism text, published by the Department of Education, covers higher education qualifications awarded by Indian institutions authorised by the University Grants Commission, the All-India Council for Technical Education and the National Council for Teacher Education, “as well as other equivalent bodies”. It says bachelor degrees from those institutions “will provide admission to AQF graduate certificate, graduate diploma and masters degree programs”. Its scope clause adds that recognition outcomes “may be outside the scope of this Mechanism where access to higher education is regulated by professional bodies”.

At the third Australia-India Education and Skills Council meeting in New Delhi on 8 December 2025, co-chaired by Mr Pradhan and Jayant Chaudhary with Mr Clare and Andrew Giles, the PIB reports Mr Chaudhary citing “the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications (MRQ) 2023” and “a dedicated Skills Mapping Framework for demand assessment” among the council’s frameworks. In a paragraph on online and blended delivery, the meeting’s joint communique says that, “Building on the 2023 Mutual Recognition Mechanism”, ministers agreed to collaborate on scalable models.

What the agreement does not cover

The department’s FAQ on the mechanism says its purpose is to “support the recognition of qualifications in Australia and India to facilitate access to higher education in both countries”. It also covers “general employment purposes”, meaning jobs with “no specific qualification requirements”.

The same FAQ draws two limits. The agreement “does not cover the recognition of qualifications that lead to employment in occupations that require specialised knowledge and skills in Australia and have registration, licensing, professional membership or other industry requirements”, and it does not cover migration assessments.

Three questions hiding inside one word

The Department of Education’s guidance starts from the observation that “Many organisations assess overseas qualifications in Australia”.

For study, “The education institution, such as a university, higher education provider or registered training organisation, assesses overseas qualifications for admission to study.”

For employment, the department points Australian citizens and permanent residents looking for a job with no specific requirements to their state or territory Overseas Qualifications Unit, and says regulated occupations have their own responsible authorities.

For migration, the page states: “The Department of Education does not assess qualifications for migration.” It sends would-be migrants to the Department of Home Affairs.

Indian degree recognition in Australia for a job or a course

The department says an Overseas Qualifications Unit may be able to assess an overseas qualification for a citizen or permanent resident, and that this service is usually faster and cheaper than its own. Not every state has one: the department’s list says New South Wales does not have an Overseas Qualifications Unit, and that the Victorian service was paused as of end June 2025.

The department’s own assessment is “a guide to the level of an overseas postsecondary qualification in terms of a qualification on the Australian Qualifications Framework”, is “for general purposes only”, carries a fee and can take up to three months. The department says it may help if an Overseas Qualifications Unit has referred you, if you live in New South Wales, or if your occupation has no registration, licensing, professional membership or industry requirements.

The department also sells its Country Education Profiles, covering 127 countries, to universities, professional bodies, employers and governments, at A$45.45 excluding GST for a single country. It says they are “not intended to be used by individuals wanting to know how their overseas qualification is recognised in Australia”.

The skills assessment is a separate gate

Where a skilled visa requires a skills assessment, it comes from the authority assigned to the occupation, and each applies its own rules.

Engineers Australia offers an Accord pathway for applicants whose “qualification is from a country which is a full signatory to the Washington Accord”, provided the degree was “completed after, or in the same year in which the country was accepted as a full signatory”. India’s National Board of Accreditation has been a full signatory since 2014, according to the International Engineering Alliance. Engineers Australia also requires the course to be listed as fully accredited for the relevant years, and directs applicants to the Alliance’s qualification checker “to check if your qualifications are accredited”. An engineering degree that is not accredited goes down the competency demonstration report route instead.

The Australian Computer Society says it conducts skills assessments “on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs as part of the overall visa application process”, and it uses a three-year degree as its benchmark. Its guidance states that “A standard 3-year Bachelor’s level qualification is deemed as having a major in computing if at least 33% of the qualification is IT. Qualifications that are longer in duration are assessed to the equivalent of a 3-year AQF Level 7 (Bachelor) award.”

VETASSESS, authorised by the Australian Government to assess 341 professional and other non-trade occupations, says “Your qualifications will be compared with the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and your employment experience will be assessed to determine whether it is relevant and at an appropriate skill level.”

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership states that “Teachers migrating to Australia on a skilled migrant visa are required to complete a teacher skills assessment through AITSL.” Applicants need at least four years of full-time (or part-time equivalent) university study that “includes a relevant initial teacher education qualification” and at least 45 days of supervised teaching practice, which AITSL describes as “the compulsory component of an initial teacher education (ITE) qualification”, and must also meet an English language requirement. Even with a positive result, “Registration is granted and managed by teacher regulatory authorities in each Australian state and territory.”

Health professions add a registration step. Ahpra tells overseas-qualified practitioners that, depending on the profession, qualifications are assessed either before they apply for registration or as part of the registration application, and that obtaining a visa and meeting immigration requirements are “separate processes that Ahpra cannot help with”.

Where that leaves the mechanism

None of the assessing authority pages cited above refers to the mechanism, and the department’s FAQ places regulated occupations and migration assessments outside it. For a course, the mechanism sets out what an Indian bachelor degree gives access to, but the department’s guidance says the institution still assesses qualifications for admission. For a visa applicant or a would-be registered professional, the assessing authority and the regulator remain the decision-makers, applying criteria that range from accreditation dates to days of supervised practice.

The traffic runs both ways. India’s University Grants Commission operates an equivalence portal for “Recognition and Grant of Equivalence to Qualifications obtained from Foreign Educational Institutions” under regulations it issued in 2025, and the portal states that those regulations “shall not apply to professional qualifications awarded by foreign educational institutions in disciplines like Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Law, and Architecture”. Education, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade notes, is Australia’s largest service export to India, valued at A$9.4 billion in 2025.

Taken together, the official guidance sends admission questions to the institution, general employment questions to an Overseas Qualifications Unit where one operates, and migration to Home Affairs and the occupation’s assessing authority. As the Department of Education puts it, why a qualification needs to be assessed “will determine which organisation you need to contact”.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice.