PRISMS Modernisation Project

Project Background

The Australian Government plans to invest $17.3 million over two years (2022–2024) to modernise the Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS) in order to streamline enrolments for international students and Australian education providers.

The modernisation solution will allow providers to integrate their own systems with the PRISMS application to submit their data directly to PRISMS. These changes will reduce double data handling for providers and provide seamless integration of business and government processes. The project commenced in July 2022.

The project will focus on the most important and highest usage PRISMS functions for international students, enrolment creation, and basic reporting of enrolment changes. The first year of the project will focus on enrolment creation function. The second year will implement other high use functions.

The department is committed to working closely with international education stakeholders to achieve a successful PRISMS Application Programming Interface (API) solution that supports the longer-term efficiency of the sector. The department released a concept paper on 25 March 2022, Modernising the collection of international education data Concept brief – Department of Education, Australian Government to inform international education providers and their software suppliers about this project and provide details on opportunities to engage in the project consultation and implementation.

Upon completion of the project, the PRISMS website will still be available for organisations who do not implement the API functionality.

Anticipated benefits of the PRISMS Modernisation Project

Savings for the International Education sector are an estimated $10 million in regulatory compliance costs each year.

• Reduced administrative overheads for education providers.
• Increased productivity of education providers.

Support growth and global competitiveness of Australia’s International Education sector.

• With quality data, the international education industry can enhance innovation and target diverse areas of opportunity.
• The industry will have an evidence base to address student demand and identify opportunities to drive expansion and diversification.

Increased satisfaction of Education Providers and Agents.

• Significant improvement of user experience.
• Improved PRISMS reporting for student enrolment and changes.

What is currently happening in the PRISMS Modernisation Project?

The Department of Education (DE) and Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) are working together to develop an Application Programming Interface (API) capability for the PRISMS platform that will enable education provider software vendors to connect their systems directly to PRISMS to provide enrolment data as required under ESOS legislation.

DEWR is also upgrading PRISMS infrastructure and aligning it to modern and well-accepted industry standards. The department intends to apply the Business to Government (B2G) solution consistent with other B2G channel API systems and programs implemented by DEWR. The API framework will be developed consistent with the National API Design Standard by using established, industry-standard security practices and ensuring a dedicated approach to security and compliance.

Project Timeline: The following diagram highlights key project stages and timelines.