Data source: Department of Home Affairs, monthly study visa statistics, May 2026 decisions data, published 2026-05-31. This is data reporting only, not migration advice.
The offshore student visa grant rate for ELICOS rose 1.0 percentage point to 71.9% across 1,487 decided applications in May 2026, according to the Department of Home Affairs monthly study visa statistics. ELICOS was the only study sector where the offshore grant rate rose in the month. Higher Education and VET both fell offshore.
Higher Education posted the largest offshore fall. The HE offshore grant rate dropped 9.0 points to 70.8% across 13,318 decided applications in May 2026, from 79.8% in April. VET offshore fell 8.7 points to 25.7% across 1,696 decided applications, from 34.4% in April. Both sectors fell while ELICOS rose, though ELICOS offshore and Higher Education offshore ended the month at similar levels: 71.9% and 70.8% respectively.
Onshore streams showed a different pattern. ELICOS onshore rose 2.7 points to 88.2% across 734 decided applications in May 2026, from 85.4% in April. Higher Education onshore fell 3.2 points to 89.4% across 6,764 decided applications, from 92.6%. VET onshore fell 1.3 points to 60.1% across 5,871 decided applications, from 61.4%. ELICOS was the only sector to rise in both the offshore and the onshore stream simultaneously in May 2026.
Offshore decided applications across the three sectors in May 2026 totalled 16,501. Higher Education accounted for 13,318, or 80.7% of that total. VET accounted for 1,696, or 10.3%. ELICOS accounted for 1,487, or 9.0%. Despite holding the smallest offshore share of the three sectors, ELICOS was the only sector to move upward offshore in the month.
The gap between offshore and onshore grant rates varied across sectors in May 2026. In ELICOS, offshore ran at 71.9% and onshore at 88.2%, a gap of 16.3 points. In Higher Education, offshore was 70.8% and onshore 89.4%, a gap of 18.6 points. In VET, offshore was 25.7% and onshore 60.1%, a gap of 34.4 points. Across all three sectors, the onshore rate exceeded the offshore rate. The VET gap was the widest by a substantial margin.
What drove the ELICOS offshore rise is not explained in the published statistics. The Department of Home Affairs monthly study visa statistics record grant outcomes at sector level. The monthly data does not report the nationality composition of ELICOS offshore applications in May 2026 or the case-level factors contributing to the outcome. Whether the 1.0-point rise reflected a change in the composition of applications decided in the month, a change in processing patterns, or another factor is not determinable from the published figures.
A note on methodology: the grant rate in this article is calculated as grants divided by total decisions (grants and refusals) decided in the month. April 2026 figures are from the same Department of Home Affairs publication and represent the immediately preceding month. All volume figures are decided applications, not new lodgements. A decision in May 2026 may relate to an application lodged in an earlier period. The April to May comparison covers a single calendar month. The 9.0-point HE offshore fall and the 8.7-point VET offshore fall in the same month illustrate how substantially sector-level grant rates can shift across one calendar month in either direction.
Individual circumstances vary. This article is general information, not migration or legal advice. For guidance on a specific application, consult a MARA registered migration agent.
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Sources
- Department of Home Affairs, Study visa statistics: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/visa-statistics/study. May 2026. Data accessed via the StudyVisaHub production dataset.
StudyVisaHub is not a registered migration agent and does not provide immigration assistance. This article reports published Australian Government information and is general information only.