Three small items in Schedule 6D reward time spent studying or training in Australia: the Australian study requirement, study in a designated regional area, and a completed professional year. Each is worth 5 points on its own, but they are not three independent choices — regional study points cannot exist without the base study requirement, and a professional year is a genuine commitment of time and money that happens to pay 5 points on completion. This page covers what each one actually requires and whether chasing them is worth it.
- The Australian study requirement is measured in weeks, not calendar years — 92 weeks of registered course duration at a CRICOS-registered provider, in English, completed in Australia.
- Regional study points (5) require the base study requirement first — for a regional student they typically arrive together as 10 points, not as a standalone 5.
- None of a regionally-claimed course can be distance education, even if the campus itself sits in a designated regional area — this caught a lot of people whose courses moved online during 2020-2022.
- A professional year is a real ~44-week program costing roughly $10,000-$14,000 for 5 points — worth doing for the work experience and industry contacts, rarely worth doing for the points alone.
The short version
These three items sit in Schedule 6D of the Migration Regulations' general points test, alongside age, English, employment and qualifications. Unlike most of the table, all three reward something you did in Australia rather than something you brought with you — which is exactly why they are worth understanding in detail if you are already here, or planning to be.
| Item | Points | Item no. |
|---|---|---|
| Australian study requirement — at least two academic years towards a recognised qualification | 5 | 6D81 |
| That same study, in a designated regional area, while living there, none of it by distance | 5 | 6D101 |
| A completed professional year in Australia in your nominated or a closely related occupation | 5 | 6D61 |
Do all three and they add up to 15 points — a meaningful jump for anyone sitting just under the 65-point floor. But they are not interchangeable: one is close to unavoidable if you did a long enough Australian degree, one depends entirely on where your campus happened to be, and one is a genuine year-long undertaking you would have to go and do.
The Australian study requirement
Item 6D81 rewards what the regulations describe as at least two academic years of study towards one or more qualifications. In practice, Home Affairs measures this as 92 weeks of registered course duration — not 92 weeks of you personally being enrolled, but 92 weeks as the course is registered on CRICOS, the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students. The course must also be delivered in English and completed in Australia.
Why it’s weeks, not years
The 92-week figure matters because it is stricter than it sounds. “Two academic years” is a shorthand; the actual test is the CRICOS-registered durationof your course, and 90 or 91 weeks does not round up to 92. A three-year bachelor degree comfortably clears it. A two-year masters by coursework often sits right at the line, and a slightly shorter program — a 68-week diploma plus a 20-week graduate certificate, say — may not add up to 92 weeks even though it feels like “about two years” of study.
The requirement does not have to come from one continuous course. Study from more than one qualification can be combined to reach 92 weeks, and the courses do not need to sit inside a single unbroken enrolment — a gap between finishing one and starting the next does not reset the clock. What does not count towards it: study completed outside Australia, study not taught in English, and study at a provider that was not CRICOS-registered at the time.
Regional study — the extra 5
Item 6D101 adds a further 5points on top of the base study requirement — and the word “on top of” is doing real work in that sentence. You cannot claim the regional points on their own; they are only available to someone who has already met the Australian study requirement in 6D81. For a student who did their entire 92 weeks at a single regional campus, the two items are not a choice between 5 and 5 points — they arrive together as 10.
Three conditions apply, and all three have to be true for the whole period being claimed:
| Condition | What trips people up |
|---|---|
| The campus was in a designated regional area | Not every campus of a Sydney or Melbourne-based university counts — some outer campuses do and some inner-suburban ones don't, and the list changes. Some entire states and territories (SA, Tasmania, the NT and the ACT) are treated as regional throughout. |
| You actually lived in that regional area while studying | A regional campus with a city address on file, or a student who commuted from outside the region, can fail this even with a regional enrolment. |
| None of the course was completed by distance education | The whole claim can be knocked out by even a single unit taken online — see below. |
Whether a specific postcode currently counts as regional is worth checking directly rather than assuming — the regional postcode checker answers it in one search, and it is the same tool worth running before committing to a regional 491 nomination, since the two questions — regional study and regional visa commitment — use related but not always identical area definitions.
The distance-education trap
This is the condition that has caught the most people since 2020. Plenty of students enrolled at a genuinely regional campus, moved there, and lived there — and then had part or all of their teaching shifted online during the disruption of 2020 to 2022, or simply chose a hybrid course structure without realising the consequence. The rule is unforgiving: distance education does not count towards the regional points, even when it is delivered by a regional provider to a student who is physically living in the region. A course description that says “online” or “distance” anywhere in its delivery mode is a real risk to the whole regional claim, not just the affected units.
What a professional year actually is
Item 6D61 is different in kind from the two study items above — it is not about study at all, but about a structured, fee-paying, Home-Affairs-recognised work-readiness program undertaken after your qualification and skills assessment. Professional years exist mainly for three occupation groups, run by the industry body for each:
| Field | Who runs it |
|---|---|
| Accounting | CPA Australia, Chartered Accountants ANZ, or the Institute of Public Accountants (jointly branded SMIPA) |
| Information and communications technology | The Australian Computer Society (ACS) |
| Engineering | Engineering Education Australia — the training arm of Engineers Australia |
A typical program runs for around 44 weeks, structured as roughly 32 weeks of coursework and workplace-readiness training plus a 12-week structured internship with a host employer. It is aimed squarely at recent graduates in these three fields who need both the local work experience and the professional credibility that comes with it — which is also why accounting, ICT and engineering are exactly the occupations where a professional year comes up most.
What it costs, and how long it takes
Provider pricing varies by field and provider, but the pattern that recurs across current program pages sits roughly in this range:
| Field | Typical cost (AUD) | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting | ≈ $6,000–$13,000 | ≈ 44 weeks |
| ICT | ≈ $10,000 and up | ≈ 44 weeks |
| Engineering | ≈ $13,000 and up | ≈ 44 weeks |
Treat every figure in that table as an estimate to confirm with the specific provider you are considering — professional year pricing is set by individual registered providers, not by the industry body itself, and it moves.
Is a professional year worth it for 5 points?
Judged purely as dollars and weeks per point, no — it is one of the least efficient rows in the entire points table. Roughly $10,000 to $14,000 and 44 weeks for 5 points works out to somewhere around $2,000–$2,800 per point and nearly nine weeks per point. Compare that to the 5-point NAATI CCL, which costs a single sitting fee and around eight weeks including the results wait for someone who already speaks a second language — the full ranked comparison across every way to add points puts the two side by side.
Where it does make sense is exactly the case above: a recent graduate in one of the three eligible fields who has little or no Australian work experience yet, and who would benefit from the structured internship regardless of the points. For someone who already has Australian work experience or an alternative path to 5 points elsewhere, it is hard to justify on points alone.
How the three items stack
A worked example: an international graduate completes a three-year engineering degree at a regional Australian campus, lives in the region the whole time, with no distance-education units, then goes on to a professional year.
| Item | Points |
|---|---|
| Australian study requirement (6D81) | 5 |
| Regional study, same course (6D101) | 5 |
| Completed professional year (6D61) | 5 |
| Total from this trio | 15 |
15 points from study and training alone is a serious contribution to a points total, and it is one almost no other combination of factors replicates for a recent graduate without local work experience yet. But notice what had to be true for all three to apply: a specific enrolment location, a specific living arrangement, and a specific, expensive post-graduation program. Change any one of those and the total falls quickly — drop the regional campus and it is 10; skip the professional year and it is 10.
What this page can’t tell you
- Whether your specific campus is currently regional. Area classifications are reviewed and can change — check the current postcode, not last year's list.
- Whether a unit you took counts as distance education. Get this in writing from your institution rather than assuming.
- Whether your occupation is professional-year eligible. Only accounting, ICT and engineering pathways currently run recognised programs — most other occupations have no professional year option at all.
Quick check
Frequently asked questions
Sources
The point values (5, 5 and 5) are the Commonwealth's, from Schedule 6D of the Migration Regulations 1994, verified on 15 September 2026. The detailed operational definitions — the 92-week measure, the regional-area list, and professional year provider pricing — could not be confirmed directly against immi.homeaffairs.gov.au, which returned an access error on every attempt; they are corroborated across independent migration-consultancy and provider sources instead, and should be re-checked against Home Affairs' own current guidance before you rely on them.
- Points table — SkillSelect — Department of Home Affairs
- Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 6D — General points test — Federal Register of Legislation
- Professional Year Program — Australian Computer Society (ACS)