The department is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from all school and school-council run early childhood education and care (ECEC) services wanting to form a new or vary an existing foreign arrangement in 2025.
This is in line with Australia’s foreign policy objectives under the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020.
This requirement does not apply to services not run by a school or school council.
Under the Act, all school and school-council run ECEC services must submit their proposed arrangements or variations to existing arrangements to the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the department.
To do this, please contact the department’s Stakeholder Engagement team in the first instance, before negotiating or entering into arrangements with foreign entities.
This ensures that arrangements between state and territory government departments and international counterparts are aligned to Australia’s foreign policy objectives.
Arrangements that need approval
The legislation extends to any written arrangements, agreements or contracts between school and school-council run ECEC services, and foreign entities, including overseas governments, universities and other schools.
Common examples of foreign arrangements requiring Australian Government approval include:
- partnerships with foreign ECEC providers or services
- agreements
- written arrangements
- contracts
- memoranda of understanding (MoU)
- teacher exchange programs.
Arrangements may be in any form, and do not need to be signed or legally binding to fall within the scope of the Act.
How to submit an EOI
The department’s EOI process for new or existing foreign arrangements happens twice a year ‒ in Term 1, and in June.
If you are considering varying or entering into a new foreign arrangement between now and June 2025, please contact the department by Friday 14 March 2025 with a:
Please send these documents to the department’s Stakeholder Engagement team.
Find out more
For further enquiries, contact the department by email: ied.stakeholder.engagement@education.vic.gov.au
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