The applicant has met the requirements for:

a)   The award of a doctorate by an Australian educational institution; or

b)   The award of a doctorate, by another educational institution, that the Minister is satisfied is of a recognised standard.

The key here is that your PHD has to be recognised to the Australian standard. This means when you are presenting overseas qualifications just presenting your academic papers is not going to be sufficient on its own. 

Australian Education International (AEI), through the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (AEI-NOOSR), provides official information and advice on the comparability of overseas qualifications with Australian qualifications. 

Country Education Profiles (CEP) will be the main reference points when an assessment is made of your PHD. However the DIAC's Proceedural Advice Manual (PAM) lists other possible which may be accepted as discussed below in the assessment of an overseas Bachelor Degree.   

And, just a useful piece of information for DIAC writers of PAM, its NOOSR with an R, not NOOSA with an A, which you have used in error. NOOSA, is a great sunny town on the Sunshine coast generally well known for the amount of cannabis smoked there on warm balmy nights after a days surfing rather than any academic work carried out

Regulation 6C72 - 15Points

The applicant has met the requirements for;

(a)     the award of at least a bachelor degree by an Australian educational institution; or

(b)     the award of at least a bachelor degreeby another educational institution, that the Minister is satisfied is of a recognised standard

So what is meant by the term degree? I feel this is an important part of the regulations to explain to readers.

In the Migration Act, degree has a strict definition which is as follows:

means a formal educational qualification, under the Australian Qualifications Framework, awarded by an Australian educational institution as a degree or a postgraduate diploma for which:

a)      the entry level to the course leading to the qualification is:

i)  in the case of a bachelor's degree - satisfactory completion of year 12 in the Australian school system or of equivalent schooling; and

ii)  in the case of a master's degree - satisfactory completion of a bachelor's degree awarded at an Australian tertiary educational institution or of an equivalent award; and

iii)  in the case of a doctoral degree - satisfactory completion of a bachelor's degree awarded with honours, or a master's degree, at an Australian tertiary educational institution or of an equivalent award; and

iv)  in the case of a postgraduate diploma - satisfactory completion of a bachelor's degree or diploma awarded at an Australian tertiary educational institution or of an equivalent award; and

b)   in the case of a bachelor's degree, not less than 3 years of full-time study, or the equivalent period of part-time study, is required.

In a nutshell for overseas students who have studied in Australia, if you have completed a Bachelor degree, Masters degree or even a Graduate Diploma, then you would qualify for the 15 points.

You will note that is doesn't mention how long the duration of the Masters degree or Graduate Diploma needs to be. If you had completed them with just one year full time study here then that would be sufficient, they don't need to meet the 2 year study requirement which of course is a totally different issue.

It does however specify that the Bachelor degree would be an award that would require at least 3 years of full time study. This does not mean that you have to have spent three years studying in Australia to qualify for this.

For example;

Sam enrols into a three year Bachelor of Commerce in Australia. Once here he applies for academic credits for his Advanced Diploma of Commerce he completed in the USA. Sam is given 8 units of exempted subjects (out of the 24 required) and now can complete his degree here in just 2 years (16 units) instead of the 3. Now even though Sam will be only studying 2 years in Australia to qualify for the Bachelor degree he is still completing an degree which requires 3 years of full time study. This still enables him to gain the 15 points.

If you hold an overseas degree then equivalency this needs to be proven. Convincing DIAC requires some evidence. DIACs guidelines (PAM) outline the following information where case officers must have regard to in making their decesions;

A)   The skill assessment body recognised by DIAC for your nominated occupation has stipulated your overseas Bachelor degree is equivalent to an Australian Bachelor degree, or

B)   VETASSESS has provided an assessment of your Bachelor degree as being equivalent; or

C)   The AEI Country Education Profiles provided by NOOSR. These CEP's are provided as an online service and in fact it is this service that the skill assessment bodies rely upon in making their statements in the skill assessment results; or

D)Any other relevant evidence supplied by the applicant. Although DIAC does not provide examples of what this may be it is still possible there will be an open mind to other documents or information provided. However caution should be exercised if you are relying upon this evidence to convince a case officer.

A couple of examples to clarify this.

1)   Prakesh came to Australia to study his Advanced Diploma of Hospitality at TAFE. He had completed his Bachelor of Commerce at the Adikavi Nannaya University, Rajahmundry. He completed his Bachelor Degree in the 2^nd Division level but unfortunately according to the NOOSR CEP his Bachelor degree is only equivalent to an Australian Associate degree. This means he cannot gain the 15 points he was hoping for.

2) Umut completed her Bachelor of Arts from Adnan Menderes University in Turkey. She came to Australia to complete a Diploma Business at Pacific College in Sydney. However since her 4 year degree from Turkey is listed in the CEP as being equivalent to an Australian Bachelor degree she is eligible for 15 points.