Student Registration

Under the National Law, all students enrolled in an approved program of study, or who are undertaking clinical training in a health profession, must be registered as a student with their respective National Board.

Students must be registered prior to the commencement of their approved program of study or clinical training in a health profession and will remain registered for the duration of study, or until they are no longer enrolled.

Students do not need to apply for registration. Under the National Law, the education provider is responsible for ensuring that all students enrolled in an approved program of study or who are undertaking a period of clinical training in a health profession are registered with Ahpra.

There are no fees for student registration.

Ahpra manages student registration matters on behalf of the Boards and works directly with education providers to obtain details of all students in approved programs of study who need to be registered. Ahpra will request an update of all new and existing students enrolled in an approved program of study from education providers twice a year (in March and August).

As clinical training placements in a health profession are organised on an ad hoc basis and cover a wide variety of education providers, Ahpra cannot contact education providers who take on students for clinical training placements in a health profession to request their student information. Clinical training education providers must initiate contact with Ahpra when they accept a student for a clinical placement to ensure that their student is added to the Student Register prior to the clinical training commencing.

To register students, Education providers must complete the Student Data Template (23.3 KB,XLSX) and submit their completed template via email to studentregistration@ahpra.gov.au. For further information on how to complete the Student Data template please read the User guide (216 KB, PDF).

NB: Please do not use an older version of the template as it has changed.

Why do students need to be registered?

The National Law states that students undertaking clinical training placements in a health profession must be registered in the interests of protecting the public’s safety in much the same way that health practitioners must be registered.

This enables National Boards to act on student impairment matters or when there is a conviction of a serious nature that may impact on public safety.

What is an education provider?

The definition of an education provider in the National Law is broad.

Education provider is defined as:

1. a university; or

2. a tertiary education institution, or another institution or organisation,
   that provides vocational training; or;

3. a specialist medical college or other health profession college.  

The meaning of this definition includes: 

• education providers delivering Board approved programs of study leading to registration; as well as;

• education providers, health services and other organisations or individuals who host students for clinical experience placements (clinical training) for a health profession 

All education providers must meet the requirements of the National Law in relation to student registration. 

What is an approved program of study?

An approved program of study, for a health profession means an accredited program of study:

1. approved under section 49(1) by the National Board established for the health profession; and

2. included in the list published by the National Agency under section 49(5).

For the purposes of student registration, an approved program of study refers to those programs of study that have been approved by a National Board and lead to general registration. Students enrolled in post graduate programs of study (i.e. where the student must already be registered as a health practitioner in the profession they are undertaking further education), programs of study that lead to an endorsement or removal of a notation and programs of study that lead to specialist registration are not required to be registered.

A list of approved programs of study can be found on each of the Boards’ websites.

What is clinical training?

The National Law does not provide a definition for the term ‘clinical training’. Under the obligations imposed by section 91 of the National Law it has been taken to mean any form of clinical experience (also known as clinical placements, rotations etc.) in a health profession AND where the person does not hold registration in the health profession in which the clinical training is being undertaken. This might apply, for example:

• when an overseas student arranges a clinical placement as part of the course requirements set out by the education provider in their home country

The Student Register

The National Law requires that the Student Register be kept private. Therefore it cannot be accessed like the Registers of Practitioners. As a result, Ahpra does not issue students with a student registration number.

Students, health services or other entities seeking proof of a student’s registration will need to contact the education provider with whom the student is enrolled to verify a student is registered.

Education providers are required to notify their students that they have been successfully added to the Student Register once this has been confirmed by Ahpra.

Psychology students

The Psychology Board of Australia does not register students. Students enrolled in an approved program of study that leads to registration with the Psychology Board of Australia need to apply for provisional registration.

Make a notification

Members of the public may make a notification to Ahpra about the health of a student.

Practitioners, employers and education providers are all mandated by law to report notifiable conduct relating to students.

Information on how to make a notification and the notification process can be found at Notifications & Outcomes.

For more information

Detailed information about student registration is found in: