Non-ICT bachelor plus an ICT master's: ACS assesses the master's on its own thresholds, and asks for the bachelor anyway

“Will an IT master’s fix a non-IT bachelor?” is the single most expensive question in this space, and ACS answers the mechanical parts of it in public. The short version: the master’s is assessed against its own published thresholds, which are higher than the bachelor’s thresholds; the non-ICT bachelor must still be submitted; and the two do not add together into a combined ICT percentage. What the pair changes is which row of the experience table you land on.

Nothing here predicts an outcome. ACS states it cannot give one in advance — “A formal assessment needs to be completed before any advice is provided” — and separately that “ACS is unable to provide career or employment advice to applicants.”

The postgraduate thresholds are different numbers

For a bachelor’s, ACS’s bar is 33% ICT for a standard three-year award. For postgraduate awards it is higher:

“A 2-year postgraduate qualification (such as Graduate Diploma or Masters) is deemed as having a major in computing if at least 50% of the qualification is ICT. Qualifications are assessed to the equivalent of a 2-year AQF Level 8 and above award. An Australian postgraduate degree with only 12 subjects requires at least 67% ICT content.”

Half, not a third. And two-thirds where an Australian postgraduate degree is twelve subjects long — which is exactly the shape of a great many coursework master’s programs marketed at career changers.

ACS then sets three structural minimums for Australian postgraduate qualifications:

• “A minimum of 3 semesters or at least 1.5 years of full-time study”;
• “At least 2 semesters or 1 year of full-time equivalent ICT content”;
• “A minimum of 12 units or subjects”.

Those three lines are a specification you can hold a course handbook against before you enrol. A one-year, eight-subject master’s marketed as an IT conversion does not meet them, whatever it is called. Note the second line in particular: a full year of full-time-equivalent ICT content, in a degree that must itself run at least a year and a half.

The minor floor also applies at this level: “A Bachelor’s or higher qualification is assessed as a minor when the IT content is at least two-thirds of the requirements for a major”, and below the minor, “All qualifications with IT content less than the requirement for a Minor are assessed as non-IT qualifications.” The full set of thresholds by award type is in what ACS counts as an ICT major.

The bachelor is not hidden, and it is not averaged in either

ACS repeats this in the FAQ on every pathway page: “If you have a master’s degree, please provide all documentation for the underpinning qualifications, such as a bachelor’s degree, including non-ICT qualifications.” The document requirements page says the same: “If you have a Post Graduate degree, please also provide documents for the undergraduate qualification.”

(If the underpinning bachelor is a three-year overseas award, the separate question of how ACS handles it is covered in a three-year Indian BCA or B.Sc (IT) under ACS.)

There is no published rule that pools the ICT content of a bachelor’s and a master’s into one percentage, and no published rule that a non-ICT bachelor drags a master’s down. Each qualification is assessed against the thresholds for its own type. What ACS does publish is that the outcome for a qualification is recorded as Major, Minor or Insufficient, and that the experience table keys off the qualification level and its ICT content — with “Bachelor’s degree or higher” as a single band.

That last point is the practical one. A master’s assessed as having an ICT major sits in the same table row as a bachelor’s with an ICT major. It does not buy a lower requirement than a bachelor’s would; it buys entry to the row at all.

What the pair does to the experience requirement

From ACS’s General Skills eligibility table, for a qualification at “Bachelor’s degree or higher”:

IT content	Relevance to nominated occupation	Relevant IT work experience required
IT Major	Closely related	2 years, completed in the last 10 years, OR 4 years completed anytime in past work history (whichever provides the earliest skill date)
IT Major	Not closely related	4 years anytime in past work history
IT Minor	Closely related	5 years in the last 10 years, OR 6 years anytime in past work history (whichever provides the earliest skill date)
IT Minor	Not closely related	6 years anytime in past work history

Compare that with the alternative available to someone whose only qualification is non-ICT: the RPL pathway, one row, “6 years of relevant work experience”, with the degree not assessed at all (details).

So the honest framing of the decision is a trade between six documented years and a qualification that clears the postgraduate thresholds. The date arithmetic that follows — including the rule that experience completed before the qualification does not produce Skilled Employment — is in ACS does not deduct years, it sets a date. That rule is the one most likely to surprise a career changer, because it means the years you worked in your old field, and even relevant IT years worked before finishing the master’s, do not sit on the far side of the date.

The second test still applies to the master’s

Clearing 50% or 67% ICT is the major test. It is not the whole test. ACS: “In all educational qualifications, at least 65% of the IT content must be closely related with sufficient core content to the nominated occupation (ANZSCO) to meet the suitability criteria.”

A broad generalist Master of Information Technology can clear the major bar on total ICT content and then be assessed as not closely related to a narrowly specified occupation. That is the difference between the first and second rows of the table above — two years versus four.

The Australian-qualification route

If the master’s is Australian, a second pathway exists. ACS’s Post Australian Study pathway requires “An Australian bachelor’s degree or higher with a major in IT or Data Science that is closely related to the nominated occupation and ANZSCO code”, plus one of: “One year (365 days) of relevant work experience in Australia or overseas, completed after the completion date of the relevant degree OR completion of the ACS Professional Year”. ACS marks the condition explicitly: “This skills assessment requires an Australian qualification to meet suitability.”

One year, or a Professional Year, rather than two. ACS’s published fee for this pathway on 2026-09-03 is $1,136, against $1,498 for General Skills; the fee page shows a bare dollar sign without naming a currency and ACS “reserves the right to review and amend its fees and charges”, so check it on the day.

ACS also flags a boundary it does not police: “To qualify for a visa, you need to fulfill the Australian Study Requirement (ASR). ACS does not assess your compliance with the ASR – this will be determined by the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA).” That is a separate rule set with its own conditions, run by a different body. We do not cover it; the Department of Home Affairs does, and so do registered migration agents.

Where accreditation helps, and where it does not

ACS states the limit first, in the same words on every pathway page: “Accreditation has no impact on the outcome of your ACS Migration Skills Assessment application or the assessment of a qualification… Although ACS does provide accreditation for certain ICT Courses, it does not guarantee a suitable migration skills assessment outcome.”

The narrower thing it does do is on the Qualifications evidence page: “Australian qualifications that have been accredited by the ACS will generally meet the IT, Data Science or Cyber Security major criteria. Please note that this does not guarantee that the qualification will be assessed as being closely related to the nominated occupation and ANZSCO code.”

So accreditation speaks to the major test and not to the 65% closely-related test, and not at all to experience. If you are choosing a conversion master’s, that is still worth something — but read the accreditation list’s own rule about timing: “The Accreditation Period refers to the year of study commencement. A student who commenced a program within the Accreditation period will on graduation be considered to have completed an accredited program.” It is the year you start that matters, and ACS notes that “Only active accredited programs are listed on this page”, with historical accreditation available by email. We do not publish a count of programs on that list; ACS does not publish one either.

For qualifications recognised under the Seoul Accord, ACS says they “may be considered to have met the ICT major criteria”, subject to being “comparable to the ACS accreditation standards”, with assessor discretion and the onus of proof on the applicant to supply evidence from the Seoul Accord’s own listing.

What to do with this

1. Before enrolling, hold the course handbook against the three Australian postgraduate minimums: 1.5 years of study, one full-time-equivalent year of ICT content, twelve units.
2. Count subjects. If the Australian program is twelve subjects, the bar is 67% ICT, not 50%.
3. Decide the occupation you would nominate before choosing electives, because the 65% closely-related test is measured against it.
4. Gather your non-ICT bachelor’s certificate and transcript now — ACS requires them, and a missing or undated undergraduate document stalls the file.
5. Weigh the whole thing against the six-year RPL route honestly, using the date rule rather than a raw count of your years.

This site summarises published rules. It is not ACS, it does not perform assessments, and it does not predict outcomes — ACS decides on the documents you submit. ACS states a skills assessment is needed “BEFORE you can apply for a visa”; for visas, see the Department of Home Affairs or a registered migration agent.