Schema.org for Course Pages: How Australian Universities Get Cited by AI

Why course-level structured data determines whether AI recommends your university

A prospective student in Brisbane asks Perplexity: "best university for engineering in Queensland." They are not looking for a general description of engineering education. They want a specific institution with a specific credential, ATAR requirements they can compare against their own results, and HECS-HELP eligibility so they know what the actual upfront cost is. If your course page cannot provide those signals in machine-readable form, it will not be cited — even if your engineering program is ranked in the top fifty globally.

Institutions with structured Schema.org markup achieve an average of +12 percentage points in AI visibility compared to those without (Source: Skolbot GEO monitoring, 500 queries x 6 countries x 3 AI engines, Feb 2026). Across a sample of 120 Australian institutions audited in early 2026, fewer than 17% had deployed EducationalOccupationalProgram markup on their core course pages. The Group of Eight universities benefit from extensive training-data coverage, but mid-sized universities and specialist institutions remain largely absent from AI-generated recommendations regardless of their actual course quality.

This guide covers the Schema.org types that matter for Australian course pages, explains how ATAR prerequisites and HECS-HELP pricing translate into JSON-LD, and provides implementation examples calibrated to Australian higher education conventions: credit points (not ECTS), AUD pricing, Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP), TEQSA registration, and Graduate Outcomes Survey data.

For the foundational GEO framework, see our complete GEO guide for schools. For a page-level BOFU checklist, see How to get recommended by ChatGPT for "best school for [career]".

Choosing the right Schema.org type: EducationalOccupationalProgram vs Course

Australian institutions use both terms — "course" (for a full degree program) and "unit" or "subject" (for an individual learning component) — in ways that differ from the Schema.org vocabulary. The distinction between EducationalOccupationalProgram and Course in Schema.org maps roughly onto this difference.

EducationalOccupationalProgram is the correct type for a full credential-granting degree: a Bachelor of Engineering, a Graduate Diploma of Psychology, a Master of Business Administration. It carries the properties that matter for AI citation at the degree level: educationalCredentialAwarded, programPrerequisites (where ATAR requirements live), applicationDeadline, occupationalCategory, and the offers block that encodes CSP fees, full-fee amounts, and HECS-HELP eligibility.

Course is appropriate for individual units or subjects within a degree. Most Australian universities should deploy EducationalOccupationalProgram at the degree page level (the pages students visit when comparing between institutions) and Course for unit outlines where applicable.

The practical rule for Australian institutions: if it results in a degree registered with TEQSA and appears in UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC, or TISC listings, use EducationalOccupationalProgram.

Australian-specific properties you cannot skip

Several EducationalOccupationalProgram properties require Australian-specific values that AI engines unfamiliar with the local system will otherwise misrepresent:

• numberOfCredits + creditUnit — Australian programs express credit load in credit points, not ECTS. Specify "creditUnit": "credit points". A standard four-year bachelor's is typically 192 credit points. An honours year adds 48 credit points.
• programType — Use "Bachelor", "Bachelor (Honours)", "Graduate Diploma", "Master", or "Doctoral". The Honours distinction is significant in Australian higher education and changes graduate outcomes substantially.
• applicationDeadline — Reference the relevant admissions centre: UAC for NSW/ACT, VTAC for Victoria, QTAC for Queensland, SATAC for South Australia and the Northern Territory, TISC for Western Australia. Applications through these portals follow different timelines than direct applications.
• offers.priceCurrency — Always "AUD". Provide separate pricing for CSP (Commonwealth Supported Place) and full-fee students. Include HECS-HELP eligibility in the description of the Offer block.
• programPrerequisites — ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) is the standard entry measure for most undergraduate courses. Include the ATAR cutoff or indicative entry rank and name the relevant admissions centre.
• inLanguage — Use "en-AU" to mark Australian English content explicitly.

Complete JSON-LD: an Australian bachelor's with Honours example

ATAR entry requirements, HECS-HELP eligibility, and Graduate Outcomes Survey employment data are the three data points that differentiate Australian course pages in AI responses. Here is a complete EducationalOccupationalProgram block for a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours — the most common form of engineering accreditation in Australia — ready to embed in a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag on the course page:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "EducationalOccupationalProgram",
  "name": "Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)",
  "description": "Four-year ABET/Engineers Australia-accredited Bachelor of Engineering with Honours. ATAR entry from 85. 96% graduate employment rate within 4 months (Graduate Outcomes Survey 2025). Go8 university.",
  "url": "https://www.university-example.edu.au/courses/bachelor-engineering",
  "provider": {
    "@type": "EducationalOrganization",
    "@id": "https://www.university-example.edu.au/#organization",
    "name": "University Example",
    "sameAs": "https://www.university-example.edu.au"
  },
  "programType": "Bachelor",
  "educationalCredentialAwarded": "Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) — TEQSA-registered, Engineers Australia-accredited",
  "numberOfCredits": "192",
  "creditUnit": "credit points",
  "timeToComplete": "P4Y",
  "applicationDeadline": "2026-09-30",
  "hasCourseInstance": [
    {
      "@type": "CourseInstance",
      "courseMode": "onsite",
      "name": "Semester 1 intake — full-time",
      "startDate": "2027-02-24",
      "endDate": "2030-11-30",
      "location": {
        "@type": "Place",
        "name": "Main Campus",
        "address": {
          "@type": "PostalAddress",
          "addressLocality": "Brisbane",
          "addressRegion": "QLD",
          "addressCountry": "AU"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "offers": [
    {
      "@type": "Offer",
      "name": "Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP)",
      "price": "9900",
      "priceCurrency": "AUD",
      "description": "Annual Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) fee — HECS-HELP eligible. Available to eligible domestic students."
    },
    {
      "@type": "Offer",
      "name": "International student fee",
      "price": "42000",
      "priceCurrency": "AUD",
      "description": "Annual tuition for international students (indicative 2027). FEE-HELP not available for international students."
    }
  ],
  "occupationalCategory": [
    "Civil Engineer",
    "Mechanical Engineer",
    "Software Engineer",
    "Electrical Engineer",
    "Project Manager"
  ],
  "courseMode": "onsite",
  "inLanguage": "en-AU",
  "programPrerequisites": {
    "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
    "credentialCategory": "Year 12 certificate — ATAR 85+ (varies by specialisation), UAC/VTAC application",
    "description": "Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) or equivalent Year 12 certificate. ATAR 85 or above (indicative, varies by specialisation and year). Application via QTAC. Prerequisites include Mathematics and one of Physics, Chemistry, or Engineering."
  },
  "accreditation": {
    "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
    "credentialCategory": "professional accreditation",
    "name": "Engineers Australia Accreditation",
    "recognizedBy": {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Engineers Australia",
      "url": "https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/"
    }
  },
  "teaches": [
    "Structural analysis",
    "Thermodynamics",
    "Electrical circuits",
    "Engineering design",
    "Project management"
  ],
  "financialAidEligible": "HECS-HELP (Commonwealth Supported Place), OS-HELP (overseas study), Research Training Program (for HDR)",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.4",
    "bestRating": "5",
    "ratingCount": "612",
    "description": "Student satisfaction rating — Good Universities Guide 2026"
  }
}

What each block does for AI citation

• offers as an array encodes both the CSP fee and the international fee in a single block. AI engines can extract both figures and surface them when answering "how much does engineering cost at [university]" for domestic and international students separately.
• programPrerequisites carries the ATAR entry requirement as a typed, structured object. A prospective student asking "what ATAR do I need for engineering at [university]" receives a citable, specific answer rather than a generic response.
• hasCourseInstance with a startDate anchors the program to an intake cycle. AI engines with real-time access (Perplexity, Gemini) weight time-relevant structured data more heavily.
• accreditation with recognizedBy pointing to Engineers Australia's site allows AI engines to cross-reference the claim against an authoritative external source — reducing hallucination risk on accreditation queries.
• aggregateRating with a named source (Good Universities Guide) gives AI engines a verifiable satisfaction signal rather than an unattributed number.
• occupationalCategory targets the "best university for [career]" query family — the highest-intent query pattern in Australian undergraduate recruitment.

Encoding ATAR requirements and HECS-HELP in structured data

ATAR and HECS-HELP are the two most frequently queried attributes by Australian domestic students comparing undergraduate courses. Both are systematically under-represented in structured data across Australian university websites.

ATAR in programPrerequisites

The ATAR is an Australian-specific ranking system with no direct international equivalent. AI engines trained on global datasets frequently misrepresent it or substitute equivalent measures from other countries. Structured markup that explicitly names the ATAR prevents this substitution.

For courses with variable ATAR requirements by specialisation, list the range:

"programPrerequisites": {
  "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
  "credentialCategory": "ATAR",
  "description": "ATAR 80–92 depending on engineering specialisation (Mechanical: 80, Civil: 83, Electrical: 87, Software: 92 — indicative 2026 entry). Subject prerequisites: Mathematics Methods and one science subject."
}

For courses that accept alternative entry through portfolio, mature-age entry, or TAFE pathway:

"programPrerequisites": {
  "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
  "credentialCategory": "Year 12 certificate or equivalent",
  "description": "Standard entry: ATAR 75+. Alternative entry pathways available: TAFE diploma with relevant field, mature-age applicants over 21 (special entry), portfolio entry for creative programs. Contact UAC/VTAC for pathway assessment."
}

HECS-HELP and CSP fees in offers

Commonwealth Supported Places represent the primary funding mode for most domestic undergraduate students. Including CSP fees and HECS-HELP eligibility in your offers block is one of the highest-value additions to Australian course page markup. Queries like "is [course] HECS-HELP eligible" and "what is the HECS fee for engineering in Australia" are high-intent and currently poorly served by AI responses for most institutions.

The national HECS-HELP contribution amounts are set by the government and band-classified. Reference your band classification in the description field:

"offers": {
  "@type": "Offer",
  "name": "Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP)",
  "price": "9900",
  "priceCurrency": "AUD",
  "description": "Annual CSP student contribution amount — Band 2 (AUD 9,900 for 2027, indexed annually). HECS-HELP eligible for Australian citizens, permanent residents, and eligible New Zealand citizens. Full-fee domestic: AUD 38,000/year."
}

The comparison table AI engines extract most reliably

Every Australian course page should include a structured comparison table. Tabular data is the format AI engines extract with greatest reliability. The following template is calibrated to the attributes most frequently queried in Australian higher education:

Every row is a potential citation anchor. A student comparing universities for engineering in Queensland who asks Perplexity "which Queensland universities have Engineers Australia accredited degrees" gets a direct, citable answer from the accreditation row. A student asking about HECS-HELP gets the fee and eligibility information from the CSP row without needing to click through.

Using Graduate Outcomes Survey data as a citation signal

The Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) is Australia's national graduate outcomes measurement instrument, administered annually across all registered higher education providers. Its employment rate and median salary data represent some of the most credible, independently verifiable outcome data available for Australian courses — and AI engines can cross-reference it.

Graduate Outcomes Survey data belongs in two places in your markup:

In the description field of EducationalOccupationalProgram:

"description": "Four-year Engineers Australia-accredited degree. 96% employed or in further study within 4 months of graduation (Graduate Outcomes Survey 2025, n=287). Median starting salary AUD $72,000 (GOS 2025). Go8 university, ranked 45th globally for engineering (QS 2026)."

In occupationalCategory context with sourced figures: The occupationalCategory array names graduate roles. Combine it with sourced salary data in the description to give AI engines the quantified outcome signal:

"description": "... Graduates typically enter roles as Civil Engineers (median salary AUD $68,000, GOS 2025), Software Engineers (AUD $78,000, GOS 2025), and Project Managers (AUD $82,000, GOS 2025)."

AI engines prioritise cited, quantified, methodologically attributed figures over generic outcome claims. "Excellent graduate employment outcomes" is not citable. "96% employed within 4 months, n=287, Graduate Outcomes Survey 2025" is.

Five markup mistakes Australian institutions make

Mistake 1: Using generic "price" without distinguishing CSP and full-fee

A single price field on an Australian course page is ambiguous and creates genuine misinformation risk. Domestic students on CSP contribute approximately AUD $9,900/year for an engineering degree; full-fee domestic students pay approximately AUD $38,000; international students pay AUD $42,000 or more. An AI engine with a single ambiguous price value will either hallucinate the correct split or present a figure with no context. Use an array of Offer objects, each clearly labelled.

Mistake 2: Omitting ATAR in programPrerequisites

ATAR is the primary query filter for prospective Australian undergraduates. A student with an ATAR of 82 asking ChatGPT "which engineering degrees can I get into" needs ATAR data in structured form to receive accurate filtering. Without structured ATAR data, AI engines either omit your program from filtered recommendations or present a generic "varies by specialisation" response that is useless at the decision stage.

Mistake 3: No TEQSA registration reference in provider markup

TEQSA registration is the Australian equivalent of degree-granting authority. AI engines that evaluate institutional credibility look for this signal. On your EducationalOrganization block (the provider entity referenced in course page markup), include:

"hasCredential": {
  "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential",
  "credentialCategory": "TEQSA registration",
  "recognizedBy": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency",
    "url": "https://www.teqsa.gov.au/"
  }
}

This cross-reference allows AI engines to verify institutional legitimacy against the TEQSA public register.

Mistake 4: No admissions centre reference in applicationDeadline

Australian applicants use different admissions centres depending on their state: UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC, TISC. An applicationDeadline with no admissions centre context is incomplete. A student in Melbourne asking about a Victorian university needs VTAC deadline information specifically. Reference the relevant centre in the description of your applicationDeadline field or in programPrerequisites.

Mistake 5: Stale Graduate Outcomes Survey data

The GOS publishes annually. Course pages that reference 2023 employment rates when 2025 data is available are presenting outdated information that AI engines will, over time, weight down relative to institutions with current data. Update GOS figures on your course pages and in your JSON-LD each time new GOS results publish. Include the survey year and sample size (n=) every time you cite an employment figure. For a broader discussion of how AI engines weight LLM signals for school recommendations, see our article on LLM signals used in school recommendations.

Validating and maintaining your markup

Validation steps

1. Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org) — Verify JSON-LD syntax and that all property names exist in the Schema.org hierarchy. Run on every course page after deployment.

2. Rich Results Test — Google's tool identifies properties present but incomplete, which prevent rich result eligibility.

3. Content consistency audit — Every value in your JSON-LD must exactly match what appears on the visible page. CSP fee in markup must match CSP fee on page. ATAR cutoff in markup must match ATAR cutoff on page. Discrepancy constitutes structured cloaking and will reduce trust across your entire domain.

4. Annual GOS refresh — Set a recurring task for when GOS data publishes each year. Update employment rates, salary figures, and sample sizes across all course pages.

5. Admissions cycle refresh — At the start of each admissions season, update applicationDeadline for all courses across all relevant admissions centres.

For a systematic approach to monitoring your AI visibility changes after markup deployment, see our guide on ChatGPT and Perplexity visibility KPIs for schools.

FAQ

Should we mark up courses offered in both on-campus and online modes separately?

Yes. Use a separate hasCourseInstance block for each delivery mode: "courseMode": "onsite", "courseMode": "online", and "courseMode": "blended" for hybrid offerings. Australian universities increasingly offer full online equivalents of their on-campus degrees. AI engines that receive a query specifying "online engineering degree Australia" need to find "courseMode": "online" in your markup to recommend your online offering — a prose description of your online option will not be reliably extracted.

How do we handle trimester versus semester structures in hasCourseInstance?

Reference the structure explicitly in the courseSchedule or description field of your hasCourseInstance block. Trimester universities (UniMelb, ANU, and others that use trimester or quarter systems) should specify: "description": "Trimester structure — 3 trimesters per year, approximately 12 weeks each." Semester universities should specify: "description": "Semester structure — Semester 1 (February–June), Semester 2 (July–November)." This information is frequently queried by international students planning study timelines.

Does WAM (Weighted Average Mark) belong in structured data?

Not as a standalone property — Schema.org has no wam property. However, WAM context belongs in your content and in the description fields of your markup. For postgraduate programs that use WAM as an admission requirement, include it in programPrerequisites: "A WAM of 65 or above in an undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline." For courses where postgraduate admission requires a WAM-based credential class, state the requirement explicitly rather than referencing "credit average" or "distinction average" without the underlying scale.

How does this markup interact with the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles?

Schema.org markup on course pages does not engage the Privacy Act 1988 or the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) — it describes the course, not individual students. The APP obligations arise when your website collects personal information through enquiry forms, chatbots, or application processes associated with the course page. Ensure that any data collection mechanism linked from a marked-up course page complies with APPs 3, 5, and 11 (collection, notification, and security), and that your privacy collection notice is current and accessible. For a broader treatment of privacy compliance in Australian higher education recruitment, see our guide on school accreditation and AI citations.

Schema.org EducationalOccupationalProgram markup is the most direct technical path for Australian universities to convert course pages from unstructured text into AI-citable entities. ATAR entry requirements, HECS-HELP eligibility, Graduate Outcomes Survey employment data, and Engineers Australia accreditation are all attributes that AI engines are equipped to extract, cross-reference, and cite — but only when encoded in structured data that makes them machine-readable.