Prospective higher education providers update - October to December 2016

1. Overview

Since the inception of TEQSA in January 2012, 122 organisations have submitted or indicated their intention to submit applications for initial registration to TEQSA.

Applicants for registration as higher education providers are subject to a two-stage process: preliminary assessment and, if the requirements of section 19 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 have been met, substantive assessment. Registration applications must include applications for accreditation of one or more course(s) of study, and are therefore assessed against the full Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards), as opposed to the reduced requirements for renewal of registration applications under TEQSA’s Core+ model of assessment.

2. Prospective higher education providers

This report, drawn from data captured on 31 December 2016, provides summary statistics of the status of applications and prospective Higher Education Providers (HEPs), organised by:

• pre-submission applicants (pre-sub) – those who have indicated an intention to submit an application for registration but are yet to do so; and
• post-submission applicants (post-sub) – those who have submitted registration applications, the assessment of which has not yet been finalised.

It is intended that this report be published quarterly.

Note: withdrawals of applications can occur at any stage of the assessment process.

3. Statistics of note

• As of 31 December 2016 there were 86 prospective providers to the higher education (HE) sector which currently consists of 168 registered providers.
• Of the 86 prospective providers, 50 are registered training organisations (RTO).
• During Q2 2016/2017, 10 new organisations applied, or advised of their intention to apply, to enter the HE sector. Of these 10 organisations, 80% identified as an RTO – an increase from 30% in Q1 2016/2017.
• The number of applications under assessment grew from 24 in Q1 2016/2017 to 35 in Q2 2016/2017, an increase of 45%.

4. Quarter overview

The following statistics in the ‘Quarter overview’ represent the numbers of providers in each status/decision category during the relevant quarter. Note: these figures are not cumulative (e.g. From 3 October – 31 December 2016 (Q2) 10 new providers were recorded with TEQSA).

5. Prospective provider breakdown

The following statistics in the ‘Prospective provider breakdown’ represent the number of providers in each status/category as at the relevant quarter end date. Note: these figures are cumulative (e.g. as at 31 December 2016 (end Q2) a total of 51 prospective providers were recorded at pre-submission stage with TEQSA).

Overall they provide an indication of some of the characteristics of entities that are intending to apply or have applied to TEQSA to be registered as HEPs in the 2016/2017 financial year thus far.

5.1  Prospective providers assessment status

The following table represents the number of prospective providers that have indicated an intention to submit an application for registration but are yet to do so (pre-submission), as well as those providers that have submitted an application for registration (post-submission). The table includes a breakdown of the current stage their application is at within TEQSA’s assessment process.

5.2   Prospective providers that are RTOs[1] by State[2]

The following table represents the number of prospective providers in each category (pre-submission and post-submission) that have identified the entity that is applying for registration as a Higher Education provider is already registered as an RTO. These numbers are further broken down to indicate the location of each prospective provider that is already registered as an RTO by state.

5.3   Prospective providers that are RTOs with current CRICOS registration

The following table represents the number of prospective providers in each category (pre-submission and post-submission) that have identified the entity that is applying for registration as a Higher Education provider is already registered as an RTO and is currently registered on CRICOS to deliver courses to international students.

5.4 Most prevalent Broad FoE[4] course applications

The following table represents the type of courses, identified by Broad Field of Education (FoE), that are most common in the proposed/submitted course accreditation applications from prospective providers in each category that accompany a proposed/submitted application for registration.