Re-accreditation 20 March 2017

Renewal of course accreditation

Report on renewal of accreditation of two higher education courses of study offered by Melbourne Polytechnic.

A delegate of TEQSA has renewed the accreditation, under section 56 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (the TEQSA Act), of the following higher education courses of study offered by Melbourne Polytechnic for a period of four years from the date of decision:

• Bachelor of Information Technology
• Associate Degree of Information Technology

TEQSA has, under subsection 53(1) of the TEQSA Act, imposed two conditions on the accreditation of the above courses of study.

Condition 1

Melbourne Polytechnic must arrange for an independent and external review of student attrition within the Bachelor of Information Technology and the Associate Degree of Information Technology. This external review must include consideration of a possible correlation between student attrition and English language entry requirements. The external review must culminate in a report developed and signed by the independent external reviewer. Melbourne Polytechnic must obtain TEQSA's approval of the reviewer and the review's terms of reference before making an appointment. The report arising from the review must be provided to TEQSA and Melbourne Polytechnic simultaneously and not later than 30 September 2017. Within four weeks of receipt of the report on its attrition Melbourne Polytechnic must provide to TEQSA:

a) a copy of the minutes of the Academic Board meeting which record the Academic Board's response to the report

b) a proposed implementation plan to address the recommendations in the report.

Condition 2

Melbourne Polytechnic must provide to TEQSA:

a) a report on its student performance that:

i. compares and contrasts progression and completion rates and grade distributions at an aggregate level between students enrolled in the revised first year of the courses and the previous cohort. Calculations must be based on the methodology set out within the TEQSA Risk Assessment Framework (Version 2.1).

ii. identifies actions recommended by the Academic Board in response to student performance and an analysis of the effectiveness of those actions.

b) evidence by way of meeting minutes that the report has been considered by the relevant Melbourne Polytechnic governing bodies which includes any action in response to the report.

This report is due to TEQSA by 31 March 2018.

The course accreditation covers delivery at all Australian sites.

Main Reasons for the Decision

TEQSA considers that the decision to apply conditions to Melbourne Polytechnic's application for accreditation of two courses of study is consistent with the basic principles for regulation in Part 2 of the TEQSA Act, as Melbourne Polytechnic is at risk of not complying with a number of the Threshold Standards. TEQSA considers that the risks of non-compliance with the Threshold Standards involve a number of matters that may affect Melbourne Polytechnic's capacity to manage and deliver its higher education awards.

• The broad issues which relate to the Bachelor of Information Technology and the Associate Degree of Information Technology include:

  a) Provider Course Accreditation Standards (PCAS) 1.2 in relation to the existence of robust internal processes for design and approval of the course of study.

  b) PCAS 2.1 in relation to the overall resourcing of course of study.

  c) PCAS 2.4 in relation to the provision of accurate and current information and advice about the course of study is provided to prospective and current students.

  d) PCAS 3.2 in relation to ensuring admission criteria are designed to ensure that all students admitted are sufficiently competent in the English language to be able to achieve the course learning outcomes.

  e) PCAS 5.5 in relation to benchmarking against similar accredited courses.