Re-registration and re-accreditation 28 September 2016

Renewal of registration and accreditation

Report on renewal of registration and accreditation of JMC Pty Limited

TEQSA has renewed the registration as a higher education provider, under Section 36(1) of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Act 2011 (TEQSA Act), of JMC Pty Limited (JMC) until 31 December 2019 in the provider category of Higher Education Provider.

TEQSA has, under subsection 32(1) of the TEQSA Act, imposed two conditions on the registration of JMC as a higher education provider.

Condition 1:

JMC to report annually on 31 January until further notice on implementation of the Action Plan developed in response to TEQSA's summary of findings. The report must provide documentary evidence of action taken and consideration by the governing body and Academic Board, including:

• Risk Framework including both academic and non-academic risk areas (the framework itself to be submitted by 31 January 2017)
• New Strategic Plan (the plan itself to be submitted by 31 January 2017)
• New Learning and Teaching Plan (the plan itself to be submitted by 31 January 2017)
• Self-Review of the Academic Board
• Academic Policies and Procedures
• Improved processes for monitoring, review and improvement, including across campuses
  
  • student performance data such as attrition, progression and completion rates, by entry pathway, mode of study and place of study
• Professional development and scholarship activities of all staff (the policies and procedures to be submitted by 31 January 2017)
• JMC Benchmarking Framework
• Workforce profile, including reports for each campus on the number of staff employed, position, qualification level relative to the course taught.

Condition 2:

JMC to submit its policy register which contains the status, origin date, last review date, next review date, and date of approval of all policies and procedures (academic and non-academic) by 31 January 2017, and evidence of ongoing implementation each year on 31 January until further notice.

TEQSA has also renewed the accreditation, under section 56 of the TEQSA Act, of the following higher education courses of study offered by JMC until 31 December 2019:

• Bachelor of Creative Technology (Audio Engineering and Sound Production)
• Associate Degree of Audio Engineering and Sound Production
• Diploma of Audio Engineering and Sound Production.

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

Condition 1:

By 31 January 2017, JMC must complete its planned review of the courses including a thorough review against AQF level 5, 6 and 7 requirements, by a committee including at least two independent experts in the field of education, with the particular academics to be approved by TEQSA. The review must include consideration of the TEQSA external expert report, TEQSA draft summary of findings, and include the revised unit outlines and a summary of the changes made to the versions of units submitted to TEQSA in April 2015.

Condition 2:

JMC to submit approved policies/procedures relating to the admission criteria for the courses, covering standard admission requirements, special admission (mature age and other), and English language requirements as per Provider Course Accreditation Standards Section 3 by 31 January 2017.

Condition 3:

JMC to report on admission decisions by education qualification, other criteria, or non-academic criteria for all courses over the last 2 years by 31 January 2017.

Main Reasons for Decision

As part of the renewal of registration and accreditation process, TEQSA has assessed the applications submitted by JMC against the Threshold Standards. The scope of the assessment included all its Australian sites.

TEQSA found that JMC meets the Threshold Standards overall, and that many elements of the required governance and policy frameworks are in place. JMC has reinforced its capability to further review and develop these frameworks and to ensure they are implemented consistently.

TEQSA considers that the decision to apply conditions to JMC's registration and accreditation is consistent with the basic principles for regulation in Part 2 of the TEQSA Act, as JMC is at risk of not complying with a number of the Threshold Standards.

• The broad issues which relate to JMC's registration include risks relating to:

  a) the corporate governing body effectively monitoring, developing and implementing mitigating strategies to address identified critical risks

  b) the corporate governing body approving a current strategic plan that guides management decision making and through which actual performance and outcomes are measured against key performance indicators

  c) corporate and academic governance arrangements effectively quality assuring its higher education operations through systematic monitoring, review and improvement, and maintaining academic standards

  d) human resources being managed to ensure effective professional development of its personnel and that academic staff are active in scholarship that informs their teaching

  e) use of benchmarking and feedback to improve its higher education operations

  f) maintaining appropriately qualified personnel to manage and provide academic leadership for its higher education operations

  g) effective development, implementation and review of all policies and procedures.

• The broad issues which relate to JMC's course accreditations include risks relating to:

  a) ensuring compliance of unit and course learning outcomes to the Qualification Standards

  b) providing appropriate engagement by students in intellectual inquiry consistent with the nature and level of all units being taught and the expected learning outcomes

  c) admissions criteria ensuring that students have adequate prior knowledge and skills to undertake the courses of study successfully.