Tribunal rebuke highlights Australian regulatory double standards

Australia’s higher education regulator has suffered a courtroom reversal over its refusal to upgrade a private college’s registration, in an illustration of the greater demands often placed on independent colleges than on their publicly funded counterparts.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has overturned a decision by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa) not to reclassify the SAE Institute – a well-regarded Navitas subsidiary focusing on creative arts education – as a university college.

SAE had appealed after Teqsa refused its 2021 application to be awarded university college status. In its determination, the AAT found that the regulator’s decision had been flawed.

In particular, the tribunal found that Teqsa had erred in comparing SAE’s student outcomes to those achieved by the handful of existing university colleges but not the dozens of mostly public institutions with full university status.

University colleges are the cream of the crop of independent tertiary institutions, but they lack the cachet of fully fledged universities – even though their student outcomes are often better, with graduates more satisfied and employed at higher rates than their university-educated peers.

Consultant and former regulator Claire Field said an institution such as SAE would inevitably struggle to match the student outcomes of the existing university colleges because it focused on the creative arts, where full-time jobs are scarce. Nevertheless, when compared with universities, SAE’s outcomes stacked up well, she said.

Ms Field said it was “incredibly strange” that Teqsa had decided to restrict its comparison to university colleges in assessing SAE’s application to be upgraded. She said the “intent” of recent changes to the provider category standards was that university colleges must be “as good as universities” in all areas apart from research. “So it’s completely obvious that you would look at universities when you make your comparisons,” she said.

Teqsa said it was reviewing the tribunal’s decision. “Because the appeal period has yet to expire, we’re unable to comment further at this time,” a spokesman said.

Joseph Anthonysz, head of Navitas’s careers and industry division, said he welcomed the college’s upgrading. “SAE has a strong regulatory history since it was founded in 1976, including more than 20 years as an Australian higher education provider,” he said. “This milestone reflects our ongoing commitment to sustained excellence.”

Late higher education reviewer Denise Bradley, whose recommendations led to Teqsa’s establishment, wanted its practices to involve “snakes” as well as “ladders” – meaning universities could be demoted if they failed to maintain the standards expected of prospective universities.  

Ms Field said this clearly was not happening, with demonstrably substandard university performance never prompting their declassification as universities. “A number of higher education providers who hold Australian university status have had conditions placed on their registration,” the AAT decision notes.

Ms Field said the tribunal’s determination would prove significant, with nine other institutions holding at least partial self-accrediting status – a “key signifier” of university college eligibility.

“With these questions about how Teqsa takes decisions and who it compares prospective university colleges with, another nine sitting in the wings will be reading this judgment with a lot of interest – including two other Navitas colleges,” she said.

The Sydney-based Navitas Professional Institute, which was likewise denied university college status, is also understood to have appealed the regulator’s decision. Mr Anthonysz said Navitas was “unable to comment on any ongoing discussions” about the institute’s status.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com