Dirk Mulder on movement in pathway colleges

By Dirk Mulder

There’s been change over the last 12 months, with maybe more to come

Pathway colleges, those feeder institutions that are often on campus and offer alternative entry tracks to university via Cert IV and diplomas, are important to universities, particular in the international space. While alternate tracks for entry are often thought of as second chances for domestic students, international cohorts use them very differently.

Foreign country awards often don’t align perfectly to Australian Qualification Framework awards, so having entry points that cater for these anomalies are important. And there are big bucks for those involved.

Navitas grew out of the IBT group, which started with one college aligned to Edith Cowan University now has a market capitalisation of AU$2.09B with 33 teaching sites globally and a swag of other business. Yes, big bucks.

For most universities, these partnerships are long term, well known and established. However, the relatively consistent world of pathway college and university contracts has seen some change over the past 12 or so months.

Relative newcomer UP Education which previously had a handful of New Zealand universities in its stable has expanded to now include three Australian universities in their portfolio – Tasmania (early 2019), Swinburne (late 2019), and Charles Darwin (late 2019).

Navitas recently lost out to Kaplan for University of Newcastle’s Services in late 2020.

Flinders U has parted ways with Study Group, after a six-year relationship, seeking to broaden options with multiple providers.  The International Study Centre will remain open until June, 2021.

And according to scuttlebutt on the Stirling Highway in Crawley, the latest change will see UWA bringing in a new provider. They went to tender in late 2019 and with COVID-19 there has been a delayed process to review. CMM understands an announcement is imminent.