Establishing a uni used to take an act of a state parliament, now it takes TEQSA

Learned readers were quick to report that Avondale University College (to soon be) is not Australia’s first UC – that Charles Darwin U and U Sunshine Coast both started as university colleges, created by NT and Queensland laws.  Quite right, but Avondale will be the first created under the TEQSA legislation, (CMM yesterday).

And that isn’t all the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency can do – if Avondale qualifies over the next five years to become a full university, then TEQSA can create it.

The agency advises that its legislation doesn’t require state acts to change a provider’s category. The Higher Education Standards Framework does specify an application to become a university must have the “support” of the relevant commonwealth, state or territory government, but that does not mean legislation.