Cost recovery legislation is back in the Reps tomorrow

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency has listed its proposed full-cost recovery fees, which struck some as steep but the agency met with peak bodies and is accepting submissions until June 3 (CMM May 3 and 6). So why is the bill in parliament ahead of that? Because the fees will be imposed by regulation and not included in the legislation.  Providers can grumble all they want but when TEQSA completes consulting it can do whatever it decides it must to meet the government’s cost recovery requirement.

Which will involve some hefty hikes, according to the Independent Higher Education Association. TEQSA proposes increasing the fee for a substantive assessment for registration of higher education providers from $16 500 to $134 000, (the same activity for universities goes up from $60 000 to $134 000). “It is simply unbelievable that at a time when providers are battling their hardest to continue to deliver quality Australian education and with international student returns not expected for some time, that massive increases in regulatory imposts will be applied from the end of this year,” IHEA chief executive CEO Simon Finn says.

IHEA estimates 19 fees will increase, six will drop and seven will be unchanged.

(Michael Tomlinson explained in CMM what TEQSA is doing, here