The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency’s annual report states 87 per cent of “low risk” providers rate its performance as good, or excellent.

The agency also reports it approved only three applications for registration from 30 lodged, however there was also “a sharp rise”, to ten, in disappointed providers appealing to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.  (The other 17 applicants gave up).

Of matters that went to the AAT in 2017-18 those resolved by the tribunal took an average 172 days, with agreed matters taking 214 days.

Chief Commissioner Nicholas Saunders says with a bigger budget in 2018-19 the agency’s “key challenge” will be “rebuilding the required resourcing and enhancing our systems to improve the agency’s performance” and consultation on implementing the government’s decision for the agency to recover costs.