The regulator has hard-to-meet standards when it comes to uppity private providers who want to go up a grade.
The higher education regulator announces that the Australia College of Theology is now a university, following a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and required consultation with State Ministers.
TEQSA chief Adrienne Nieuwenhuis congratulates the college on becoming Australia’s 44th university – which does not quite communicate how hard the agency worked to stop it, starting in 2016 when the College applied for a promotion.
What then happened is set out in the Administrative Review Tribunal decision setting aside TEQSA’s 2022 decision that the College could be a University College but not the next big thing. It was a case of close but no canonical cigar, with the regulator agreeing that the College met all the legislated standards to be a University, except for research. The College thought it did and asked the tribunal to decide.
The issue was whether the College met the standard of conducting research that is at, or above, “world standard” in discipline(s) where it can self-accredit courses, (without venturing into the governance weeds of what the definition, “using best practice indicators” actually means).
According to TEQSA, this a big deal indeed, explaining its reasons in a submission that public sector universities would support.
“A university is not just simply a benefit that [an] institution pays its dues and is entitled to as of right. It is a very, very significant status which reflects on Australia’s place in the international community, both in teaching and in research.”
And having decided the College did not make it on the metrics, it called on experts to set out its methodological case before the tribunal – the College called witnesses of its own to argue that it did.
It was a long, complex process, as arcane as it was undoubtedly expensive, there was a KC on one side and two SCs. AAT member Lee Benjamin reports their arguments in considerable detail to explain his finding for what is now the University of Theology.
But buried in his reason is a judgement on respondent TEQSA’s behaviour.
“In my view, the Respondent has subjected Australian College of Theology to an unnecessarily protracted engagement process. The Respondent appears to have made a decision early on to oppose ACT’s application. The Respondent’s objections have, over this process, repeatedly changed in shape and scope to a point where the Respondent’s position before the Tribunal is almost unrecognisable from its initial position. Going forward, the Respondent should be better resourced to undertake its important work in a more timely manner.”
As for the exclusivity of the club – there are members now that might have trouble in bad years meeting the research threshold, of world standard work in three teaching fields.
