In order to offer and confer higher education awards in Australia, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act) requires that a higher education provider must be registered with TEQSA.
Registered higher education providers in Australia are published on the TEQSA National Register.
Entities that advertise a higher education award when they are not registered with TEQSA undermine Australia’s higher education system, because the quality has not been assured by TEQSA. These entities can also have detrimental impacts on students who unwittingly enrol and undertake courses, with the expectation of receiving a recognised higher education award at completion. We refer to these entities as unregistered entities.
Unregistered entities are often brought to our attention by registered providers or students.
There are a range of regulatory responses that we may take, depending on the type of entity, whether it is within our remit and whether there is a breach of the TEQSA Act.
As a first step, we engage with the unregistered entity to outline our concerns and ask the entity to take appropriate action to address these concerns. We may also advise the entity that if they do not take appropriate action, we may publish their details on the TEQSA website.
List of unregistered entities
The entities listed below are not registered with TEQSA as a higher education provider. This means that they are not registered to offer or confer higher education awards in Australia.
TEQSA has decided to publish the details of the below unregistered entities, after taking into consideration any response from the entity, to inform students about the unregistered status of these entities1.
| Name of entity | Course(s) advertised | Entity’s website(s) | Date details of entity published on TEQSA website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Name: College for Educational and Clinical Art Therapy |
Diploma in Educational and Clinical Art Therapy | arttherapycourses.com.au | 21 December 2021 |
| Business name: International College of Celebrancy |
|
www.collegeofcelebrancy.com.au www.celebrancy.com iccdiplomas.com |
21 December 2021 |
|
Business name: |
|
www.royalart.com.au | 21 December 2021 |
Entity details will remain published on this webpage until TEQSA considers that the risks are mitigated.
Information for students
When selecting a higher education provider, there are some key steps you can take to ensure you are well-informed, including:
- checking TEQSA’s National Register for registered providers and courses accredited by TEQSA
- checking the provider’s website – this should display the provider’s registration number or provide information on its registration status, for example, identifying themselves as registered.
If you are undertaking study with an unregistered entity, it is important that you understand that the entity is not registered to offer a higher education award and you will not be awarded a higher education qualification on completion of your study. If you believe you have been misled about the registration status of the entity and/or the award upon completion, your local state and territory consumer protection agency (sometimes called ‘consumer affairs’), can provide you with information about your rights.
If you have a concern about an unregistered entity, you may also wish to raise a concern with us via our online form.
Notes
- We make no comment that any particular entity published in this list is in breach of the TEQSA Act.