This page summarises key information relating to material change notifications, and seeks to address key questions including:
- What is a material change notification?
- Which changes or events require a notification?
- What information should be submitted in support of a notification?
- What does TEQSA do with material change notifications?
What is a material change notification?
Section 29 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act) requires that registered higher education providers must notify TEQSA of events that happen or are likely to happen that will significantly impact the provider’s ability to meet the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 (Threshold Standards) and/or that require the National Register to be updated in respect of the provider.
A ‘material change notification’ is how providers ensure timely disclosure of such events to TEQSA.
Notification must be given no later than 14 days after the day that the provider would reasonably be expected to have become aware of the event.
Notifications do not constitute an application for approval to implement changes, as approval is not required. However, TEQSA will follow up if it considers there is a risk of non-compliance with standards in the Threshold Standards.
Providers with authorisation to offer or confer Australian higher education awards for one or more offshore provided Australian courses of study should be mindful of the notification requirements under section 44G of the TEQSA Act relating to offshore delivery. Information about notifications for offshore delivery arrangements are outlined on TEQSA’s website:
Providers subject to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act) and National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (National Code) should be mindful of any notification and application requirements arising from changes in circumstances under the ESOS Act.
Information about notifications and approvals required under the ESOS Framework, including timeframes for reporting changes, are outlined on TEQSA’s website:
Providers should use the relevant CRICOS change form to notify TEQSA of any changes that require notification under the ESOS Act.
Which changes or events require a notification?
Changes that require an update to the National Register
Providers must notify TEQSA of any of the following changes that require an update to the National Register:
- any change to the name of the legal entity
- any change to the Australian Business Number (ABN)
- any change to a business or trading name
- any change to the details of the provider’s head office and/or website address
- any change to the Chief Executive Officer of the provider, or equivalent
- any change to the Principal Contact Officer of the provider
- any change to the name of a course accredited by TEQSA.
Events that significantly impact a provider’s ability to meet the Threshold Standards
Providers are also required to notify TEQSA if an event happens or is likely to happen that will significantly affect the provider’s ability to meet the requirements of the Threshold Standards. What constitutes ‘significant’ is informed by the individual circumstances of the provider. It is the responsibility of each provider to decide whether an incident significantly affects its ability to comply with the Threshold Standards.
When deciding whether a change or event requires reporting to TEQSA, providers should consider:
- The impact of the event:
Who and what has been, or may be in the future, impacted by the event? For example, does the change pose a risk to students, or the provider’s financial viability? - The risks and potential consequences:
Does the event pose a risk to the provider’s ability to meet the Threshold Standards or continue its current operations? - The nature of the change:
Is the event a result of, or could it lead to, more systemic or ongoing risks?
In general, any event, critical incident or emergent risk which may significantly impact a provider’s capacity to reasonably uphold their quality of education, governance arrangements, financial viability or wellbeing and safety of students and staff should be reported to TEQSA.
Providers should notify TEQSA where they are unsure about the impact the event or change will have on their ability to comply with the Threshold Standards or the appropriate response to the impact or change.
Where providers become aware of non-compliance with the Threshold Standards, these instances should also be reported to TEQSA along with the actions being taken to rectify the non-compliance and prevent repeated breaches.
TEQSA considers that the following are some examples of events that may significantly impact a provider’s ability to comply with the Threshold Standards. This is not a definitive list and is indicative only.
Providers who are unsure of whether a notification is required may contact TEQSA via materialchanges@teqsa.gov.au for further advice.
| Notification likely required | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate governance | Events that will significantly affect the ability of a provider’s governing body to remain accountable for, and exercise competent governance oversight over, the provider’s operations (Section 6.1) | Corporate governing body membership: Provider A recently decided on changes to its governing body membership. The composition of the governing body may no longer comprise an appropriate mix of qualified, experienced and suitable personnel, limiting its ability to competently oversee the provider’s operations and attend to key governance functions. |
| Third-party delivery: Provider B is entering into a new third-party delivery arrangement. Delivery of a course at arm’s length from the provider may significantly affect the governing body’s ability to oversee all aspects of course management, delivery and student support and manage the heightened risks to compliance with the Threshold Standards. | ||
| Events that will significantly affect a provider’s ability to comply with legislative requirements (Standard 6.2.1a) | Regulatory compliance: As part of routine internal quality assurance practices, Provider C audits its new payroll system and finds evidence of wage underpayments. There is uncertainty around when the system will be fully functional, as early investigative efforts fail to uncover the root cause, and a manual workaround cannot be identified to support future payments and rectify existing errors. Inconsistent and incorrect staff payments have and will continue to significantly affect the provider’s ability to comply with legislated workplace obligations and its industrial agreement. | |
|
Change of ownership or control: There will be a change of ownership at Provider D, with the new owner entering the higher education sector for the first time. In this instance, the owner’s limited knowledge of, and experience in delivering Australian higher education may significantly impact its capacity to understand and comply with the TEQSA Act and Threshold Standards. TEQSA considers that any changes in ownership or effective control will likely affect a provider’s governance arrangements, strategic direction and operations and should be reported to TEQSA as a material change. |
||
| Financial viability and sustainability | Events that will significantly limit a provider’s ability to maintain viability of the entity and its business model (Standard 6.2.1c) | Financial standing: A major shareholder in Provider E enters administration or is otherwise in significant financial trouble. This significantly compromises the provider’s ability to apply sufficient financial resources to sustain the quality of higher education currently offered and continue its operations. |
| Academic governance | Events that will significantly affect a provider’s ability to exercise competent academic oversight over, and assure the quality of, teaching learning, research, and research training (Standards 6.3.1 and 6.3.2) | Academic governing body membership: There will be a change to the chair of Provider F’s Academic Board. Turnover of academic leadership may compromise the ability of the provider to effectively oversee and maintain the integrity and quality of teaching and learning, and supervision of junior academic staff. |
| Student recruitment and admission | Events that will significantly affect the recruitment of students who are appropriately qualified for entry into higher education (Standard 1.1.1) | Admission practices: Provider G discovers that an offshore delivery partner has admitted students with qualifications that do not meet its admissions requirements. The inconsistent application of the provider’s admissions requirements will continue to significantly impact its ability to ensure admitted students are suitably qualified for their course of study, and to maintain the integrity of the course and the resulting qualification. |
| Events that will significantly affect the accurate representation of a provider and its courses of study (Standard 7.1.1) | Provider representation: Provider H identifies misleading content in a widespread, public-facing document. The publication of misleading guidance material significantly impacts the provider’s ability to accurately represent its courses and provide prospective students with the correct information to enable informed decision making. | |
| Student participation, support and experience | Events that significantly affect a provider’s ability to foster a safe learning environment and ensure the wellbeing of students (Section 2.3) | Safety and wellbeing: Provider I investigates an incident involving student wellbeing and discovers failures in policies and processes designed to protect students. Absent or ineffective preventative controls significantly impact the provider’s ability to ensure student safety and wellbeing and increased the potential for recurrent incidents. |
| Information security: A cybersecurity incident has occurred at Provider J, presenting a risk to staff and student information. The absence of timely and appropriate strategies to mitigate ongoing and future risks to information security will significantly impact the provider’s ability to maintain secure and confidential information systems (as required by Standard 7.3.3) and mitigate harm to its staff and students. | ||
| Student attainment | Events that will significantly affect a provider’s ability to ensure the integrity of student attainment and that qualifications are awarded legitimately (Standard 1.5.1) | Academic integrity: Provider K discovers failures or deficiencies in the measures designed to prevent and detect academic integrity breaches. This will continue to significantly impact the provider’s ability to ensure the integrity of student attainment and ensure that qualifications are awarded only to those students who have demonstrated achievement of the course learning outcomes. |
| Events that will significantly affect a provider’s ability to obtain and maintain professional accreditation, where accreditation is required for graduates to be eligible to practise (Standard 3.1.5) | Professional accreditation: Provider L offers a course that requires accreditation by the relevant professional accreditation body for graduates to be eligible to practise in the field. The professional accrediting body identifies material concerns with the course design and placement arrangements and advises the provider to rectify all outstanding issues, or professional accreditation will not be granted/renewed, or will be significantly limited or changed. Any potential limitations on or loss of professional accreditation will compromise the provider’s ability to maintain professional accreditation of the course where accreditation is required for graduates to be eligible to practise. | |
| Research | Events that will significantly impact a provider’s research culture and the integrity of research outputs (Section 5.2) | Research misconduct: An allegation of research misconduct is made against Provider M. The provider investigates the allegation and finds there has been a failure of research integrity assurance measures which will continue to significantly impact the ability of the provider to ensure the quality and integrity of its research outputs. |
| Workforce capability | Events that will significantly impact a provider’s ability to ensure a sufficient number of adequately skilled, qualified, or experienced staff to deliver quality higher education (Section 3.2) | Workforce planning: Provider N experiences a significant increase in new enrolments. Without adequate workforce planning in place, the provider does not have enough appropriately skilled, qualified and experienced staff to deliver its courses and maintain the quality of teaching and student support. |
| Staff qualifications: Provider O identifies substantial deficiencies in the adequacy or qualifications of the academic staffing profile for a particular course. Systemic failures of internal recruitment and staffing policies and procedures will continue to significantly impact the provider’s ability to ensure the staffing profile is equipped to lead students in intellectual inquiry suited to the course and its expected learning outcomes. |
Notifying TEQSA of other important changes or events
Substantial operational changes or significant near misses may not be determined by a provider as ‘significantly impacting’ its ability to meet the requirements of the Threshold Standards but may indicate that compliance with the Threshold Standards was or is currently at risk.
TEQSA strongly encourages providers to report these matters as material change notifications, as they present an opportunity for providers to demonstrate the proactive identification and governance of risk, and the maturation of risk management and self-assurance practices.
Major changes to courses accredited by TEQSA
Fundamental changes to a course of study accredited by TEQSA may require a new course accreditation application.
Providers without self-accrediting authority should notify TEQSA of significant planned changes to any courses accredited by TEQSA. The notification should include the rationale used to assure the provider that the changes do not constitute a new course of study.
Early notification of planned changes enables TEQSA to consider the changes and determine whether the course is changed so fundamentally that it amounts to a ‘new’ course of study requiring an accreditation application.
The factors that TEQSA may consider reaching a decision on whether the changes necessitate accreditation as a new course of study are outlined in TEQSA’s guidance note:
TEQSA accredited courses in teach out
Where a course of study accredited by TEQSA is being taught out, and no students will be enrolled in the course beyond the current accreditation expiry date, providers should notify TEQSA of the decision to let the course expire.
Further information on expiring a course and the related notification requirements are outlined on TEQSA’s website:
How to submit a notification and what to provide
Material change notifications are to be submitted via email to materialchanges@teqsa.gov.au.
In reviewing material change notifications, TEQSA is primarily interested in a provider’s identification of risks, as well as the governance systems and processes used to manage risk as part of ongoing self-assurance practices.
It follows that a high-quality material change notification ought to include a clear summary of the event/s and/or change/s that includes:
- timeframes outlining when the change or event happened or will happen, and whether it is temporary or ongoing
- the Threshold Standards to which the change or event relates
- the anticipated or actual scale of the impact on students, staff, or provider reputation
- for unanticipated events, how the event was detected and whether there was failure of existing controls to detect and mitigate risk
- for anticipated changes, an overview of the internal approval process
- the steps that have or will be taken by the provider to mitigate or manage the risks or consequences associated with the change or event
- the steps taken by the provider to assure itself of the appropriateness of its response measures to mitigate and manage the identified risks and ensure continued compliance with the Threshold Standards
- improvements to risk management and self-assurance processes that have or will be implemented to better identify, mitigate, and manage future risks.
TEQSA encourages providers to include supporting evidence demonstrating that the relevant body (e.g. the corporate governing body, the audit and risk committee, or Academic Board) has been advised of the event and has overseen the provider’s response.
Other useful supporting evidence may include specific information related to the change or event. For example, contractual agreements relating to a new third-party arrangement or teach out plans for a TEQSA-accredited course that is to be discontinued.
TEQSA may request additional information to help us to contextualise and understand a material change notification.
In the event of multiple changes or events taking place at the same time, only one consolidated notification is required.
What does TEQSA do with material change notifications?
Where a material change notification is well-documented and provides assurance that the risks associated with a change or event are being effectively managed, there may be no need for further action by TEQSA.
In other instances, the timely notification of a change or event allows TEQSA to identify potential issues or concerns at an early stage and, where appropriate, provide further advice or guidance to providers to ensure continued compliance with the Threshold Standards.
TEQSA is confident that most providers are willing and able to be compliant, or take actions to achieve compliance, when risks or concerns are identified.
While TEQSA’s principal objectives are to build provider self-assurance capability and facilitate voluntary compliance, TEQSA will, where necessary, take proportionate regulatory action to mitigate or manage identified risks and ensure a return to compliance.
In determining a proportionate regulatory response, TEQSA may consider a range of factors, including the:
- scale and nature of the risk and its (potential) impacts on students, staff, or the sector
- actions taken or proposed by the provider to address the risk or non-compliance
- provider’s engagement and willingness to cooperate with TEQSA, and
- provider’s regulatory history (including any repeated breaches of compliance and/or failures to comply with previous regulatory actions taken by TEQSA).
Inform regulatory activities
Material change notifications provide TEQSA with important insights about provider identification and management of risks. The notifications contribute to an overarching picture of provider self-assurance maturity which informs TEQSA’s approach to its other regulatory activities.
In this context, material change notifications present an opportunity for providers to demonstrate continuous improvement and maturation of risk management and self-assurance approaches.
A well-documented notification also enables TEQSA to better understand and address any concerns we receive in relation to the event or change.
Monitor sector risks
The information collected through material change notifications also provides insight into risks that may impact multiple providers or the sector, supporting TEQSA to develop and share guidance on systemic and emerging risks with providers.
Dual sector providers
TEQSA is aware that dual-sector providers are also required to notify ASQA of material changes and that ASQA has different reporting requirements. TEQSA and ASQA are working together to try and minimise the difference in the reporting requirements between the 2 regulators.
Contact
To submit a material change notification, please email materialchanges@teqsa.gov.au.
If you have any questions about the material change notification process, please email providerenquiries@teqsa.gov.au.