Starting a private higher education institution in Australia runs through eight stages in a fixed order: form the entity, build the governance, design and externally review the first course, recruit the academic staff, secure the resources and finances, lodge the application, receive TEQSA's decision, and then, if you want international students, register on CRICOS. In my experience the whole road from decision to a domestic registration decision takes eighteen to twenty-four months and the regulator's own fees for one course exceed $175,000 before any consultant, staff or facility cost.
This article walks the road stage by stage, with the time and cost markers at each, drawing on fifteen years of TEQSA registration work with founders of private providers. It is written for someone who has the idea and the capital and wants to know what starting a private higher education institution actually involves.
Stage one: the entity
TEQSA registers a legal entity, not a brand or a campus. The entity is usually an Australian company limited by shares or by guarantee, and its constitution needs to say what it is for, how its governing body is constituted, and how academic governance relates to corporate governance. Registration under Part 3 of the TEQSA Act 2011 requires, among other things, that the applicant and each person who makes or participates in making decisions affecting its affairs is a fit and proper person, so the ownership and directorship structure should be settled before anything else is built.
In my experience this stage takes one to three months if the founders are decisive. The common error is to use an existing trading company with an unrelated history, or an RTO entity whose constitution was never written for higher education. Both create work later. A clean entity with a purpose-written constitution is cheaper in the end.
Stage two: governance before anything else
The governing body must exist and be operating before the application is lodged, because TEQSA assesses its operation, not its design. That means a corporate board with independent members who have relevant expertise, an academic board or equivalent with authority over academic matters and external academic membership, a delegations schedule, a conflicts register and minutes showing real decisions. Standards 6.1 to 6.3 of the Threshold Standards describe what is required, and the governance readiness work is the part founders most consistently underestimate.
Build the boards in months two to four and have them meet from then on. Every later stage (course approval, staff appointment, policy adoption, the decision to lodge) should pass through them and be minuted. This is the non-delegation principle in practice: consultants advise, boards decide, and the record must show it.
Stage three: the first course
A prospective provider applies for registration and accreditation of at least one course at the same time. The course must be designed to the relevant AQF level, mapped from learning outcomes to units to assessment, externally reviewed by a discipline expert, and approved by the academic board on the basis of that review. Our article on what TEQSA looks for in a new course sets out the detail.
A course design, external review and academic board approval cycle takes three to four months in my experience, and it cannot start until the academic board exists. Founders often want to lodge with three or four courses. I usually advise one, or two closely related ones, because each course adds to cost and assessment time and because a registered provider can accredit additional courses later at a much lower fee.
Stage four: staff
The Threshold Standards require academic staff qualified to at least one AQF level above the course they teach, or with equivalent professional experience, and a course leader with a record in the discipline. TEQSA assesses named people with CVs and signed agreements, not position descriptions. A provider that names a dean who has agreed to join "on registration" is asking the assessor to take it on trust, and assessors do not.
Recruit the academic lead and at least the first-year teaching staff before lodgement, and put them on contracts that commence on registration or earlier. This costs money before revenue, which is why stage five matters.
Stage five: resources and finances
TEQSA looks for premises, library and learning resources, student information systems and student support arrangements that exist or are contracted, and for financial projections that show the provider can sustain itself through the first registration period on realistic enrolments. The financial case should assume no revenue for the period from lodgement to decision and modest enrolments for the first two intakes, because that is what usually happens. Our full checklist of what new providers must prepare lists the documents assessors expect at this stage.
Stage six: the application
TEQSA asks prospective providers to engage with it at least six months before applying, and its application guide for prospective providers describes the submission. Preparation, from the point where governance, course, staff and resources are all in place, takes six to twelve months in my experience. The fees are set on TEQSA's application-based fee schedule: for initial registration, $14,700 at the preliminary stage and $112,100 at the substantive stage, and for each course accredited with initial registration, $6,000 and $44,700. Fees exclude GST and are not refundable.
The fastest route through assessment is a complete, specific, true application that generates no requests for further information. Since TEQSA moved from Confirmed Evidence Tables to self-assurance, generic applications drafted from templates or by AI tools have drawn more scrutiny, not less. Our step-by-step guide to getting registered with TEQSA covers lodgement itself.
Stage seven: the decision
TEQSA's indicative timeframes provide for a preliminary assessment within thirty days of lodgement and a substantive decision within nine months of commencement, extendable by a further period of up to nine months, with notification within thirty days of the decision. Registration may be granted for up to seven years, and TEQSA's initial registrations policy contemplates five years with capacity to extend. Our analysis of how long TEQSA registration takes explains where the time actually goes.
Conditions are common on a first registration. They are not a failure; they are instructions about what TEQSA will look at next, and a new provider should treat them as the first entries in its compliance calendar.
Stage eight: CRICOS and the first intake
Domestic students can be enrolled as soon as registration takes effect. International students on visas require CRICOS registration, which is a separate application made after higher education registration. TEQSA's own estimate is that delivery to international students begins at least thirty-five months after first engagement with the regulator, and its CRICOS guidance suggests recruiting at least five months before delivery. The initial CRICOS fee is $24,500. Founders planning an international-facing institution should therefore plan for three years from first contact to first international cohort, and for a domestic-only first year in the meantime.
What starting a private higher education institution costs, in one place
Adding the markers up: one to three months for the entity, two to three more for governance, three to four for the course cycle running alongside staff recruitment, six to twelve for preparation and lodgement, and up to eighteen months of assessment. That is the eighteen to twenty-four months I quoted at the start, with the longer end common. On regulatory fees alone, registration with one course is $177,500 before GST, and our breakdown of how much TEQSA registration costs adds the staff, facility and advisory costs that sit around it.
My view: sequence is the whole game
The founders who reach registration fastest are not the ones with the most money. They are the ones who build the stages in order, let each stage produce its own evidence, and resist lodging before the institution actually exists. Starting a private higher education institution is the construction of a working organisation that a regulator then inspects, and inspection goes well when there is something real to inspect.
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Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to start a private higher education institution in Australia?
In my experience eighteen to twenty-four months from the decision to proceed to a domestic registration decision, and around three years to a first international cohort once CRICOS registration is added.
What does TEQSA registration cost for a new provider?
The regulator's fees for initial registration are $14,700 at the preliminary stage and $112,100 at the substantive stage, plus $6,000 and $44,700 for each course accredited at the same time, all excluding GST and non-refundable.
Do we need a governing body before we apply?
Yes. TEQSA assesses the operation of corporate and academic governance, so both boards must exist, have appropriate independent and external members, and have a record of meeting and deciding before lodgement.
Can a new provider enrol international students immediately?
No. CRICOS registration is a separate application lodged after higher education registration, and TEQSA estimates delivery to international students starts at least thirty-five months after first engagement with the regulator.
Dr Brendan Moloney is CEO of Darlo Higher Education, Australia's largest specialist TEQSA consultancy. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, is a Cambridge University Press author on governance in higher education, and has advised private providers on registration and course accreditation for more than fifteen years.