A TEQSA registration checklist for a new provider has ten parts: a legal entity with a governing body that meets Standard 6.1, an academic board with real authority under Standard 6.3, a policy suite that is in use rather than on file, at least one fully designed course, qualified staff who are engaged and available, learning resources and facilities, financial projections that survive a slow start, fit and proper person disclosures for every relevant person, a concise self-assurance report, and an evidence index that lets an assessor find every claim. If any one of those is missing at lodgement, the application will stall on a request for further information.
This article walks through each part in prose, in the order I recommend preparing them, and says what assessors read for in each. It reflects fifteen years of TEQSA registration work with private providers and TEQSA's own application guide for prospective providers, which every applicant should read in full. The step-by-step process itself, from first engagement to decision, is covered separately in the TEQSA registration application process step by step.
Entity and corporate governance
Start with the company. TEQSA registers a legal entity, so the applicant needs a constitution that allows it to deliver higher education, an ABN, and a governing body whose composition and powers are written down. Standard 6.1 of the Threshold Standards requires that body to have the independence, expertise and authority to direct the provider, which in practice means independent members with relevant experience, a delegations schedule, a conflicts of interest register, and a record of meetings that shows decisions being made.
The item most often missing is the record. A board that was constituted three months before lodgement has three meetings' worth of minutes, and those minutes usually show adoption of documents rather than discussion of them. Assessors read the minutes first. If the checklist has one item to start early, it is the board, meeting properly, at least twelve months out.
Academic board and academic governance
Standard 6.3 requires academic governance with responsibility for and authority over academic quality. The checklist item is an academic board with terms of reference that give it the power to approve courses and to decline to, an external chair with no financial relationship with the provider, external academic members, and a reporting line to the corporate board. Below it, a course committee or equivalent that does the detailed work.
What the assessor reads for is operation. The academic board must have approved the course in the application, on the basis of an external review, and the minutes must show it asked questions before it did. An academic board that met once to approve everything on the same day the policies were adopted is a structure built for the assessor rather than for the provider, and it is read that way. How to assemble the board is set out in how to build an academic board TEQSA will accept.
The policy suite, in use
Every domain of the Threshold Standards implies policies: admission, credit, progression, assessment, academic integrity, grievances, wellbeing and safety, diversity and equity, staff qualifications, records, and information for students. A new provider needs each of them approved by the right body, published where students can find them, and reflected in procedures that staff follow.
The trap here is volume. A suite of forty policies downloaded from a template library and adopted in one resolution tells the assessor nothing about the provider. A suite of fifteen, each of which the relevant manager can explain and each of which has a procedure and a form behind it, is evidence. TEQSA's guidance notes indicate what it expects in each area, though guidance notes are not themselves Threshold Standards. The evidence side of this is explained in what TEQSA expects: key evidence and documentation explained.
The course
At least one course must be accredited with the registration, and it needs to be complete. That means learning outcomes written to the AQF level descriptors, a unit-by-unit structure with outcomes mapped to course outcomes, an assessment scheme that demonstrates the outcomes and is secured against generative AI at defined points, an external review by a qualified academic from another institution, benchmarking against comparable courses, and approval by the academic board with the external review before it.
In my experience a course design, external review and academic board cycle takes three to four months if the people are ready. Course accreditation with initial registration costs $6,000 for the preliminary and $44,700 for the substantive assessment per course, so a single strong course is the right starting point for most new providers.
Staff
Standard 3.2 requires academic staff qualified at least one AQF level above the course they teach, or with equivalent professional experience, with a current scholarly profile, in sufficient numbers to deliver the course. The checklist item is a staffing plan naming the course coordinator and the academic staff for the first two years, with CVs, evidence of qualifications, and signed agreements rather than letters of intent.
Assessors also look for the academic leadership around the staff: a senior academic responsible for teaching, a scholarship policy that shows how staff will remain current, and a professional development plan. At the site visit, TEQSA interviews the people named. If they cannot describe the course, the staffing section fails regardless of the CVs.
Learning resources and facilities
Standards 2.1 and 3.3 require facilities, infrastructure, learning resources and educational support appropriate to the course. For a new provider that means a lease or licence for premises, a learning management system, library and database access sufficient for the course's level, IT support, and student support services including academic skills, wellbeing and, where relevant, disability support.
The item most often thin is the library. A bachelor degree needs access to scholarly databases in its field, and a reading list of textbooks is not a library. Consortium or contracted access is acceptable under Standard 5.4 provided the contract exists and the provider retains control, and both must be in the evidence.
Finances
Standard 6.2 requires financial viability and sustainability. The checklist item is a financial model with projections for at least three years, built on realistic enrolment assumptions, with evidence of the capital available to fund the period before the provider reaches break-even. TEQSA's initial registration fees, $14,700 for the preliminary and $112,100 for the substantive assessment on the current fees schedule, sit inside that model, as do course fees and any CRICOS costs to come.
Assessors read the assumptions, not the totals. A projection that assumes a full first intake, international students in year one and no attrition is a projection that will be questioned. One that shows the board has stress-tested a half-capacity domestic cohort and can still fund operations is one that answers the question before it is asked.
Fit and proper persons
Section 21 of the TEQSA Act requires TEQSA to be satisfied that the applicant and each person who makes or participates in making decisions affecting the whole or a substantial part of its affairs is a fit and proper person. The checklist item is a complete declaration for each director, senior executive and substantial owner, covering compliance with the law, financial record, management history, prior dealings with regulators and any other matter bearing on public confidence.
The word that matters is complete. An omitted bankruptcy, disqualification or regulatory finding against a previous entity, discovered by TEQSA during assessment, damages the application far more than the matter itself would have with an explanation. Disclose everything, with context.
Self-assurance report and evidence index
Since TEQSA retired Confirmed Evidence Tables for higher education registration, the application turns on a self-assurance report and an evidence index. The report is the provider's own account, kept short, of how it meets each domain and how it knows; for renewal TEQSA caps it at ten pages, and the same discipline serves a new applicant. The index maps every claim in the report to a document in the evidence, with the document's date, author and approving body.
This is where the evidentiary bar has risen rather than fallen. A report that describes intentions is not self-assurance. A report that says what the provider does, cites the minute or record that shows it, and identifies where it is still improving is. The report should be written by the provider's own people and adopted by the board, and an assessor can tell the difference between that and a generic document drafted at volume.
Using the TEQSA registration checklist
Work through the checklist in the order above, because each part depends on the last: the board approves the policies, the academic board approves the course, the course determines the staff and resources, and all of it feeds the financial model and the self-assurance report. In my experience the preparation takes six to twelve months and a domestic registration decision follows eighteen to twenty-four months after the decision to proceed. The wider roadmap for a new institution is set out in starting a private higher education institution in Australia: TEQSA's roadmap.
The fastest path is a complete, specific, true application that avoids requests for further information. A checklist only helps if every item on it is evidenced in the present tense, because that is the tense the Threshold Standards are written in.
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Frequently asked questions
How long before lodgement should a new provider start preparing?
TEQSA recommends engaging with it at least six months before applying, and in my experience preparation takes six to twelve months, with governance started earliest so that the board and academic board have a record of operation.
Does TEQSA still use Confirmed Evidence Tables?
Not for higher education registration. TEQSA has moved to a self-assurance report with an evidence index for registration applications, though Confirmed Evidence Tables are still used for CRICOS.
How many courses does a new provider need to apply with?
At least one course must be accredited with initial registration. In my experience a single well-designed course is the strongest starting point, with further courses accredited at the lower fee for registered providers afterwards.
What happens after lodgement?
TEQSA completes a preliminary assessment within 30 days, then a substantive assessment with a decision within nine months of commencement, extendable by up to a further nine months, and notifies the applicant within 30 days of the decision.
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.