The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has announced the cancellation of two vocational education and training (VET) providers and has issued notices of intent to cancel qualifications awarded to former students of both providers. One of these providers was CRICOS-registered and had been allocated indicative enrolment caps under the now-doomed Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024.
The registration of CRICOS-registered provider International Gills College Australia Pty Ltd (Gills College), trading as Elite College Australia and/or Sterling Business College, has been cancelled, alongside the registration of International Institute of Education and Training Pty Ltd (IIET) trading as EDU VET.
In addition to cancelling the registration, ASQA has issued notices of intent to cancel 3577 qualifications and/or statements of attainment for the period of 7 January 2022 to 21 December 2023, relating to 3364 former students. ASQA notes that not all qualifications/statements of attainment are impacted.
According to ASQA, the decision was made following compliance investigation findings that Gills College had issued qualifications without adequate assessment, and did not ensure students had successfully satisfied all requirements prior to issuing VET certification.
“That’s 3,577 qualifications which the regulator says should be cancelled but meanwhile if the international student caps legislation in the ESOS bill had been passed by the Senate the provider would have had a cap of more than 600 students (if they’d won an appeal of their cancellation decision). Terrible news for the students who studied with both providers,” said respected industry expert Claire Field, Claire Field & Associates.
Gills College was to have been allocated 611 new overseas student commencements (NOSC) for 2025, according to the list of proposed indicative enrolment caps for vocational education and training (VET) providers issued by the Government back in September. This was despite being one of 12 providers at the time that was fighting a cancellation decision by ASQA in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Field raised concerns about this during one of the hearings held by the Senate Committee inquiry into the ESOS Amendment Bill, saying “in a bill focused on integrity, we’ve got a relatively high number of places going to providers who the regulator doesn’t think should be teaching students”.
The Department of Workplace Relations (DEWR) was questioned by Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi about this and at the time, DEWR’s Anna Faithfull, Deputy Secretary, Skills and Training, said that caps had been allocated on the “basis of due process” and the NOSCs of those providers who were ultimately suspended or deregistered would be “returned to the reserve pool”.
It’s worth noting that in further questioning about how the reserve pool would work, DEWR did not have an answer. This was on 2 October, less than three months before enrolment caps had been due to be implemented.
Factsheets on ASQA’s decisions are available here.
