On Friday, the Department of Education published a new Factsheet – Student cohorts exempted from the National Planning Level. The new Factsheet confirms a new student cohort excluded from the National Planning Level are “Students affected by provider closure or loss of accreditation”.
The Factsheet says:
“Under certain circumstances within the ESOS Act, a student may move to another provider when their existing provider is unable to deliver their course. For example, this might occur because the provider closes, or loses the professional accreditation required to deliver the course. This includes activations of the Tuition Protection Service. In these circumstances, students are excluded from the National Planning Level”.
The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) has previously predicted up to 300 colleges will close due to the imposition of enrolment caps. Clarifying this exclusion is important for those providers who will be accepting students due to a provider closure.
The Factsheet now categorises two cohorts as “excluded” from the National Planning Level:
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence-sponsored students
- Students affected by provider closure or loss of accreditation
While it provides some minor details about the other cohorts “exempted” from the National Planning Level (ie from enrolment caps):
- Primary and secondary school students
- Standalone English-language course students
- Higher degree by research students
- Non-award course students
- Australian Government sponsored scholars
- Foreign government scholarship holders
- Transnational education students
- Pacific and Timor-Leste students
Note that this nuance of “exempted” and “excluded” is new, as previously the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence-sponsored students had appeared in the list of exempted cohorts.
The new factsheet can be found here.
The Koala has previously covered the other Factsheets released by the Department of Education (TNE in TKN 241024, Pacific and Timor-Leste and Foreign Government in TKN 021024)
