Higher education providers will be stung with a $36,800 application fee if they want to deliver transnational education (TNE) courses, according to new fees information released by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) yesterday.
The updated Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS) sets out the new fees and charges associated with amendments that were made to the TEQSA Act at the end of 2025, which give TEQSA the power to authorise and regulate higher education courses delivered offshore.
The $36,800 fee will be charged for applications for authorisation to operate as an authorised offshore provider. That is, providers who do not qualify under the transitional arrangements in the legislation and wish to commence delivery of TNE offshore.
TEQSA operates on a cost recovery basis for quality assurance and regulatory activities, a long-standing feature of its regulatory model. According to the CRIS, the assessment of an application for authorisation as an offshore provider is costed at $36,797, forming the basis of the $36,800 application fee.
The other new TNE fee introduced by TEQSA is a $3,900 application fee to “vary or revoke a condition imposed on the authorisation of a provider as an authorised offshore provider”. The TEQSA Act gives the regulator the power to impose additional conditions on a provider’s authorisation, and according to the CRIS it will cost TEQSA $3,811 to assess these applications.
The new fees appear to sit uneasily alongside repeated signals from the Government that it wants more Australian providers to deliver courses offshore, as part of a broader strategy to reduce pressure on Australia’s onshore international student numbers amid cost-of-living and migration concerns.
While TNE has been positioned as a key diversification strategy for the sector, the combination of a $36,800 upfront application fee and a legislated assessment timeframe of up to 18 months (an initial nine months and the option of a further nine-month extension) could act as a significant deterrent for many providers considering entry into offshore delivery.
The TEQSA Act changes followed the passage of the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2025 (ELA Act) at the end of 2025. During the inquiry into the ELA Act, concerns were raised about the potential for prohibitive fees to be imposed.
TEQSA published new requirements for higher education providers seeking authorisation to deliver courses overseas on its website on New Year’s Day. However, as reported by The Koala (TKN 020126), the fees were not updated at this time.
The CRIS can be found here.
