On 23 September 2011, the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations announced a decision to introduce a new Tuition Protection Service and other related measures. The Tuition Protection Service is a single mechanism to place international students when an education provider closes, or as a last resort, to provide refunds of unexpended course fees. A number of complementary initiatives are also being introduced including:
- limiting the amount of pre-paid course fees that may be collected by providers;
- requiring some providers to keep initial pre-paid fees in a separate account until a student commences study;
- strengthening record keeping obligations; and
- establishing a national registration system which will allow the registration of providers who operate across jurisdictions.
The reforms comprise the second phase of the Government’s response to the recommendations of the Baird Review of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, which was publicly released on 9 March 2010. A Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was required for the decision to introduce the Tuition Protection Service but was not prepared at the time. This implementation RIS was prepared after the decision was made. In addition, a post-implementation review is still required within one to two years from the implementation of the decision. The RIS was prepared by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science Research and Tertiary Education and was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.
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