Now that TEQSA has announced extended periods of registration, many institutions have breathed a sigh of relief. As part of our work in Governance and Compliance, we speak to many providers – usually, when they are at ‘crisis point’ and can’t see a way forward to getting their re-registration submission together in their last-minute timeframe.

Those providers, and many more, are now ‘breathing easy’ with up to three-year extensions. Celebrate, as you may, but are you merely causing problems for ‘future-you’?

Why not look at these extensions as a chance to review your process for re-registration, and make use of the next three years to organise a well-planned, low stress, high-quality submission?

Now is the time to put some continuous improvement steps in place to ensure that when the next submission comes around, either yourself or the next person in your seat, can avoid the pain. Oh, and – you may even be able to stay in the low-risk category with no conditions – a big tick!

So, what can you do now to save future-you pain and stress later?

• A Health Check: Undertake a re-registration ‘health check’. How are you really performing against the standards? Can you show the required evidence down to the granular detail?
• Ask yourself, are you really organised? Review your re-registration project plan and check why your submission was last-minute. What gaps did you miss? Where can you add extra checks and balances?
• Review your resources: Get some advice on your approach. What works well and is the best practice? Do you know what you don’t know? What areas do you need external SME support on?
• Check you have implemented recommendations: Check that you have actioned any recommendations from external reviews – course reviews, academic and corporate governance reviews, ESOS audits. Show the evidence trail!
• Check off required reviews: Make sure that you have undertaken all of your required external reviews. It may surprise you to know how many in positions of responsibility didn’t know they needed an external review of some kind. Don’t let this happen in your institution.
• Check your last TEQSA comms: Did you hear from TEQSA after your previous submission with any conditions or requirements for extra reviews? Make sure you have addressed these and documented your process for doing so.
• Talk to us! We often dream that we could work proactively on a re-registration project, providing advice early to set you up for success. Instead, we are often called in with the fire extinguisher at the 11th hour. Start early to save costs and pain.

We wish all institutions well during this unusual period and encourage you to use this time to ensure your future is designed with improvements, efficiency and consideration. We are always here to help when you need it.

Policy writing is an important part of operating your institution and staying compliant, we’ve developed a guide to help you with your policy development and updates.

Download this handy to use policy guide to make developing your policies easier.

For more information, feel free to contact us.