About
The MyUniversity website is the Australian Government’s online higher education information service that provides students with access to clear, meaningful and transparent information about Australia’s higher education providers. This interactive, searchable website displays course information and fees, student demographics, student satisfaction and graduate destination survey results, student services and campus facilities, and research student numbers and scholarships.
Australian higher education
The Australian Government is primarily responsible for public funding of higher education. The Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education is responsible for administering this funding and for developing and administering higher education policy and programs. Up to now, the Australian Government, the state and territory governments and educational institutions have shared responsibility for higher education decision-making, regulation and governance. However, at the end of January 2012 the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency took over the responsibility for regulation currently held by the state and territory governments.
The Australian higher education sector
The higher education sector in Australia is comprised of universities and other higher education providers. A ‘higher education provider’ is a university, a non-university self-accrediting provider or a non-self-accrediting provider. All of these higher education providers are subject to quality and accountability requirements.
The Australian Government Minister for Education must approve a higher education provider before it can receive grants and before students can receive assistance from the Australian Government under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (link opens new window).
Under the Higher Education Support Act 2003, the Australian higher education system is comprised of the following higher education providers. Note that Table C providers are not listed under the University Search and Postgraduate Research sections of the website. However, they are listed under the Course Search with the other higher education providers listed below.
Table A
| Australian Catholic University | James Cook University | The University of Adelaide | University of South Australia |
| Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education | La Trobe University | The University of Melbourne | University of Southern Queensland |
| Central Queensland University | Macquarie University | The University of Queensland | University of Tasmania |
| Charles Darwin University | Monash University | The University of Sydney | University of Technology, Sydney |
| Charles Sturt University | Murdoch University | The University of Western Australia | University of the Sunshine Coast |
| Curtin University of Technology | Queensland University of Technology | University of Ballarat | University of Western Sydney |
| Deakin University | RMIT University | University of Canberra | University of Wollongong |
| Edith Cowan University | Southern Cross University | University of Newcastle | Victoria University |
| Flinders University | Swinburne University of Technology | University of New England | |
| Griffith University | The Australian National University | University of New South Wales |
Table B
| Bond University |
| MCD University of Divinity |
| The University of Notre Dame Australia |
Table C
| Carnegie Mellon University, a non-profit organisation established under Pennsylvania law. |
| University College London (UCL), a non-profit organisation established under United Kingdom law. |
Non-university self-accrediting higher education institutions (other higher education providers)
- Australian College of Theology
- Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS)
Non self-accrediting higher education institutions (other higher education providers)
- Academy of Information Technology Pty Ltd
- Adelaide Central School of Art
- Adelaide College of Divinity
- Alphacrucis College
- Australian Academy of Design
- Australian College of Natural Medicine (t/a Endeavour College)
- Australian College of Physical Education (ACPE)
- Australian Institute of Business Pty Ltd
- Australian Institute of Management SA Division (AIM SA)
- Australian Institute of Music
- Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors Pty Ltd
- Australian International Conservatorium of Music (AICM)
- Australian Lutheran College
- Australian School of Management
- Avondale College of Higher Education
- Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School
- Box Hill Institute of Technical and Further Education
- Campion Institute Limited
- Canberra Institute of Technology
- Carrick Higher Education
- Chifley Business School
- Chisholm Institute of TAFE
- Christian Heritage College
- College of the Arts
- Colleges of Business and Technology WA (t/a Curtin College)
- Educational Enterprises Australia (Eynesbury College)
- Gestalt Therapy Brisbane
- Gordon Institute of TAFE
- Group Colleges Australia (t/a Universal Business School Sydney)
- Harvest Bible College
- Harvest West Bible College
- Holmes Institute
- Holmesglen Institute of TAFE
- Insearch
- Inspiritive
- International College of Hotel Management (ICHM)
- International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS)
- ITC Education (t/a UOW College)
- Jansen Newman Institute
- Jazz Music Institute
- John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne
- Kaplan Business School
- Kaplan Higher Education Pty Limited (t/a Murdoch Institute of Technology)
- Le Cordon Bleu Australia
- Leo Cussen Centre for Law
- Macleay College
- Marcus Oldham College
- Melbourne Institute of Business and Technology
- Melbourne Institute of Technology
- Monash College
- Moore Theological College
- Morling College
- National Art School
- National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
- Navitas Bundoora Pty Ltd (t/a La Trobe Melbourne)
- Navitas College of Public Safety
- Navitas Professional Institute Pty Ltd
- Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE
- Perth Bible College
- Perth Institute of Business and Technology (PIBT)
- Phoenix Institute of Australia Pty Ltd
- Photography Studies College (Melbourne)
- Polytechnic West
- Queensland Institute of Business and Technology (QIBT)
- Raffles College Pty Ltd (t/a Raffles College of Design and Commerce)
- SAE Institute (t/a SAE Institute and Qantm College)
- SMR Learning Services Pty Ltd (t/a New Horizons Learning Centre (Perth))
- South Australian Institute of Business and Technology (SAIBT)
- Southbank Institute of Technology
- Stott's Colleges
- Study Group Australia Pty Ltd
- Sydney College of Divinity
- Sydney Institute of Business and Technology (SIBT)
- Sydney Institute of Health Sciences Pty Ltd (t/a Sydney Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine)
- Tabor Adelaide
- Tabor College Incorporated (t/a Tabor College Perth)
- Tabor College NSW
- Tabor College Tasmania
- Tabor College Victoria
- TAFE SA
- TCOL (The College of Law)
- Technical and Further Education Commission (t/a TAFE NSW)
- The Australian Guild of Music Education
- The Cairnmillar Institute School of Psychology Counselling and Psychotherapy
- The Centre of Academic Excellence Pty Ltd (t/a Kent Institute of Business and Technology)
- The JMC Academy
- The Melbourne Institute for Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy (MIECAT)
- Think Education Group
- TOP Education Group Pty Ltd
- Vose College (t/a Vose College of Higher Education)
- Wesley Institute
- Whitehouse Institute
- William Angliss Institute
Australian Qualifications Framework
The Australian Qualifications Framework is a quality-assured national framework of qualifications in the school, vocational education and training and higher education sectors in Australia. It promotes lifelong learning and a seamless and diverse education and training system.
The Australian Qualifications Framework consists of:
- specifications for the current national qualifications that are issued by senior secondary schools, vocational education and training providers and higher education providers
- policies and guidelines covering articulation, credit transfer and recognition of prior learning
- a register of authorities that can accredit qualifications
- a register of institutions that can issue qualifications
- policies for issuing qualifications
- a governance structure for implementing the Australian Qualifications Framework and for advising Ministers, including recommendations for change.
The Australian Qualifications Framework aims to:
- provide nationally consistent recognition of students’ achievements in post-compulsory education
- provide the basis for recognition of prior learning, including credit transfer and work and life experience, to help people to move more easily between education and training sectors and between those sectors and the labour market
- integrate and streamline the requirements of participating providers, employers and employees, individuals and interested organisations
- offer flexibility to suit the diversity of purposes of education and training
- improve access to qualifications, clearly define avenues for achievement and generally contribute to lifelong learning so that people are encouraged to take part in education and training
- encourage educational institutions to provide more and higher quality vocational education and training, as well as qualifications that meet workplace requirements and vocational needs, thus contributing to national economic performance
- promote national and international recognition of qualifications offered in Australia.
The Australian Qualifications Framework 2011
The Australian Qualifications Framework Council (the governing body of the Australian Qualifications Framework) began strengthening the Australian Qualifications Framework in 2009. The revised framework was approved by the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment in March 2011 and by the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs in April 2011. Implementation began in July 2011 and all requirements need to be met by January 2015.
The revised Australian Qualifications Framework (referred to as Australian Qualifications Framework 2011) puts more emphasis on qualification design and quality assurance. It places existing qualifications within a 10-level structure: Certificate 1 qualifications are placed at Level 1 and the Doctorate is at Level 10. There are level descriptors and greatly strengthened qualification descriptors. The descriptors focus on graduate outcomes - that is, what knowledge and skills a graduate with this qualification can be expected to have achieved.
Although the new Australian Qualifications Framework has a hierarchical structure, it will continue to promote pathways in both directions. For example, a bachelor degree graduate may choose to complete an Australian Qualifications Framework diploma or Certificate III or IV to gain workplace skills. For more information, visit the Australian Qualifications Framework (link opens new window).
Further information
For more information, visit the Higher Education (link opens new window) section of the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education website.