The list of 144 of the 150 “ghost colleges” including schools, the NSW Taxi Council, AusGrid and more…
Thank to Michelle Charlton, Anne Murray-Bergen, and Marcus Bingeman for sharing a report they found in the reports section of the TGA website (and clearly not one I regularly use) which generates a list of what appear to be 144 of the “150 ghost colleges”.
Given this report does not add to 150, but does contain the word lapsed as a field, I wonder if the full list of 150 might have included a small number of providers who are appealing ASQA’s decision to lapse their “ghost college”? (I have been contacted already, before publishing this article, by one CEO who is looking to appeal the ‘lapsing’ of their registration in the AAT.)[1]
The list that Michelle, Anne and Marcus generated obviously differs from the list of 87 providers whose registration was cancelled or withdrawn by ASQA in the last 12 months (see my most recent article) and which in my view is where the regulator should be focussing its attention to get rid of ‘ghost colleges’.
Sadly the list of 144 lapsed providers has many more curiosities and anomalies on it and just just more questions.
In the list of 144 lapsed providers, there are 13 international VET providers (ie with CRICOS approval in August 2023). They include two providers which are known to me and which are among the best private providers Australia has produced.
One of them is Navitas Professional Training (part of Navitas, one of Australia’s and the world’s largest private providers) and the other is the Jazz Music Institute (one of Australia’s smallest and most niche, but internationally regarded, higher education providers). They have both been operating in the higher education sector for years – and clearly have chosen to no longer enrol students in any VET programs.
It is incomprehensible to me that these two providers should be included in a list of providers which has been described by ASQA as operating “ghost colleges” that the regulator has had to close down.
The language used in the media release about these ghost colleges clearly conveys the sentiment the regulator has with respect to their work to ‘lapse’ these providers. ASQA states that other ghost colleges “must resume quality training by the end of 2024 or face deregistration. Those who don’t resume satisfactory training will be found out and action will be taken to shut them down.”
Is that really what ASQA thinks about the training delivered by providers of the quality and integrity of Jazz Music Institute and Navitas?
And what about the other supposed “ghost colleges” on the list of 144 lapsed providers – are we seriously suggesting the following entities are running ghost colleges?
- The 5 enterprise RTOs which include AusGrid (the formerly NSW government-owned electricity generator) and DNATA Airport Services
- 7 industry bodies including the Alzheimers Association of Queensland, the Australian Medical Association, the WA Prison Officers Union of Workers, the NSW Taxi Council, and the Australian College of Nursing
- 6 community-based providers and community colleges such as the Australian Migrant Resource Centre, the Central NSW Business HQ (supporting business activity in regional NSW), Coonara Community House Inc, CRANAPLUS INCORPORATED, Oak Tasmania, and Youth Futures Inc
- 12 Catholic, independent and state schools, and
- Fiji’s very highly regarded University of the South Pacific.
More than 1 in every 5 of the lapsed providers (22% or 38 RTOs) was either a community based provider, an industry association, a professional association, enterprise RTO, school or a highly regarded international university.
As for the remaining private VET providers – overwhelmingly most of them had not been approved to deliver international education in August last year.
Even amongst those that were – the fact that they had not enrolled any students in 12 months would appear to indicate they were not running a ghost college – as I’ve previously noted a “ghost college” is one where providers enrol lots of students but rarely if ever require them to turn up for classes, instead allowing students to work (often in very exploitative situations) and with the providers frequently complicit in the exploitation of the students.
Anyway, here’s the list of lapsed providers and let’s hope there’s a sensible, logical explanation for this regulatory activity, and that the regulator is doing all that it can to rid the sector of those that are genuinely operating ghost colleges.
| A.C.N. 122 289 954 PTY LTD |
| AAPC Ltd |
| Accredited Courses Australia Pty Ltd |
| Accrete Pty Ltd |
| Acro Training Group Pty Ltd |
| Activated Concepts Clinical College Pty Ltd |
| Aerosafe Risk Management Pty Ltd |
| AHO TRAINING PTY LTD |
| Alexandra Hills State High School |
| Alzheimer’s Association of Queensland Inc |
| Ambition Training Institute Pty Ltd |
| Ants Consulting Services Pty Ltd |
| APEX COLLEGE PTY LTD |
| Ausgrid Operator Partnership |
| AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS PTY. LTD. |
| AUSTRALIAN ADVANCED TRAINING ACADEMY PTY LTD |
| Australian College of Nursing Ltd |
| Australian College of Project Management Pty Ltd |
| AUSTRALIAN EMPLOYMENT & TRAINING GROUP PTY LTD |
| Australian Institute of Body Arts Pty Ltd |
| Australian International College of Language Pty Ltd |
| AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (SOUTH AUSTRALIA) INCORPORATED |
| Australian Migrant Resource Centre Incorporated |
| Australian Polytechnic Institute Pty Ltd |
| Australian Skills Development Institute Pty Ltd |
| Balance Training & Assessments Pty Ltd |
| Bedford Phoenix Incorporated |
| BETSAFE Pty Ltd |
| BLUESPARK PTY. LIMITED |
| Bluewater Aviation Pty. Ltd. |
| Brisbane Executive Security Training Pty Ltd |
| BRISTON TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PTY LTD |
| BSA Limited |
| Bull & Bear Special Assignments Pty Ltd |
| BUNDABERG STATE HIGH SCHOOL |
| Business Enterprise Centre, Central NSW Limited |
| Cantarella Bros Pty Ltd |
| CAROL DOYLE |
| Castle Personnel Services Ltd |
| CENTRE FOR CUSTOMS AND EXCISE STUDIES PTY LTD |
| Challenge National Pty Ltd |
| Charters Towers State High School |
| CHRISTOPHER THIESFIELD & ASSOCIATES PTY LTD |
| CITY COLLEGE OF SYDNEY PTY LTD |
| Coonara Community House Inc |
| Corsec Services Training PTY LTD |
| CRANAPLUS INCORPORATED |
| Diabetes Qualified Pty Ltd |
| Direct Recruitment Pty Ltd atf the Trustee for Croft Family Trust |
| Discover Training Pty Ltd |
| Dnata Airport Services Pty Ltd |
| Driveway Training Pty Ltd |
| ELECTRIX PTY. LTD. |
| Elite Earthmoving Machinery Training Services North Queensland Pty Ltd as trustee for The Brett Portelli Family Trust |
| EMERGENCY EVAC PROCEDURES PTY LIMITED |
| External Senior School Limited |
| Fire Skills Training Pty Ltd |
| GESC Pty Ltd |
| Glenden State School |
| Gomeroi Education and Training Pty Ltd |
| GREAT WESTERN COLLEGE PTY LTD |
| Hashm Pty Ltd |
| HK TRAINING AND CONSULTANCY PTY LTD |
| HVTC Pty Ltd |
| IAcquire Education and Training Pty Ltd |
| Impact Training Pty Ltd |
| Institute of Business Excellence Pty Ltd |
| INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF EXCELLENCE PTY LTD |
| International College of Management, Sydney Pty Ltd ATF ICTHM Trust |
| International Institute of Business and Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd |
| International Professionals Institute Pty Ltd |
| Invention Training College Pty Ltd |
| IRIS TRAINING INSTITUTE PTY LTD |
| Jazz Music Institute Pty Ltd |
| Kajarinya Pty Ltd |
| KD TALENT MANAGEMENT PTY. LTD. |
| KEEN TRAINING PTY. LTD. |
| KnowledgEquity Pty Ltd |
| Language Links International Pty Ltd |
| Leanne Bennett |
| Mary Francis Murray |
| Maxima Training Group (Aust) Ltd |
| MCCORRY INSTITUTE PTY. LTD. |
| Navitas Professional Training Pty Ltd |
| New Momentum Education Group Pty Ltd |
| NEWAGE GROUP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD |
| NFT Services Pty Ltd |
| Nick Hannay Pty Ltd |
| Noble Accreditation College PTY LTD |
| NSW Taxi Council Ltd |
| NutraChange Pty Ltd |
| Oak Tasmania |
| OCCUPATIONAL TRAINING SOLUTIONS PTY LTD |
| OCEANIC EDUCATION PTY LTD |
| Oddy Investments Pty Ltd |
| Omega Institute Pty Ltd |
| ONE 2 ONE SERVICES PTY LTD |
| P.A Farnsworth & P.L Farnsworth & G.J Rodella & E.J Sain |
| Pacific Flight Services Pty Ltd |
| Paull and Warner Resources Pty Ltd |
| Performance Partners Consulting Pty Ltd |
| PRADA COLLEGE PTY LTD |
| Project Management Training Australia Pty Ltd |
| Qube Learning Pty Ltd |
| RAINBOWS SENIOR FIRST AID |
| Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd |
| Registered Training Academy Pty Ltd |
| RNMC Management Services Pty Ltd as trustee for RNMC Management Services Trust |
| SAPERE PTY. LTD. |
| School of Integrated Body Therapy Pty Ltd |
| SEVEN SEAS EDUCATION SERVICES PTY LTD |
| Shah Traders Pty Ltd |
| SMAD ENTERPRISE PTY. LTD |
| Smartfutures Group Pty Ltd |
| Solutions Plus Training Ltd |
| South Coast Employment Training Pty Ltd |
| Sumeritus College Pty Ltd |
| Sydney Business Institute Pty Ltd |
| Talon Education and Training Pty Ltd |
| Tanner James Management Consultants Pty Ltd |
| The Corporation of the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane |
| The Corporation of the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane |
| The Corporation of the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane |
| The Roman Catholic Trust Corporation for the Diocese of Townsville |
| The Trustee for The Society of The Sacred Advent – St Aidan’s Trust |
| The Trustee for The Society of the Sacred Advent – St Margaret’s Trust |
| The University of the South Pacific |
| The WISE Academy Pty Ltd |
| THOMAS INSTITUTE PTY LTD |
| Ti Education and Training Pty Ltd |
| Training Synergies Pty Ltd |
| TRIUMPH TRAINING ACADEMY PTY LTD |
| TT Institute Pty Ltd |
| United Central Colleges of Australia Pty Ltd |
| Villanova College |
| WA Prison Officers Union Of Workers |
| Waves Institute Pty. Ltd. |
| Wild Geese International Pty Ltd |
| Workplace Training Centre Pty Ltd |
| Worksite Training Pty Ltd |
| Worksmart Global Pty Ltd |
| YOUR STUDY CHOICE INSTITUTE PTY LTD |
| Youth Futures Incorporated |
| ZNX (2) PTY LTD |
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[1] At a later point I will explain why I looked initially at providers whose registration had been Cancelled or Withdrawn (and why a provider can be ‘Withdrawn’ or ‘Non-Current’ but within the category of ‘Non-Current’ can also be ‘Withdrawn’), and why I think we might need an agreed understanding of the differences between ‘Lapsed’ (noting that this is interestingly not a new concept, in fact TGA appears to show the first lapsed provider was a NSW RTO in 2010!), ‘Registration was withdrawn by the NVR RTO’ and ‘Registration period was cancelled with the consent of the organisation’ if we are going to see media releases issued which describe lapsed providers as ghost colleges. For now though I have a real job and need to get back to it…
