Barque Institute Pty Ltd and Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

The case of *Barque Institute Pty Ltd and Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency* concerned an application for registration as a higher education provider. The applicant, Barque Institute Pty Ltd, sought registration, but the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) deemed its application refused. Deputy President Bernard J McCabe heard the matter.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether Barque Institute Pty Ltd satisfied the Threshold Standards for registration as a higher education provider, specifically concerning financial viability and sustainability, and corporate and academic governance. The court also considered whether any identified shortcomings could be remedied through the imposition of conditions or undertakings. The Threshold Standards relevant to this case were the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2011, which applied due to the timing of Barque's application.

Deputy President McCabe found that while Barque had made determined efforts to establish an infrastructure for policy development and review, and that some issues might be addressed by conditions and undertakings, significant concerns remained. Specifically, the court was not satisfied that Barque met the Provider Registration Standards 2.1 and 2.2 relating to financial viability and sustainability, nor Standard 3.7 concerning academic governance. The court concluded that these particular shortcomings were unlikely to be successfully addressed by conditions or undertakings alone.

Consequently, the court affirmed the deemed decision of the Agency to refuse registration.