UNE underwent an external ESOS audit by Quorum QA Australia this month. ESOS stands for the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, which sets out the legislative requirements and standards for the quality assurance of institutions offering courses to international students who are in Australia on a student visa.

All registered self-accrediting providers, such as UNE, must undertake this independent external audit every five years. The audit assessed UNE’s compliance with the National Code and included a full inspection of our campus. Once finalised, the results of the audit will be reported to TEQSA.

It is important for UNE to comply with the National Code as without this registration UNE cannot enroll international students in on-campus courses. The consequences of losing the ability to recruit and enroll international students are obvious – loss of cultural diversity and full-fee income are just the start. The audit excludes international students studying online.

In preparation for the audit, UNE conducted an internal self-review and a range of staff were interviewed by the auditors as part of the process. It was a massive undertaking and the University sincerely thank all staff for the time and effort they put into ensuring that the audit progressed smoothly.

Last week Wednesday, prior to leaving UNE, the Auditors held a debriefing session to give verbal feedback on their findings to senior staff and to answer questions. They are now compiling a draft report and will send it to UNE so that we have the opportunity to provide or clarify any additional information not finalised during the Audit. The Auditors, using this feedback, will then finalise the report and forward it to the Vice-Chancellor.

The Report will contain recommendations for compliance and/or improvement and an ESOS Working Committee will manage taking action based on the recommendations.