How much does TEQSA registration cost? In application fees alone, a new provider seeking initial registration with one course pays $14,700 for preliminary assessment and $112,100 for substantive assessment, plus $6,000 and $44,700 for the course, a total of about $177,500 before any discount. But the fees are the smallest part of the answer. The real cost of becoming a higher education provider is the cost of building one: governance, academic staff, a course, resources and premises that meet the Threshold Standards before you can apply, and that is usually several times the fee.
This article sets out the current fee schedule, the costs that sit behind it, and what pushes the total up. It draws on fifteen years of TEQSA registration work with private providers, most of whom underestimated the second category and were surprised by the third.
What are TEQSA's application fees?
TEQSA operates on a cost-recovery basis, and its application fees are published on its website. For 2026, the principal figures for a new provider are a preliminary assessment fee of $14,700 and a substantive assessment fee of $112,100 for initial registration. Each course accredited alongside initial registration attracts $6,000 for preliminary assessment and $44,700 for substantive assessment, with related courses in a nested suite at $40,000 each.
Once registered, course accreditation is cheaper: $5,200 and $19,100 per course, with related nested courses at $1,300 and $4,800. Renewal of registration ranges from $66,000 to $113,000 depending on provider size, or $75,000 to $129,200 with self-accrediting authority, and renewal of course accreditation is $24,500 per course. A first grant of self-accrediting authority is $51,800, a change of provider category is $51,800, and initial CRICOS registration is $24,500.
Two features of the schedule matter for planning. Fees are not refundable, so an application that is withdrawn or refused after substantive assessment begins has still cost the full amount. And TEQSA applies discounts of up to 70 per cent for providers with fewer than 5,000 equivalent full-time students, which means most private providers pay well under the headline figure. Check the current schedule at the time of application, since fees are revised.
How much does TEQSA registration cost beyond the fees?
The fees buy an assessment. They do not buy a provider. Before lodging, an applicant has to exist as an institution that meets the Threshold Standards, and that is where the money goes. Our plain-English guide to the Standards sets out what that involves.
Governance comes first. A governing body with independent members, an academic board with external academics, and a governance record showing both operating over several meetings involves director fees, sitting fees for academic board members, company secretarial support, and a constitution and policy framework drafted for higher education rather than adapted from VET. The governance mistakes that stall applications are usually the result of trying to do this cheaply.
Academic staff come next and are the largest ongoing cost. TEQSA expects named staff with qualifications one AQF level above the course, and a course coordinator with a doctorate and a scholarly profile for postgraduate offerings. Those people need to be engaged, at least in part, before the application is lodged, and they will draw a salary for a year or more before the first student is enrolled.
Then the course. Designing a coherent, AQF-aligned course with unit outlines, assessment mapped to learning outcomes, external benchmarking and an independent review is a substantial piece of academic work. Learning resources, library and database subscriptions, a learning management system and, where the course requires them, specialist facilities are all costs that must be committed rather than planned. Premises, insurance and student support services complete the picture.
In my experience, a well-run new provider spends somewhere between three and six times the application fees on building the institution before the application is lodged, and continues to carry most of those costs through the nine months or more of assessment. A provider that already operates a large RTO with premises and systems in place sits at the lower end. A provider starting from a business plan sits at the upper end, or above it.
What about consultants?
Most new providers use specialist advice, and it is a real cost. It is also the one most often misjudged in both directions. A consultant cannot reduce the cost of building the provider, because the governance, staff and course have to exist regardless. What good advice does is prevent the two most expensive outcomes: an application that fails preliminary assessment and has to be re-lodged, and a substantive assessment that drags through multiple requests for further information while the salaried staff and the leased premises sit idle.
The right question to ask an adviser is not what their fee is but how their fee compares to the cost of a six-month delay. For most providers, the monthly carrying cost of staff, premises and governance during assessment is the single largest number in the budget, and anything that shortens the timeline pays for itself. The corollary is that a consultant who promises a fast, cheap application by writing it for you is selling exactly the kind of generic, thin submission that TEQSA's self-assurance model now scrutinises most closely.
What drives the total cost up?
Four things, consistently.
Requests for further information are the first. Each RFI extends the assessment, and every month of extension is another month of carrying cost. A well-prepared application draws one or two; a poor one draws a sequence, and the difference can be six figures in staff and premises alone.
Re-lodgement is the second. An application that fails preliminary assessment for incompleteness has consumed the preliminary fee, must be re-lodged, and has cost the time it took to fail. An application withdrawn during substantive assessment has consumed the substantive fee as well.
Conditions on registration are the third. TEQSA can register a provider subject to conditions, and conditions come with reporting obligations and, often, a shorter registration period, which brings the re-registration cost forward. A five-year registration instead of seven means paying the renewal fee two years earlier.
Timing is the fourth and the least visible. Every month between the decision to proceed and the first tuition-paying student is a month of cost without revenue, and the timeline for registration is long. Providers that recruit staff and sign leases early, before governance is established and the course is designed, pay for the gap. Providers that sequence the build correctly pay for less of it.
So how much does TEQSA registration cost in total?
For a private provider seeking initial registration with one bachelor-level course and domestic students only, and assuming the small-provider fee discount, a defensible planning figure is a low-to-mid six-figure sum in TEQSA fees and advice, and a mid-to-high six-figure sum in the cost of building and carrying the institution to its first intake. Adding CRICOS and international delivery adds the CRICOS fee, the cost of meeting the ESOS requirements, and, more significantly, a further six to nine months of carrying cost before international revenue arrives.
Those are large numbers, and they are the reason the honest answer to how much TEQSA registration costs is a commitment rather than a licence application. They are also the reason it is worth getting right the first time. The application fee is fixed. Almost everything else in the budget is a function of how long the process takes, and that is within the provider's control.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the TEQSA fee for initial registration?
In 2026, $14,700 for preliminary assessment and $112,100 for substantive assessment, plus $6,000 and $44,700 for each course accredited with the registration. Discounts of up to 70 per cent apply to providers with fewer than 5,000 equivalent full-time students.
Are TEQSA application fees refundable?
No. TEQSA's published schedule states that fees are not refundable, so a withdrawn or unsuccessful application has still cost the full amount for the stages commenced.
Does TEQSA charge an annual fee?
TEQSA's current published schedule lists application-based fees only. Check the fees and charges page at the time of application, as TEQSA's cost-recovery arrangements are periodically revised.
What is the biggest cost in becoming a higher education provider?
Building and carrying the institution: academic staff, governance, course development, resources and premises, all of which must be in place before lodgement and are carried through nine months or more of assessment. This typically exceeds the application fees several times over.
Dr Brendan Moloney is CEO of Darlo Higher Education, Australia's largest specialist TEQSA consultancy. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, is a Cambridge University Press author on governance in higher education, and has advised private providers on registration and course accreditation for more than fifteen years.