New courses

The responsibility for setting fee/course costs for new courses rests entirely with TEOs[1], although fees must meet the guidelines contained in Condition SAC107[2].

Fees should be around, or below, the middle of the range of fees charged for comparable courses. Fees above this will not be automatically accepted during course approval processing. TEOs must be able to justify unusually high costs of any new courses.

We sample fee/course costs for new courses as part of our course approval process and will contact TEOs if they do not meet the guidelines.

Our role is strictly in relation to these audits – we do not take a central role in fee/course costs setting for new courses.

There is no change to this policy for 2011.

• [1]

  Tertiary education organisation (TEO)

• [2]

  Condition SAC107: Setting fees for new courses

  The following apply to fee/course costs for new courses:

  • Fee/course costs for new courses must be in line with, or lower than, fee/course costs charged for existing similar courses on a dollar per Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS) unit basis
  • Tertiary education organisations (TEOs) must compare the fee/course costs for new courses: firstly against those charged for the TEO’s similar courses (if existing), and secondly against those charged for similar courses delivered by other TEOs
  • Whichever comparison is used, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) expects the fee/course costs to be in the middle of the range of fee/course costs charged and not in the top 25% of the range. However, some courses have higher than usual costs and therefore justify higher than usual fee/course costs.

  • Tertiary education organisations must be able to justify unusually high costs in setting new courses' fees, to ensure that access to public funding for those courses continues.