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Australia’s higher-education map is quietly being redrawn as faith-based colleges surge toward full university status under new TEQSA rules. A wave of Christian institutions—once on the sector’s fringe—are winning ‘University College’ stripes and eyeing the coveted Australian University title.

In many senses, universities are the engine rooms of a modern nation like Australia.

Universities are where we train our architects, business leaders, engineers, and scientists. It is in universities that the worldviews of our teachers, journalists, public servants, and parliamentarians are formed.

And, perhaps most importantly, universities are responsible for discipling and producing the next generation of scholars, philosophers, and university teachers: those whose ideas are imbibed by the artists, actors, musicians, and celebrities of tomorrow—who in turn, shape our popular culture through films, music, and advertising.

It’s not easy to be recognised as an Australian University under the Higher Education Standards Framework.

This is not to say that there are never new universities.

Since the ‘50s, dozens of institutions have been permitted to use the term “university” for the first time. Many of these are now highly respected universities: for example, Monash (1958), now a member of the Group of Eight, or others like QUT (1989), Macquarie (1967), UTS (1989), or Wollongong (1975), which consistently appear towards the top of global university rankings.

But since the 1990s, there have been very few new entrants to the game.

In 2014, Torrens University became Australia’s 40th University and the first new green-field university “for 20 years”. Between 2014 and 2021, no new universities were recognised at all.

That is, until some key legislative changes to how the Australian Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) categorises and approves higher education providers. These changes paved the way for an influx of new entrants into the sector.

University Colleges — The Crucial Reform

In 2021, the Higher Education Standards Framework was amended to recognise a new type of ‘higher education provider’: the ‘University College’.

Designed to be a transitional stage between the more modest ‘Institute of Higher Education’ and the full ‘Australian University’ categories, a university college is, in many ways, a university in everything but name.

Significantly, university colleges are permitted to have “self-accrediting” authority, which means that they can introduce and award new courses of study without seeking TEQSA’s approval for each degree.

Self-accrediting status can be granted for a particular, narrow field or can be unlimited.

For example, in 2023, TEQSA awarded Alphacrucis University College, a Pentecostal institution headquartered in Sydney with campuses nationwide, unlimited self-accrediting authority in all Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) levels (Certificate I to Doctorate), across all fields of education.

 

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In 2021, immediately after the changes were made, three new University Colleges were recognised by TEQSA: two arts institutes and Moore Theological College, a prestigious theological seminary in Sydney. In 2022, Alphacrucis College (as it was called then) and the Australian College of Theology became Australia’s fourth and fifth University Colleges, respectively.

Between 2023 and 2024, three new University Colleges were approved by TEQSA: The Australian College of Applied Professions (ACAP), and two further Christian colleges: the Sydney College of Divinity and Excelsia College (formerly the Wesley Institute).

Christian higher education providers dominate the new category of University College. Of the institutions registered in this category to date, all but three have been explicitly Christian.

The Rise of the Christian University in Australia

Since 2021, nine institutions have been recognised as “University Colleges”. Over that same time, there have been three new “Australian Universities” quietly recognised by TEQSA.

Under the new framework, the University of Divinity, a collegiate theological university, went from the nation’s sole “Australian University of Specialisation” to being recognised as an Australian University. While the institution could validly use the term “University” before the 2021 changes, it was something of an anomaly—having been constituted by an act of the Victorian Parliament and not considered a full-fledged University like other faith-based institutions like Notre Dame Australia or the Australian Catholic University.

Immediately following the new changes, TEQSA announced that Avondale College would become Avondale University. The decision recognised “Avondale’s commitment to student outcomes, its significant research progress and Avondale’s contributions to the communities it serves.”

Avondale was established in 1897 by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church as “Avondale School for Christian Workers”. It remains “accredited as a Seventh-day Adventist institution of higher education by the Adventist Accrediting Association”.

The university remains explicitly Christian.

Its purpose is “To transform lives through Christ-centred higher education” by engaging “students in authentic, faith-based learning and discovery.” Avondale’s first graduate attribute is “The capacity to reflect deeply on Christian values.”

But Avondale is not the most recent institution to be recognised as an Australian University.

After securing university college status in 2022, the Australian College of Theology was elevated in January 2025 to become Australia’s 44th university, with self-accrediting authority in the field of Religious Studies.

 

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Once again, AUT is an explicitly Christian institution. Its “chief purpose” is “to collaborate with its affiliated colleges to equip people to faithfully serve God’s church and God’s world primarily by the provision of quality-assured courses in theology and ministry.”

Under its more detailed “Purpose and Objects of the Constitution”, the University’s goal is stated as follows:

“The purpose and objects of the University are to foster and direct the systematic study of theology and other disciplines related to Christian ministry, thought and practice, primarily through Affiliated Colleges which act consistently with the Christian Foundation of the University.”

AUT’s affiliated colleges come from a range of denominations—Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Uniting, and Interdenominational. They include Morling College, the Presbyterian Theological College, the Melbourne School of Theology and Ridley College in Victoria, Sydney Missionary & Bible College, and Trinity Theological College in Perth, WA.

Where to from Here?

Since the changes of 2021, several additional Christian higher education providers have also flagged their interest in becoming full-fledged universities.

In its Strategic Plan 2020–2025, Excelsia University College stated its intent to achieve registration as an Australian University by 2030. It was recognised as a University College in 2024—one year earlier than its Strategic Plan outlined.

Excelsia describes itself as “an academic community benefiting the world by producing research characterised by exemplary scholarship consistent with a Christian world view, and graduates prepared to lead in a range of professions.” The organisation affirms both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.

Similarly, Professor Stephen Fogarty, the President of Alphacrucis University College, has signalled his institution’s ambition to become a “global Christian University, transforming neighbourhoods and nations.”

A third Christian higher education institution aiming to acquire Australian University status is Sheridan Institute of Higher Education.

As the higher education initiative of Australian Baptist Education Inc. (ABE), Sheridan was registered as a TEQSA-approved higher education provider in 2014. One of its core missions is “to achieve university title for a Baptist higher education institution in Western Australia.”

Should each of these three institutions achieve university status, it would take the number of Christian universities in Australia from two (Notre Dame and ACU in 2020) to a total of seven—more than tripling the number of faith-based universities available to Australian students.

Becoming an Australian University is not the be-all and end-all of higher education. A range of smaller colleges and institutions continue to provide solid education and training (both accredited and non-accredited) and conduct excellent research around Australia.

These include Catholic liberal arts colleges like Campion College in Sydney and St John Henry Newman College in Brisbane, and non-accredited Protestant liberal arts schools like Emmanuel College Sydney.

They also include more conventional Christian institutions like Christian Heritage College, smaller training and leadership institutes like Augustine Academy and the Lachlan Macquarie Institute, and a range of theological colleges and seminaries around the country.

Each of these institutions does important work.

Nevertheless, the meteoric rise of institutions with an overtly Christian ethos at the highest level of accreditation is notable.

Not only have the three most recent Australian Universities been explicitly Christian (with several waiting in the wings), but Christian institutions now dominate the category of University College, with providers like Alphacrucis University College possessing unlimited self-accrediting authority.

It seems that a once-static university landscape is stirring again.

If current trajectories hold, Australia could see several more faith-based institutions ascend to full university status before the decade is out—further reshaping both the academy and the public square.

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