The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) has formally registered the new Adelaide University, which is being formed by a merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. The new university is set to open at the start of 2026.
Registration by TEQSA, the national higher education regulator, allows universities to receive Commonwealth Government funding and enrol Commonwealth-subsidised students.
According to a statement from Adelaide University, “TEQSA approvals signify that the new university has the robust governance and academic provisions in place to meet the independent regulator’s registration requirements.”
The Vice-Chancellors of the new university, Professor David Lloyd and Professor Peter Høj AC, welcomed the news, saying it provides “absolute confidence” in the university’s stated ambition.
“Adelaide University has a compelling reason to exist – to enable educational excellence, equitable access, and excellent research [to] become a driving force for good with [an] impact that transcends borders – and we look forward to taking the new institution to the world,” they remarked.
The Parliament of South Australia statutorily established the university in March 2024. The University of Adelaide is one of Australia’s six sandstone universities, established in 1874. The University of South Australia as it currently exists was founded in 1991, though its constituent South Australian School of Art has a history going back to 1856.
The South Australian Government has provided $464.5 million over four years, announced in December 2023, to create the new university.
A South Australian Parliament joint committee report published in October 2023 found that a merger would likely be economically beneficial, increase international rankings, attract more international students, and potentially reduce barriers to research collaboration.
Conversely, the same report indicated it would lead to job losses, deliver an inferior experience for students and staff, provide a model of education inconsistent with the then-ongoing Accord review into higher education, reduce the quality of research through the loss of researchers, and divert staff away from teaching and research during the merging process.
“Because of the transitional funding, we will be able to provide better education, newer curricula, better facilities [and a] better student experience,” University of Adelaide chancellor Catherine Branson said in August 2023.
A May 2023 survey by the South Australian branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), conducted without respect to union affiliation, found that only a quarter of staff across the state’s three universities supported the merger.
Sixty percent of staff reported that they had insufficient information to make an informed decision on the merits of a merger.
“There is no turning back once this decision is made. We must get it right. Our public universities must serve the public interest, not political or corporate interests,” NTEU SA Division Secretary Andrew Miller subsequently wrote to Premier Peter Malinauskas and Deputy Premier Susan Close.
The South Australian branch of the NTEU was contacted for comment.