Sage Institute of Fitness loses battle to silence Government department

The Sage Institute of Fitness has lost an attempt to stop its legal fight against a regulator's decision to cancel the accreditation of its fitness coaching course from being aired in public.

The fitness college group, heavily promoted by Biggest Loser star ‘Commando’ Steve, in September requested a confidentiality order in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), where it is seeking to overturn the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA)'s decision to cancel the course accreditation.

The regulator earlier this year said it had determined that Sage's Diploma of Fitness Coaching Course no longer complied with its standards because it had effectively been superseded by another fitness training qualification.

A Sage spokesman said the company requested the confidentiality order to reduce "the prospect for the proceedings to be publicly misrepresented."

In refusing Sage's request, AAT senior member Egon Fice said concerns expressed by ASQA over the accreditation of Sage's courses need to be made public.

Fice stated “in this case the only party to benefit from the confidentiality order would be (Sage)."

The AAT also ordered a stay on ASQA's decision pending the final outcome of Sage's appeal.

The eight-campus college has separately been the subject of multiple reports over concerns about its facilities, with students saying they had to build their own facilities with gyprock while wires hung from walls around them.

In September, Fairfax Media revealed that since 2015 the college's "ground breaking, interactive learning" campuses have moved between four office buildings in Sydney alone.

The college charges students up to $18,750 a year in fees – which can be funded through taxpayer funded VET FEE-HELP - for the soon-to-be cancelled course.

According to data from the Department of Education, it received more than $12 million in taxpayer funding in 2014. The tribunal heard the college had spent $6 million marketing its Diploma of Fitness Coaching Course alone.

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