One college has closed. A different company with a very similar name, at the same Melbourne address, remains registered until 2030.

On 10 September, ASIC published a notice appointing Grahame Ward and Domenic Calabretta of Mackay Goodwin as joint and several voluntary administrators of Nova International Education Pty Ltd, ACN 124 181 942, the company that traded as Nova Institute of Technology.

The unusual part appears on the face of the notice. Under Company details it records Administrators Appointed, and immediately beneath that, Secondary Status: In Liquidation.

The company had already been wound up by the Supreme Court of Victoria on 12 August.

Having administrators and a liquidator at once is not, by itself, the mystery. The Corporations Act provides a route for that. The mystery is that the published records describe two different routes for getting there.

There are two different ways administrators could have been appointed here.

One is the route used when a company is already in liquidation: the liquidator appoints them, with creditors' approval. The other is the ordinary route, where the company itself appoints them.

Creditors were asked to approve the first route. ASIC later recorded the second.

That matters because the Corporations Act says the second route does not apply while a liquidator is already appointed. And ASIC's own notice says Nova was still in liquidation.

Here is the evidence for each. On 25 August the liquidator called a meeting of creditors for 9 September, and the published agenda proposed that Grahame Ward and Domenic Calabretta:

That is the liquidator's route. Section 436B lets a liquidator appoint an administrator, and subsection (2) requires creditors' approval first.

The administrators were appointed on 9 September. ASIC published the appointment on 10 September, and under Appointor it says:

That is the company's route. And section 436A(2) says it does not apply where someone already holds an appointment as liquidator or provisional liquidator. The same notice records Nova's secondary status as In Liquidation.

That does not establish that the appointment was invalid, that ASIC made an error, or that anyone acted improperly. A step between 25 August and 9 September may simply not appear in the published notices: a court order, a change in the winding up, a different appointment instrument, or how a notice field was completed. We have not found that bridge. The notices disagree, and the later one cites a statutory route that sits awkwardly beside the liquidation status printed on the same page.

ASIC's winding-up application notice records proceedings against Nova International Education in the Supreme Court of Victoria, action S ECI 2026 02756, filed on 4 May 2026. The applicant was Edugate Gateway Pty Ltd, ACN 151 047 255, an international education agency that places students with Australian institutions.

Edugate was not merely operating in the same industry. Its own website markets Nova Institute of Technology courses to prospective students. Its page for a Certificate III in Print Communications lists the course at $10,000, names Nova Institute of Technology among four institutions offering it, and gives the location as "VIC - Nova International Education Pty Ltd - Location owned and operated by provider".

ASIC published the application notice on 1 June. What Nova owed Edugate, and whether the debt arose from that relationship, is not disclosed in the published notice.

On 2 July, the Australian Business Register records the end of one of Nova International Education's business names, NOVA INSTITUTE, held since June 2022. Its other registered names, Nova Institute of Technology and Nova English, remained. The record does not establish why the name ended.

On 12 August, the Supreme Court ordered Nova International Education wound up and Grahame Ward was appointed liquidator. The Australian Government's Tuition Protection Service independently says Nova Institute of Technology ceased operating, identifies the provider as Nova International Education Pty Ltd, CRICOS 02856B, and says it began assisting affected international students on 3 September.

Six days later, administrators were appointed.

The National Training Register now records RTO 21984 as Cancelled, with the end reason:

The decision behind it is published too. The regulator's stated ground is that Nova did not comply with the conditions of its registration. The cancellation was decided and took effect on 9 September 2026, and Nova can seek a review of it, so this is not necessarily the last regulatory step.

What the decision does not say matters. It does not say the registration was cancelled because Nova was in liquidation. It gives a compliance ground, and nothing obtained connects the winding up, the administration and the regulator's decision. Two events on one day do not prove one caused the other. But the chronology is compressed:

The Commonwealth gives international colleges an annual number of places, used to help plan and prioritise student visa applications made from overseas. The formal name is new overseas student commencements. It is a planning figure, not a verdict on a college's finances.

Nova's number had been rising: 968 places for 2025, then 1,022 for 2026.

The list for 2027 was created on 3 July 2026 and last changed on 30 July. By then the winding-up case had been before the Supreme Court since 4 May, and ASIC had published it on 1 June.

Nova is in that list, against its provider code 02856B, with 1,057 places for 2027.

That does not mean anyone had assessed Nova as financially healthy. The formula generally stopped active providers receiving fewer places than the year before, and gave larger providers, meaning those above 100 places in 2026, "modest growth (around 3.5%)". Nothing in the list assesses solvency, and nothing in it suggests anyone overlooked the court case.

The point is narrower, and it is the shape of this whole story. One arm of government was recording the college as an active provider for 2027 planning while a winding-up application against it sat on the public record. Six weeks after that list was last modified, the court wound Nova up and it ceased operating.

The National Training Register still lists nit.edu.au as Nova Institute of Technology's website. The site currently displays a single message:

The registers say otherwise. The company was wound up in August, the Commonwealth says the college ceased operating, and its registration was cancelled on 9 September.

This is where a search for the college becomes an identity problem. The company that closed is Nova International Education Pty Ltd, ACN 124 181 942, CRICOS 02856B, trading as Nova Institute of Technology.

There is also Nova Higher Education Pty Ltd, ACN 660 969 906, CRICOS 04401F.

It is a different legal company, registered in July 2022. The Business Register records no change of company name and no business names against it. It is not named in Nova International Education's insolvency notices, and it is not in an insolvency process. The higher-education regulator registers it as an Institute of Higher Education, provider PRV14393, until 30 June 2030, with a CRICOS capacity of 350 students and an accredited Bachelor of Culinary Arts Business Management.

One Nova has closed and the other remains registered. Their public records overlap in ways that make distinguishing them important.

The National Training Register gives the closed college's head office as Level 5, 601 Bourke Street, Melbourne. The CRICOS register gives exactly the same address for Nova Higher Education, both as its postal address and as one of its teaching locations.

There is a second overlap in Adelaide. The closed college had a registered training kitchen at Office 29, Level 1, 128 Hindley Street. Nova Higher Education's Adelaide campus records its kitchen at Unit 28, Level 1, 128 Hindley Street.

Same building. Same floor. Adjacent numbered premises.

Nova Higher Education's own website says it was established in 2022 and delivers a specialised culinary arts business-management course. The higher-education regulator records its initial provider registration on 6 June 2025 and its initial CRICOS registration on 1 November 2025, and records no current conditions on its course.

Its own path to registration was not straightforward. In October 2024, TEQSA rejected Nova Higher Education's applications for registration and for accreditation of its degree. The company applied to the Administrative Review Tribunal, and in TEQSA's words it "provided further information and evidence about the matters raised in TEQSA's decision which resolved TEQSA's original findings". TEQSA agreed to Tribunal orders on 6 June 2025 granting both, to 30 June 2030.

There is also one direct first-party connection between the two institutions. Nova Higher Education's website says its current student representative previously completed a Certificate III, Certificate IV and Diploma of Hospitality Management at Nova Institute of Technology, and is now studying Nova Higher Education's bachelor degree.

That establishes an educational pathway for at least one student. It establishes nothing about the ownership or control of the two companies, and sharing premises does not establish that one took over the other's students, assets, staff, leases or business. Nothing obtained establishes a corporate relationship between them.

The point is simpler: two separate Nova education companies appear across the same physical footprint, and only one of them has closed.

For international students, the easiest way to distinguish providers should be the CRICOS number on their Confirmation of Enrolment. Nova Institute of Technology's code was 02856B.

Searched on 10 September 2026, the CRICOS register returns "No Institutions found" for that code. Search 04401F and it returns Nova Higher Education with its three campuses.

A student searching only "Nova" may reach a provider that is still registered. That is not necessarily the company they paid or enrolled with.

The two are not interchangeable. 02856B is Nova International Education Pty Ltd, the college that closed. 04401F is Nova Higher Education Pty Ltd.

International students already have a statutory route running. The Tuition Protection Service says it began assisting affected students on 3 September and can be reached on 1300 131 798. Students are encouraged to obtain an up to date copy of their academic and enrolment records.

If you paid the college and did not receive what you expected: I paid them money

If you are owed for an invoice, rent, agent commission, supplied goods or another debt: They owe me money

Not sure which applies? Read the full guide: Owed money by a company in administration or liquidation?

Former staff may have a separate route through the Fair Entitlements Guarantee, which covers certain unpaid entitlements following liquidation. Eligibility conditions apply, including citizenship or permanent-visa requirements.

The first meeting of creditors in the administration is listed for 11:00AM on 18 September 2026, by Microsoft Teams. Proofs and proxies are due by 4:00PM on 17 September 2026.

We publish public-record information, not advice. The appointed practitioners are the authoritative source on any claim, and the court file is the authoritative record of the proceeding.

We do not know why the 25 August notice contemplated section 436B(2) while the later notice records section 436A, or whether another legal step occurred between them. Nor do we know what debt led Edugate Gateway to seek the winding up, what the regulator's compliance findings were beyond the published ground, how many students remained enrolled at closure, or whether any ownership, officer or business relationship exists between the two Nova companies.

The court file for S ECI 2026 02756 has not been obtained, the administrators' creditor portal requires creditor access, and the college does not yet appear on the regulator's published list of closed organisations whose student records have been transferred.

ASIC published 128 notices covering 127 companies:

A winding-up application asks a court for an order; it does not mean the company has been wound up. A members' voluntary liquidation is ordinarily solvent. 66 deadlines fall out of the day.

See the full 10 September register, free with a subscription.

These are applications, not findings of insolvency. Hearing details are taken from the published notices and may change.

Half of the day's ten winding-up applications came from one applicant. The Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer brought five, all filed on 25 August in the Supreme Court of New South Wales and all listed for 9:00AM on 24 September.

The Deputy Commissioner of Taxation brought three applications, filed in July and listed for 18 September. The remaining applications appear in the full register with their applicant, court and listed hearing date.

ASIC published notices dated 1 June, 13 August, 25 August and 10 September 2026 provide the application, the court and action number, the winding-up order, the creditors' meeting agenda, the administrators and the meeting particulars. Name history was read from the ASIC company register and the Australian Business Register; registration status and the cancellation decision from the National Training Register; provider codes and teaching locations from the CRICOS register; higher-education registration from the national register of higher-education providers; and the closure and tuition protection details from the Commonwealth department administering the scheme. Overseas student commencement allocations for 2025, 2026 and 2027, and the 2027 allocation methodology, were read from the Commonwealth's own published provider lists, and the registration history of the second company from the national register of higher-education providers. Section 436A was checked against the Corporations Act 2001. The regulator's cancellation is decision RD0006956, made by the National VET Regulator under section 39 of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011.

Applicant counts are findings of our captured ASIC-notice corpus, which begins in January 2024, and describe notices published on this day rather than audited totals.

Two Novas. One Bourke Street address, one Adelaide teaching floor, and only one of them has closed.

The provider code on the closed college's enrolment documents now draws a blank. The similarly named provider a search does reach is a different company, registered until 2030.

Get tomorrow's resolved register by email: legal names and ACNs, the names behind them, applicants, court dates, and the companies a brand search sends you straight past.