The diploma and advanced diploma have long been contested territory in Australian sectoral turf wars. The current settlement allows vocational education and training and higher education to offer their own versions of diplomas and advanced diplomas. This and Australia's unusually deep organisational separation of vocational education and training and higher education has made it difficult for governments to adopt an integrated tertiary education policy and it has restricted vet's role. By comparing arrangements for the highest sub baccalaureate qualifications in North America and the UK, known generically as short-cycle higher education, the paper develops some new options for Australia. The paper concludes by arguing that Australia should follow the North America and UK examples and decouple the institutional and programmatic designations of the sectors to allow vet institutes to offer unambiguously higher education programs.