Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Australian perspectives on
TEQSA’s establishment
Interim TEQSA Chair
Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley AC

Australia‐Japan Quality Assurance Seminar
NIAD‐UE, Japan
8 December 20101

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Overview• Australia’s higher education system• Drivers of change• Operation of TEQSA and new approach to regulation• Future challenges2

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Size and shape of the AustralianHigher Education sector• Diverse higher education sector, including:• 37 public universities• 2 private universities, and two branches ofoverseas universities• 3 other self accrediting providers• ≈ 150 other higher education providers approvedby state and territory legislation
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Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Complexities of Higher Education Governance• Australian universities have historically been established by
Acts of State Parliaments and 96% of domestic higher
education students are enrolled in them
• Commonwealth Government is the primary funder ofuniversities and determines broad higher education policy• Universities are autonomous institutions responsible forthe quality of their academic activities•

150 other higher education providers are regulated bystates and territories and enrol fee paying students in alllevels of higher education award up to doctorates.

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Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Australian Higher Education ‐ some facts

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Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Drivers for a National Regulator• Review of Higher Education – 2008
• Growth and growing complexity of higher education
provision• Move to a more competitive market based system in2012 – universities can enrol as many students asthey wish and government funding will follow• Consumer protection – maintenance of quality
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New Era for Tertiary Education Quality• Independent national regulator for all providers includinguniversities• Combines responsibility for overseeing compliance withstandards as well as responsibility for quality improvement
initiatives• Aims to work with the sector to reach agreements about
threshold standards• Alignment between regulation of higher education, VET
and international education
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Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

So, how will TEQSA operate?
• New approach to regulation– Risk‐based and proportionate• BUT TEQSA will build on strong foundations– Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA)– State and Territory Accreditation Authorities– Australian and international best practice– Streamline – not duplicate – current practice8

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Upon establishment• Rollover of all existing providers with current status
maintained• AUQA will transition into TEQSA and AUQA’s current
Cycle 2 audits will continue into 2012
• Ensuring business continuity is critical• But TEQSA will have new powers to intervene withan escalating set of actions up to removal of provider
registration
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Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

New approach to regulation
Shift in direction to:• more integrated regulation• benchmarking against threshold standards• risk‐based regulation• greater power to take action
TEQSA will be able to act at course, cohort, institution
or national level to accredit courses, register
institutions, investigate compliance with standards orreview areas of concern in thematic reviews
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Underpinning Principles• Should not entrench the status quo• Transparent• Regulation based on prevention• Regulatory process has real consequences• Standards‐based approach11

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Standards Framework• TEQSA will register and evaluate the performance of
higher education providers against a new Higher
Education Standards Framework:• Provider Standards• Qualification Standards• Information Standards• Teaching and Learning Standards• Research Standards
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Governance• TEQSA will be established by an Act of the national parliament– planned for mid 2011
• Legislation similar to that of other regulatory bodies inAustralia like those which regulate the banks• There will be a Commission of five Commissioners• Higher Education Standards Panel to be established within,and supported by, the TEQSA organisation but with direct
accountability to the Minister• TEQSA will be established in Melbourne

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International activities• TEQSA will open relationships with agencies which
are responsible for quality in higher education inother countries• TEQSA will wish to continue AUQA’s connection toINQAAHE• TEQSA will be ready to participate in collaborativeinternational activities to explore and promote
good practice like OECD and European Union
programs14

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

MyUniversity• Interactive, searchable public website.
• Announced March 2010. Under development.
• Will provide searchable information on courses,
campus facilities, support services, and the qualityof teaching and learning outcomes, including
information such as:– student to staff ratios– results of student satisfaction surveys– measures of graduate skills– graduate outcomes– information about fees
– information about access to student services.

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Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Future challenges• TEQSA legislation must be passed by Parliament in2011• Finalising policy underpinning – the nature of
TEQSA’s approach to regulation – balance between
compliance and improvement activities• Maintaining support in the higher education sector
for national regulation while legislation is still
pending16

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

Future challenges• Clarifying the precise relationship with regulation ofinternational education• The development of teaching and learning, researchand information standards• Developing detailed guides to TEQSA’s regulatory
approaches• Aligning approach to regulation in higher education
with that in vocational education and training
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Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

QUESTIONS?

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