policy & reform
Onwards and for upwards
TEQSA
The agency aims for a flexible approach to allow providers to adapt and thrive in response to changes in the higher education market. By Carol Nicoll
20 | March 2013
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency has been in existence as Australia’ s independent national regulator of higher education for just over a year.
In that time, TEQSA has collaborated closely with the higher education sector and other key stakeholders to build the foundations of an effective and efficient regulatory agency. Our focus is on protecting both the interests of students and the health of Australia’ s fourth-largest export industry.
The TEQSA regulatory model is without precedent either nationally or internationally. Based on our experience to date, we believe our approach is robust. This year, we will focus on consolidation and ensuring we remain expert and fair, and vigilant in reducing the impost of regulation on providers.
We regulate against the national set of quality standards, the Threshold Standards, and apply careful judgement to ensure that every decision made by us is informed by our regulatory principles of risk, proportionality and regulatory necessity.
We have also commenced important work to fulfil our mandate under the TEQSA Act to conduct quality assurance.
Our first two quality assessments focus on third-party arrangements and English language proficiency. We see quality assessments as an important way to support the sector to improve quality, n ot only to meet minimum standards.
We recognise the critical importance of transparency and consultation in our approach.
For the first time, students and the community have access to a national register of higher education providers, currently listing 170 registered providers and 1041 TEQSA accredited courses. It is a central, authoritative source of information about providers and the courses they offer. We will soon be consulting on the provision of further information about a provider’ s regulatory history through the national register.
We are committed to clear lines of communication and dialogue with the sector. In the past year, we have consulted with the sector on our approaches to regulatory risk, data collection, register guidelines and fee thresholds. We have adjusted our approach, where possible, to take account of issues raised by providers.
I have personally met with numerous vice-chancellors and CEOs across the sector to discuss the ways we can work together to strengthen the delivery of higher education.
My fellow commissioners and other senior staff have spoken at many conferences and forums to explain TEQSA’ s role and regulatory approaches.
We have established three reference groups: data and information; regulatory risk; and regulation and quality assessment. Membership of these groups draws on experts from the sector and from other industries, giving TEQSA access to in-depth experience and expert opinion. We also use external experts to ensure we can access specialised knowledge where this is required.
Our case management approach, whereby each provider has a designated case manager as a point of contact for regulatory matters and information, is strongly supported by the sector.
We are now completing risk assessments that will deliver information about all higher education providers. TEQSA will be consulting the sector for feedback on our regulatory risk framework when we review its operation later this year.
The agency is committed to streamlining our processes to reduce the regulatory