Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I present the revised explanatory memorandum for this bill and I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Bill 2011 lays the framework for a new, national system of quality assurance and regulation for higher education.

This bill establishes the Tertiary Educ­ation Quality and Standards Agency, or TEQSA, as a single national regulatory agency for higher education.

This legislation was introduced into the Senate by the Hon. Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations.

The establishment of TEQSA is a key part of this government's higher education reforms that were announced in the 2009-10 budget.

These reforms respond to the findings of the Review of Australian Higher Education led by Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley. Professor Bradley's review called for a new approach to higher education resourcing and funding, including the move to a demand driven approach in which funding for undergraduate student places is based on student demand.

In the forthcoming period of rapid growth in higher education, we must be confident that the quality of education that Australian students are receiving can be assured.

The establishment of TEQSA will ensure that the expansion of our higher education system will not come at the expense of quality.

For the first time in Australia, quality assurance and regulation will be carried out by a single agency.

By replacing the current state and territory based systems for registration and course accreditation and the quality assurance functions currently carried out by the Australian Universities Quality Assurance Agency, TEQSA will reduce the number of federal, state and territory regulatory and quality assurance bodies from nine to one.

I now turn to the specifics of the bill.

The new agency will be responsible for carrying out regulatory functions including registration and re-registration, accreditation and re-accreditation and conducting comp­liance and quality assessments.

TEQSA's approach to regulation will be based on proportionality and risk. In carrying out its functions, TEQSA will be required to comply with three basic principles of regulation:

This will allow TEQSA to focus its resources on high-risk providers and new entrants to the system, working with providers who are identified as high-risk to address quality issues and improve performance.

At the same time, the application of these principles will ensure that low-risk providers are not unduly burdened or subject to unnecessary red tape.

TEQSA will regulate higher education providers using a standards based system.

The Higher Education Standards Frame­work will contain a set of national standards that support excellence and diversity in higher education.

The Higher Education Standards Frame­work will be developed and maintained by the Higher Education Standards Panel. The panel will be independent from TEQSA and its role will be to provide advice and recommendations to the minister for tertiary education and the minister for research in relation to the framework.

The Higher Education Standards Panel will comprise an appropriate balance of professional knowledge and demonstrated expertise in the fields of teaching and learning, research and research training, regulation or standards setting.

TEQSA will be governed by a chief commissioner, two full-time commissioners and two part-time commissioners.

The states and territories will continue to play an integral role in higher education once TEQSA is established. The government recognises the important role that the states and territories play in the provision of higher education and the bill reflects this.

The capacity of states and territories to establish or disestablish universities will remain unchanged by the introduction of TEQSA. New public universities will continue to require legislation in their jurisdiction to be established.

Importantly, TEQSA will be equipped to take real action against providers when serious regulatory breaches occur. The TEQSA bills provide for a broad range of investigative powers and sanctions, similar to those found in other Commonwealth acts such as the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000.

These include administrative sanctions, civil penalties and criminal offences along with appropriate search and seizure powers.

The exercise of these powers will be subject to the basic principles of regulation, outlined above.

Following the introduction of the bills, the government referred both bills to the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The Senate committee's report, which supported the establishment of TEQSA, contained a number of recommendations, each of which were adopted by the government.

Chief among these was amending the bill to explicitly uphold the authority universities already have to self-accredit courses of study. This important amendment recognises that universities are axiomatically self-accrediting and enshrines their academic independence.

The TEQSA bills passed the Senate, as amended, with support from both sides of the chamber.

The establishment of TEQSA goes beyond the strengthening of our higher education system: it will have a far-reaching impact on productivity and participation in the years to come.

It will allow universities to grow and diversify in response to student needs, and in doing so it will open up access to higher education to a whole new generation of Australians.

At the same time, it will ensure that this growth is balanced by a commitment to maintaining and enhancing quality. I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.

I present a revised explanatory memorandum and move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2011 gives effect to the government's intention to establish the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, or TEQSA, a new national body responsible for quality assurance and regulation of higher education.

The bill was introduced into the Senate by the Hon. Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations.

The bill includes a number of consequential amendments to existing acts which are necessary to ensure that the new regulatory framework for higher education integrates seamlessly with existing regul­atory frameworks and funding programs.

The bill contains consequential amend­ments to the Higher Education Support Act 2003 which recognise that once the TEQSA legislation is enacted, new registration requirements for higher educ­tion providers will apply and TEQSA will be responsible for administering these requirements.

The bill also contains a number of amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000.

These amendments will allow TEQSA and its staff to undertake the functions relating to provider registration that were previously undertaken by the states and territories and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

In addition to these amendments, the bill contains a number of transitional provisions to manage the move to the new regulatory framework, including by outlining the process of registration and re-registration for existing providers of higher education.

The bill gives TEQSA the power to determine all applications for registration and re-registration that are pending at the time of transition.

To ensure that regulatory activities are not disrupted during the transition period, the bill also allows for the sharing of information and copies of records from the states and territories to the new authority.

Finally, the bill contains amendments to ensure that the quality assurance activities previously conducted by the Australian Universities Quality Agency continue under TEQSA.

I conclude by noting that the government amended the bill in the Senate to implement recommendations made by the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Emp­loyment and Workplace Relations.

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.

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