Feedback open for reforms to ‘toothless’ higher education regulator TEQSA
Universities and colleges will have six weeks to give feedback on reforms to a “toothless tiger” regulator, aimed at fixing the oversight crisis in our higher education system.
The federal government has published a consultation paper calling for suggestions to reform the “toothless” Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), amid a governance crisis in higher education.
Universities and colleges, as well as their staff and students, will have a little more than six weeks to submit responses to the consultation process, which will examine ways to strengthen the regulator responsible for registering and accrediting Australian universities and the courses they offer.
The paper lays out 16 questions for consideration, including whether TEQSA should have powers to immediately suspend a higher education provider’s registration in the face of “acute risks”.
Under its current remit, TEQSA can issue civil penalties including fines and administrative sanctions to providers who fail to meet the minimum standards.
However, the paper notes, “its use of enforcement powers for noncompliance with the Threshold Standards is complex and resource-intensive, requiring multiple procedural steps before TEQSA can take action against a non-compliant provider”.
“This limits TEQSA’s ability to take direct, proportionate and timely enforcement action.”
Among the proposed reforms are to remove constraints and allow TEQSA to take proactive measures when universities and colleges “fail to take reasonable steps to protect students, rather than waiting for negative student outcomes to occur”.
It also suggests giving TEQSA the power to crack down on serious financial risks, governance failures and fraudulent conduct where there’s a risk to the reputation of the entire sector.
Concurrent federal and NSW parliamentary inquiries are investigating the quality of governance in our universities, in the wake of explosive allegations lodged against the Australian National University’s administration and its cost-cutting efforts.
TEQSA is currently conducting a “compliance assessment” into the ANU, appointing former Medicare CEO Lynelle Briggs last week to “support” its inquiries.
The University of Technology Sydney is also in the spotlight amid cuts to 400 positions and 14 courses.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said anyone who does not believe universities are facing a crisis of governance is “living under a rock”.
“TEQSA’s powers haven’t really changed since it was created almost 15 years ago … it needs to be able to respond to systemic risks, not just individual compliance,” he said.
“At the moment TEQSA has a sledgehammer and a feather, and not much in-between.”
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes, who has previously described the regulator as “a bit of a toothless tiger”, said it needs to be “armed” with greater powers “so issues don’t evolve into crises like we’re seeing at ANU and UTS”.
“It’s absolutely critical TEQSA is given some real teeth to crack down on the governance crisis engulfing our universities,” she said.
“For too long, vice-chancellors have operated without a regulator properly empowered to respond to their damaging decisions that hurt staff and students.
“Beefing up TEQSA’s powers is a great step, now we need to ensure it’s combined with wider governance reform that refocuses universities on serving the public good.”
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