TEQSA Conference 2017 | Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

The Second Annual TEQSA Conference (TEQSA) conference ran from 29 November until 1 December in 2017. It featured 70 presentations, keynote addresses and panel discussions. In only its second year, the conference attracted 800 delegates including almost 100 higher education students.

Delegates heard from thought leaders, policy makers and students on a range of issues facing the sector, including what’s in store for the future both here in Australia and internationally.

Keynote presenters included Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, of the Australian National University; Emeritus Professor Kwong Lee Dow, Patron of the Higher Education Quality Network; Andrew Norton, Higher Education Program Director at the Grattan Institute; Professor Peter Shergold, Chair of the Higher Education Standards Panel; and Professor Nick Saunders, Chief Commissioner of TEQSA.

Presentations over the three days covered everything from the financial realities of the higher education sector, to whether higher education is meeting industry challenges. Students also featured prominently in the conference sessions with representatives from higher education providers offering unique input to discussions.

The third and final day of the conference featured almost 50 concurrent sessions in line with the conference’s themes of students, quality and success. Winners were chosen from fully submitted papers in line with these themes and announced at the conference dinner.

Winners included:

Dr Sara Booth, University of Tasmania: A cost-effective solution for external referencing of accredited courses of study (Quality)
Assistant Professor Gesa Ruge and Associate Professor Corolie McCormack, University of Canberra: Understanding how students develop their skills for employability (Students)
Maria Spies and Dr Margot McNeill, Navitas: Holistic curriculum transformation: A scalable model for student success (Success).