A new consortium led by Irish and Australian education quality agencies is joining forces to fight the rise of commercial academic cheating services targeting higher education students.

The Global Academic Integrity Network (GAIN), launched earlier today by TEQSA and Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), is working with similar agencies around the world to stamp out commercial cheating operations, which have flourished during recent years as online learning has become more prevalent.

Backed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), higher education regulatory agencies and other organisations with an interest in maintaining academic integrity are collaborating to protect the reputation and efficacy of national skills, qualifications, and education systems.

Quality assurance agencies and education providers are already working to inform students, staff and other stakeholders about the risks posed by cheating and to maintain cultures of academic integrity on-campus.

GAIN will share experiences and resources to help other jurisdictions develop legislation, regulatory approaches and frameworks that penalise facilitating and advertising of cheating services.

Other members of GAIN include the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, UK (QAA), The Office of the Lithuanian Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures, New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), and the Higher Education Authority (Zambia).

Endorsing organisations include the Council of Europe and the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI).

TEQSA Chief Commissioner Peter Coaldrake applauded the work that has already occurred in Australia but reiterated the need for a strong alliance to further progress action. 

“While individual jurisdictions are taking enormous strides in combatting cheating, many of these large operations are international and working together will give us the best chance of breaking their business models.”

“GAIN will share intelligence on cheating operators and insights to help different jurisdictions tighten their anti-cheating detection, laws and penalties.”

“GAIN is also sharing the best practice in anti-cheating resources and research to help educate students, lecturers and institutions about the integrity risks associated with these unethical practices and to keep abreast of emerging threats.”

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Media contact

TEQSA Communications: comms@teqsa.gov.au, 0437 143 012

TEQSA has issued a sector alert reminding all higher education providers of their obligations when using education agents.

Under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 and the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018, providers are required to monitor the performance of education agents and ensure that international students are genuine and engaged with learning.

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In March 2020, TEQSA and ASQA announced flexibility in regulatory arrangements regarding educational services for international higher and vocational students studying either in Australia or offshore.

In particular, ASQA and TEQSA relaxed the requirements in the National Code for students to attend face-to-face learning and enabled providers to deliver their courses online, in recognition of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This advice was updated in November 2021, with TEQSA and ASQA foreshadowing a review of these arrangements and a return to compliance with the ESOS National Code and ELICOS Standards during 2022, in light of the expected gradual return of international students to study in Australia.

TEQSA now expects that all providers will transition to compliance with the ESOS National Code by 30 June 2023, where it is safe and practical to do so. For clarity, the ESOS National Code applies to all international students studying on an Australian student visa.

This transition period enables certainty for providers to forward plan, including through the enrolment of students and commencement of courses of study in early 2023. TEQSA expects that providers will actively adjust modes of delivery and student support services to comply with the National Code.

TEQSA understands that for some providers, a return to compliance by 30 June 2023 will pose challenges. TEQSA will consult peak bodies, monitor the transition across the sector and engage specific providers for whom particular circumstances apply.

To mark the 7th International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating, TEQSA has launched a new checklist for higher education providers.

The checklist sets out 10 steps providers can follow to strengthen academic integrity within their institution and complements other TEQSA resources that support providers and students to combat the integrity risk posed by commercial academic cheating, also known as contract cheating.

Earlier this week, TEQSA helped to launch the Global Academic Integrity Network (GAIN). This new group brings together quality assurance and regulatory bodies from around the work to share information and best practice to help uphold academic integrity.

Australia’s leadership in efforts to combat the integrity risk posed by commercial academic cheating services was noted by other GAIN members, and Australia’s approach is seen as a model for others to emulate.

TEQSA Chief Commissioner Professor Peter Coaldrake AO said TEQSA’s work to reduce the integrity risk posed by commercial academic cheating services was guided by the themes of education, detection and enforcement.

“Cheating is never the right answer and we’re working in partnership with higher education institutions, students, academics and like-minded organisations globally to combat this growing threat,” Professor Coaldrake said.

“We’ve made available this new 10-step checklist to help institutions better prevent and detect cheating and to enforce their academic integrity and student misconduct policies.

“This reflects our approach – we’re working with the sector to educate students and staff to stop cheating from occurring, to better detect where cheating is happening and to enforce institutional policies and Australia’s anti-cheating laws.”

TEQSA has gathered information about 2330 cheating websites and shared this information with the sector.

Of these websites, about 580 have been found to target students at Australian institutions, and 152 have been blocked since July 2021. A further 697 social media accounts and posts on networks such as GumTree, Facebook and Instagram have also been removed.

The International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating is organised by the International Centre for Academic Integrity. TEQSA and Australian higher education institutions have regularly supported the day since it was started in 2015.

The new checklist, along with other academic integrity resources for providers, academics and students, can be accessed on our website.

Media enquiries

TEQSA Communications: comms@teqsa.gov.au, 0437 143 012

TEQSA recently reviewed and updated our Material Change Notification (MCN) Policy and guidance to clarify reporting requirements, reduce duplicated reporting and eliminate the need for further information requests.

Of particular note, changes which require reporting under the ESOS Act only need to be reported through the MCN mailbox, instead of reporting to both the ESOS/CRICOS mailbox and the MCN mailbox (materialchanges@teqsa.gov.au).

We’re also asking providers to include in the notification information about the risk identified and the mitigation steps the provider is taking to either ensure continued compliance or return to compliance. This will assist TEQSA’s prompt assessment and reduce the need to request further information. In the case of course changes, providers should include a statement explaining how it has determined that the changes do not warrant a new course application.

Not every change requires reporting. The updated guidance includes examples of changes that should be reported to TEQSA and changes that shouldn’t.

And to make sure that we are able to assess and action material changes notifications promptly, particularly when notifications result in updates to the National Register, providers should ensure that all changes are sent to the MCN inbox (materialchanges@teqsa.gov.au) with a 'cc' to the Case Manager, rather than being embedded in other correspondence to TEQSA.

With the extensive revision of the TEQSA provider portal scheduled for completion in 2023, we intend to further streamline this process to ease the administrative burden on providers.

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TEQSA has taken action to disrupt access to a further 110 commercial academic cheating service websites.

This is the second time TEQSA has used protocols with Australia’s major ISPs to block websites providing or promoting academic cheating services in breach of Australian law, after 40 sites were blocked in August.

TEQSA Chief Commissioner Professor Peter Coaldrake AO said the enforcement action had been timed to disrupt cheating behaviours during the October assessment period.

“Our analysis of web traffic patterns shows October is one of the peak months for traffic to cheating websites,” Professor Coaldrake said.

“Disrupting access will help protect higher education students from illegal sites that are known to engage in blackmail.”

“Cheating is never the right answer, and this action underlines that websites offering to write assignments or answer exam questions are illegal in Australia.”

Among the sites targeted for action were 5 operating in languages other English. TEQSA also found evidence that the blocked sites were targeting students across multiple disciplines at institutions in every state and territory.

TEQSA chief executive Alistair Maclean said the national regulator was methodically working through its priority list of 580 suspected cheating sites that are targeting students at Australian higher education institutions.

“Through our work with the sector, reports from the public and our own intelligence gathering, we’ve identified about 2330 suspected academic cheating sites. Of particular interest to us are 580 of these sites that are targeting students at Australian institutions,” Mr Maclean said.

“With this action, we’ve now disrupted access to 152 websites since July 2021. We’ve also had 697 social media posts and accounts removed from networks such as Facebook, Instagram and GumTree.”

“TEQSA will continue to undertake further investigation and enforcement activity in the coming months.”

Suspected illegal cheating websites can be reported at teqsa.gov.au/cheating.

TEQSA’s website also has a range of resources for students to help them understand and uphold their academic integrity, including information in languages other than English.

It is illegal to provider or advertise commercial academic cheating services (also known as contract cheating) to students at Australian higher education institutions. Penalties include up to 2 years imprisonment and/or fines of up to $110,000 for people convicted of providing or advertising a cheating service. The laws also enable TEQSA to disrupt access to cheating websites.

Students caught using a commercial academic cheating service are subject to their institution’s disciplinary procedures.

Media enquiries

Assistant Director, Communications: comms@teqsa.gov.au, 0437 143 012

TEQSA’s Cost Recovery Implementation Statement 2022-23 (CRIS) has been released today.

We’ve updated our website with new information for providers about how we will recover costs for our regulatory activities from 1 January 2023.

To assist providers as we transition to increased cost recovery, we’ve developed a CRIS web page (teqsa.gov.au/costrecovery) including answers to frequently asked questions.

If you’re a provider and your question hasn’t been answered in the FAQs, please email us at costrecovery@teqsa.gov.au with your specific query about CRIS.

TEQSA's privacy policy has been updated and the latest version is now available.

Changes to the Complete Australian Privacy Principles (APP) Privacy Policy and Privacy Management Plan, published on the TEQSA website, involve access to, and correction of, information, and issues around anonymity and pseudonymity.

In line with the 2021 changes to the Higher Education Standards (Threshold Standards) Framework, TEQSA has streamlined the process for Australian higher education institutions to apply for limited, unlimited or variations to their existing self-accrediting authority (SAA).

The simplified framework for SAA will enable TEQSA to assess a provider’s capacity to consistently meet the requirements for course accreditation without regulator approval or intervention.

Providers with limited SAA can accredit one or more higher education courses of study, or current and future higher education courses of study in a specific combination of levels or fields of education. 

Providers with unlimited SAA can accredit all current and future higher education courses of study in any level or field of education.

Providers can also apply to vary the scope of an existing limited SAA.

Prior to applying for SAA, TEQSA encourages providers to familiarise themselves with the relevant criteria of Part B in the HES Framework and TEQSA Act.

TEQSA also suggests that providers making an SAA application undertake the process concurrently with their re-registration application. Significant parts of the evidence provided in a renewal of registration application, particularly those parts relating to academic governance and quality assurance processes, are relevant to the SAA criteria. Submitting the applications concurrently may reduce the time spent preparing these applications.

When it is not practical for providers to lodge an SAA application at the same time as their re-registration application, providers may choose to lodge a standalone SAA application. TEQSA will review information already submitted before requesting further evidence when assessing a standalone application.

Applications for SAA must be made through TEQSA’s Provider Portal and include all evidence specified by TEQSA in the scoping letter and confirmed evidence table. Please refer to our guidance note on file naming and size conventions.

Further information:

• Application Guide for Self-Accrediting Authority
• Higher Education Standards Framework (2021)
• Provider Portal