TEQSA has obtained a Federal Court order that requires carriage service providers to block access to the website Assignmenthelp4you.com.

TEQSA lodged the application in July 2021, seeking an injunction requiring 51 carriage service providers to take such steps as the Court considers reasonable to disable access to the website.

The Federal Court yesterday determined the website facilitated a contravention of section 114B of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act). The court also ordered that the 51 carriage service providers block access to this website within 15 business days.

This is the first time TEQSA has exercised its power to apply for an injunction under the amendments made by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (Prohibiting Academic Cheating Services) Act 2020. TEQSA filed the injunction application under Section 127A of the TEQSA Act.

TEQSA Chief Executive Officer Alistair Maclean welcomed the court’s decision.

“TEQSA selected this website because we believed we were able to demonstrate its operators were in breach of Australian law,” Mr Maclean said.

“This decision supports TEQSA’s ongoing work to reduce the risk posed by commercial academic cheating services to student interests and the reputation and standing of Australian higher education.”

Further information

• Protect yourself from illegal commercial cheating services
• Resources for providers and academics
• Resources for students

TEQSA Chief Commissioner Professor Peter Coaldrake AO has welcomed the appointment of Adrienne Nieuwenhuis as TEQSA Commissioner.

The Minister for Education and Youth, the Hon Alan Tudge MP, today confirmed Ms Nieuwenhuis’ appointment for a five-year term.

In welcoming Ms Nieuwenhuis, Professor Coaldrake noted her extensive higher education regulation and quality assurance experience would support TEQSA’s work to protect the interests of students and the reputation and standing of Australian higher education.

“Ms Nieuwenhuis brings more than three decades of experience across the higher education and vocational education and training (VET) sectors to the TEQSA Commission,” Professor Coaldrake said. 

“Her comprehensive understanding of quality assurance, regulatory standards and contemporary best practice will greatly support TEQSA’s work as the higher education sector emerges from the pandemic.”

Prior to her appointment at TEQSA, Ms Nieuwenhuis was Director of the Office of Vice Chancellor at the University of South Australia. Previously, she was Director of Quality, Tertiary Education, Science and Research in the South Australian Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, where she worked closely with the Commonwealth Government in the establishment of the national regulatory systems for both higher education and VET.  

In addition to this, Ms Nieuwenhuis was an inaugural member of both the Higher Education Standards Panel (2011-2014) and the National Skills Standards Council (2011-2013). Ms Nieuwenhuis was reappointed to the Higher Education Standards Panel for a further 3-year term in 2018, resigning from the panel prior to her appointment at TEQSA. She has been a member of the South Australian Skills Commission since 2013 and is also a member of the Australian Industry and Skills Committee.

• Further information about the role of the TEQSA Commission

We're delighted to announce that registrations for the 5th TEQSA Conference are now open.

This year's conference theme is Hard lessons, valuable learnings, heightened expectations and we have identified a range of speakers who will explore how the higher education sector can apply the learnings from the past year to rise above the challenges facing students, academics and institutions to forge an exceptional, vibrant brand for Australian higher education.

After careful consideration, for 2021 we will be delivering a one-day virtual conference to be held on Thursday 25 November. The decision to switch to 100 per cent virtual was taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to minimise any potential disruptions due to public health restrictions.

The program will feature panels and keynotes and will provide opportunities for questions and interaction via our virtual platform.

We have made every effort to put attendance within the reach of as many providers as possible and we encourage you to register now.

TEQSA looks forward to having you join us at this year’s conference, which promises to be an event which will stimulate discussion and generate new ideas.

• Details: teqsaconference.org.au

TEQSA has commenced Federal Court proceedings to block access to the website Assignmenthelp4you.com.

TEQSA is seeking an injunction requiring 51 carriage service providers to take such steps as the Court considers reasonable to disable access to the website.

This is the first time TEQSA has exercised its power to apply for an injunction under the amendments made by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (Prohibiting Academic Cheating Services) Act 2020.

The application for an injunction has been made on the basis that the website facilitates a contravention of section 114B of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act).

TEQSA has filed the injunction application under Section 127A of the TEQSA Act.

The Australian Government Solicitor (AGS) is acting for TEQSA in this matter.

As this matter is presently before the Court, TEQSA is unable to comment further at this time.

Media enquiries 

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

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency was saddened to learn of the death of Commissioner Cliff Walsh earlier today.

Emeritus Professor Walsh was appointed as a TEQSA Commissioner in February 2014, with his appointment renewed in 2018.

Prior to his appointment at TEQSA, Professor Walsh held professorial appointments at the University of Adelaide and the Australian National University and visiting appointments at universities in Canada, the USA and the UK.

During his career, Professor Walsh was also an advisor to a Prime Minister and State Premiers; an Associate Commissioner for several Productivity Commission Inquiries; an expert advisor to the European Commission and the World Bank; a member of the board of headspace; numerous committees of inquiry into public sector policies and programs; and a member of the Australian Competition Tribunal, which reviews appeals on decisions of Australia’s competition regulator, the ACCC.

Cliff Walsh made an important contribution to TEQSA over a sustained period. On behalf of past and present Commissioners and staff, TEQSA extends its sympathies to Professor Walsh’s family.

TEQSA, Australia’s independent higher education regulatory and quality assurance agency, has completed the transition of Australia's 186 higher education providers to new category standards.

Following TEQSA’s assessment, Avondale University College has been registered as an Australian University. TEQSA has also registered the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), Moore Theological College, and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in the new University College category.

The changes follow today’s commencement of the revised Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021. The revised framework incorporates the recommendations of the 2019 review of Provider Category Standards.

TEQSA Chief Commissioner Professor Peter Coaldrake said the revised framework would simplify and enhance the categorisation of higher education providers, ensuring the category standards remain fit for purpose.

“Australia has a strong higher education sector and these reforms will support greater provider diversity, with a focus on embedding excellence across Australia’s evolving higher education landscape”, said Professor Coaldrake.

“The reforms include the new University College category, which recognises high-quality institutions and provides them with new opportunities to develop course offerings that meet the future needs of students, employers, industry and communities. The updated standards also include augmented research requirements for universities.”

In congratulating the four providers changing category, Professor Coaldrake noted TEQSA had undertaken a comprehensive and thorough approach to ensuring the revised category standards were fairly and consistently applied.

“TEQSA congratulates Avondale for achieving the requirements for registration as an Australian University under the Higher Education Standards Framework,” Professor Coaldrake said.

“Our decision recognises Avondale’s commitment to student outcomes, its significant research progress and Avondale’s contributions to the communities it serves.

“TEQSA also congratulates NIDA, AFTRS and Moore Theological College for being the first three providers to be registered in the new University College category.

“Each of these providers demonstrated to TEQSA that they offer high-quality higher education and meet the standards for registration as University Colleges.”

TEQSA’s national register is being updated to incorporate the new provider categories.

TEQSA’s website also contains further information about the 2021 Threshold Standards.

Media enquiries 

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

TEQSA has renewed Murdoch University’s registration as an Australian University for a period of four years until 9 June 2025.

The renewal was made under section 36 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act).

This follows TEQSA’s 2020:

• compliance assessment of Murdoch under section 59 of the TEQSA Act, and
• assessment of Murdoch’s application for renewal of registration on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).

After assessing the University’s registration renewal application, on 9 June 2021 TEQSA concluded that Murdoch was at risk of not continuing to meet the relevant requirements of Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015.

These risks were in relation to:

• Governance (Standard 6.2.1 and Standard 6.3.2) and the extent to which:
  • Murdoch’s governing body has sufficiently managed and mitigated material risks identified in its operations
  • the Academic Council adequately identifies, mitigates and maintains oversight of material risks that impact teaching and learning quality at Murdoch.
• Course review and improvement activities (Standard 5.3.4) and the extent to which Murdoch has established systematic benchmarking of student performance data across comparable courses.

Having considered whether to include conditions on the university’s registration, TEQSA will afford Murdoch the opportunity to undertake the necessary actions to address these risks through a voluntary undertaking.

In reaching this decision, TEQSA noted that Murdoch has commissioned reviews which will assist it to identify risks and possible future non-compliance and to address them in a timely and effective manner. These actions reflect a positive commitment to continuous improvement at Murdoch.

The voluntary undertaking sets out the actions Murdoch intends to take to address most of the identified risks. It will also provide a suitable framework for Murdoch to demonstrate ongoing improvements to its corporate and academic governance arrangements and the monitoring, review and improvement of its courses.

TEQSA has made this statement in light of the general public interest in the matters covered by the assessment. This disclosure is made under s196 of the TEQSA Act.

Notes

• Statement on the outcome of the 2020 compliance assessment (9 October 2020)
• Statement on the outcome of the 2020 CRICOS assessment (9 December 2020)

TEQSA’s Higher Education Integrity Unit has commenced sharing intelligence about commercial academic cheating services with Australian higher education providers.

Today, the agency released a dataset to the sector. The data, in the form of assignments, was obtained by Australian researchers looking into the global activities of commercial academic cheating services.

The researchers worked with anti-cheating software provider Turnitin to analyse the data, identifying 2628 instances where substantially similar assignments had been submitted through the Turnitin licenses of 78 Australian education institutions between 2015 and 2019.

The Australian providers included 34 universities, 27 higher education providers, 2 non-higher-education providers and 15 other providers, with the assignments covering a broad range of disciplines.

The data also showed evidence of cheating affecting universities and educational institutions in several other countries and TEQSA is in the process of putting the necessary legal instruments in place to enable sharing the data with its international partners.

TEQSA CEO Alistair Maclean said that intelligence sharing was part of TEQSA’s multi-pronged approach to combatting commercial academic cheating services.

“TEQSA is taking both enforcement and educative approaches to prevent, detect and respond to commercial academic cheating services, which threaten the integrity of Australian higher education,” Mr Maclean said.

“New laws enacted in September 2020 give TEQSA the power to gather, store and share information about illegal cheating service operators and provides penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment or fines of up to $110,000 for providing or advertising academic cheating services.

“TEQSA’s Higher Education Integrity Unit is presently investigating a number of services – including the sources of this data - with a view to pursuing further enforcement action in the coming months.

“Our investigative and intelligence sharing activities are backed by our work with providers and academics to strengthen their ability to prevent, detect and respond to cases of commercial cheating and strengthen students’ understanding of why cheating is never the right answer.”

Australia’s anti-cheating laws target the operators of these unethical services – individual students who pay to cheat are subject to their institution’s disciplinary policies.

“Our enforcement focus continues to be the operators of these illegal and unethical websites,” Mr Maclean said.

Anti-cheating resources, including a new suite of materials for students, can be accessed via the TEQSA website, which also has information about reporting suspected illegal cheating services targeting Australian students.

Media enquiries 

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

TEQSA’s Higher Education Integrity Unit has today alerted the sector to an emerging integrity risk related to online study platforms seeking to employ students for on-campus promotional activities. 

We know many Australian academics and institutions share TEQSA’s concerns that these sites may present a risk to academic integrity by promoting, enabling or supplying commercial academic cheating services (also known as contract cheating).

TEQSA is also concerned that students may unwittingly find themselves promoting online platforms that enable commercial academic cheating to their peers, and therefore risk prosecution under Australia’s anti-cheating laws.

• Advisory statement for providers
• Advice for students