Register and information guidelines – consultation paper

Register guidelines 

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Register) Guidelines 2017 (Register Guidelines) is a legislative instrument that sets out the information that TEQSA must enter on the national register in respect of each registered higher education provider.

Currently the Register Guidelines require TEQSA to include the name of each registered provider, as well as its ABN, business name(s) used for higher education operations, head office address, website address and titles of courses accredited by TEQSA.

TEQSA proposed amendments

TEQSA proposes to amend the Register Guidelines to include:

  • The name, position title, phone number and email address of the principal contact officer and the Chief Executive Officer for each registered higher education provider.
  • Where relevant, that a registered higher education provider in the ‘Australian University’ provider category has a specialised focus in accordance with the Threshold Standards.

Including the details of each provider’s principal contact officer and the Chief Executive Officer, would assist TEQSA to maintain current and accurate contact information for each registered provider. This is because section 29 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act) requires providers to notify TEQSA of an event that will require the national register to be updated. The proposed change will provide clarity to providers in terms of the requirement to notify TEQSA when there are changes in specific roles. This change would also bring TEQSA in line with training.gov.au, the equivalent national register for the vocational education and training sector. 

With the introduction of the new Provider Category Standards, the ‘Australian University of Specialisation’ category has been removed. The proposed new requirement to state that an Australian University has a specialised focus, where relevant, offers a mechanism to publicly record that there is a relevant specialisation.

Information guidelines 

Section 204 of the TEQSA Act allows TEQSA to make, by legislative instrument, Information Guidelines to give effect to the requirements of subsection 189.

The Information Guidelines is a legislative instrument that sets out the Commonwealth authorities and the State or Territory authorities to which the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) may disclose higher education information under sections 189 and 194 of the TEQSA Act.

TEQSA proposed amendments

TEQSA proposes to include the following authorities in the Information Guidelines in Schedule A:
 

Audit Authorities

  • Audit Office of New South Wales
  • Victorian Auditor-General’s Office
  • Queensland Audit Office
  • Office of the Auditor General (Western Australia)
  • Auditor-General’s Department (South Australia)
  • Northern Territory Auditor-General’s Office
  • Tasmanian Audit Office
  • Australian Capital Territory Audit Office
  • Australian National Audit Office

Anti-Corruption Authorities

  • Independent Commission Against Corruption (New South Wales)
  • Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (Victoria)
  • Crime and Corruption Commission (Queensland)
  • Corruption and Crime Commission (Western Australia)
  • Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (South Australia)
  • Office of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (Northern Territory)
  • Integrity Commission Tasmania
  • Australian Capital Territory Integrity Commission

The inclusion of these bodies will ensure that TEQSA is capable of sharing relevant information about matters involving registered higher education providers.

Consultation process

This paper is being made available on our website and has been sent directly to peak bodies for providers regulated by TEQSA under the TEQSA Act.

TEQSA requests that feedback on the proposed amendments to the Register and Information Guidelines, along with any other relevant feedback, be submitted via email to review@teqsa.gov.au.

Submissions close at 5:00pm [AEDST] on Friday 26 November 2021.

Interested parties can also email review@teqsa.gov.au with queries about this consultation, or to seek clarification regarding the proposed amendments.

Please note that TEQSA intends to publish a summary of submissions received. If you do not wish for your submission (or part of your submission) to be published, please indicate this in your response. TEQSA may alter the format or content of submissions before they are published, or decline to publish particular submissions, having regard to the requirements for Australian Government websites.