The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Act 2011 (TEQSA Act) contains offences and civil penalty provisions relating to registered higher education providers and regulated entities. The offences and civil penalty provisions include where a:
- regulated entity offers a regulated higher education award and is not a registered higher education provider (section 105)
- regulated entity represents that it offers or confers a regulated higher education award and it is not a registered higher education provider (section 106)
- higher education provider offers a regulated higher education award that is not an honorary award, without requiring the completion of a course of study (section 107)
- regulated entity uses the word ‘university’ to represent itself, or its operations and it is not a registered higher education provider registered in a category that permits the use of the word ‘university’ (section 108)
- regulated entity falsely represents itself as a registered higher education provider (section 109)
- regulated entity falsely represents that it provides a course of study leading to a regulated higher education award (section 110)
- higher education provider falsely represents that a course of study is accredited (section 111)
- higher education provider provides all or part of a course of study leading to a regulated higher education award and the course of study is not accredited (section 112)
- person provides, offers to provide, or arranges for a third party person to provide, academic cheating services to a student (114A)
- person advertises academic cheating services to students (114B).
Failure to comply with a condition of registration or course accreditation may be a breach of a civil penalty provision (section 113 or 114). For more information about these provisions, providers and regulated entities should read the TEQSA Act.
More information about conditions that can be imposed under the TEQSA Act can be found on our Conditions of registration/accreditation page.