Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans, today welcomed the passage of legislation that builds on the transformation of Australia’s higher education system with the creation of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA).
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Bill 2011 establishes the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) as the new national regulatory and quality assurance agency for higher education.
“TEQSA will be a next generation regulator, providing the safeguards to ensure that the expansion of the sector which has resulted from the Gillard Government’s reforms and record investment does not come at the expense of quality,” Senator Evans said.
“TEQSA will play a pivotal role in ensuring the overall quality of our higher education system. It will replace existing current state and territory-based approaches, reducing the number of Australian regulatory and quality assurance bodies for higher education from nine to one.
“Combining these activities in a single higher education quality agency is a world-leading approach which the Gillard Government has taken with the support of the higher education sector.
“It will see the foundations of the tertiary education system being based on quality, integrity and sustainability.
“The establishment of TEQSA is a significant reform that will underpin the move to a demand-driven higher education system.”
The new legislation supports the Gillard Government’s higher education reforms which have resulted in an extra 80,000 undergraduate students grasping the opportunities of a university education since 2007.
With the recent creation of the Australian Skills Quality Authority as the national vocational education and training regulator, the Government has now put in place the modern regulatory architecture to support quality in the delivery of Australian tertiary education.
For further information visit: www.deewr.gov.au/TEQSA
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