AUSTRALIA: Government defers standards bill

An outcry from Australia's universities has forced the federal government to hold off until next year introducing legislation to parliament that would establish a new and powerful quality and standards agency. The legislation was to have been tabled last week but Education Minister Chris Evans announced it would be deferred to the autumn session of parliament in 2011.

Vice-chancellors had voiced strong opposition to what they feared would be a highly intrusive new system that would affect their autonomy and possibly lose them funding. As University World News reported recently, vice-chancellors' concerns were raised by the lack of debate and consultation surrounding the drafting of the legislation, and these were hardly eased when the government called a confidential briefing with key players excluded.

Just how intrusive the proposed legislation was to have been was revealed when those attending the briefing earlier this month received copies of the lengthy document setting out the legislation. The briefing itself turned out to be a debacle with representatives from the main education organisations appalled at the presentations made by Education Department bureaucrats.

Although those selected to attend the confidential briefing had been told they would have plenty of time to study the draft legislation, they did not receive the 400-page document until a few days before the meeting and were stunned by its punitive tone.

Those present from the various organisations and student groups were in agreement the legislation should not be tabled and needed a substantial rewrite - this time with the sectors taking part in a series of consultations.

University representatives could not believe their eyes when they saw one section stating the federal act would override state legislation and that a university could be deregistered, despite being established by a state parliament, with the Commonwealth immune from any state action.

"The whole event was terrible, I've never seen anything so unprofessional and undemocratic," one of those present told University World News. "One of the key issues was that the legislation does not articulate with the state acts that establish universities or the colleges. They didn't even have a lawyer present who could explain how the federal and state acts would relate to each other."

The legislation was to establish a new Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency to replace the existing Australian Universities Quality Agency, which conducts regular audits of all higher education institutions and releases public reports on its findings. But the agency lacks any power to oblige institutions to adopt its recommendations.

There is widespread agreement among vice-chancellors and the heads of the various vocational education colleges of the need for tighter controls over the operations of private providers, especially following the collapse of dozens of colleges that were set up simply to provide an easy means for foreign students to gain permanent residency.

But vice-chancellors did not believe universities needed to be subject to the same controls, or threatened with deregistration.

Announcing that the legislation would be deferred, Evans said the government would now "consider valuable feedback on the draft TEQSA legislation provided by the tertiary education sector in consultations conducted last week". He said the government was committed to ensuring that growth in the higher education system would be underpinned by a robust quality assurance and regulatory framework.

"It is an important reform so it's essential that we get it right," Evans said. "One of the lessons from the exponential growth that we saw in parts of the international education sector in recent years is that poor quality providers have the potential to hurt other participants if quality concerns are not effectively addressed.

"The establishment of TEQSA is an important step to ensuring students receive a high quality education from Australia's higher education institutions and that Australia's international reputation as a quality provider of tertiary education is protected."

But in a pointed reference to universities, he said that in the transition to demand-driven funding for undergraduate degrees it was important to have in place a regulator - "not just an auditor" - with power to take appropriate action to protect quality in higher education. The new agency would take an approach that was "risk-based and proportionate".

"What that means in practice is that those education providers which have performance issues will be subject to close scrutiny, requirements for improvement, and ultimately sanctions," Evans said. "On the other hand, well-established institutions with a record of high performance will conduct their business with little involvement by TEQSA."

He said the government would undertake further work to address issues raised in the consultations: "In the coming months, I anticipate holding a further consultation process similar to last week's event before the legislation is introduced early next year. Additionally, the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment continues to be an important forum for the achievement of national consistency across jurisdictions. I look forward to discussing the implementation of TEQSA with my state and territory colleagues at our [next] meeting."

geoff.maslen@uw-news.com