Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise today to speak on the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Bill 2011. The Gillard government is committed to improving the quality and integrity of our higher education system. In 2008 we initiated a review to examine the ability of our higher education system to meet the needs of the Australian community and economy. The release of the Australian higher education review, known as the Bradley review, was a milestone achievement. The findings of the review and the recommendations made by the expert panel led by Professor Bradley called for a shift in the current funding and resource arrangements for our higher education system to place students at the centre of our system. The Bradley review was the catalyst for a package of reforms announced by this government in 2009-10 to support its productivity and participation agenda, which is something that it has built on again with the release of the recent budget.

The transformation of our higher education system is central to achieving our vision of a stronger and fairer country. Our reforms set new targets for higher education participation and access along with increased resources for teaching, learning and, importantly, research. At the centre of our reforms we are moving to a demand driven approach for funding undergraduate student places. This is something that I certainly welcome as the federal member for Corangamite. Within my electorate I have Deakin University, and they are certainly expecting a very substantial increase in the number of places that they offer as a consequence of this reform. Deakin University are the largest employer in my electorate and certainly contribute a lot to the life of Geelong. This will free up universities to make the right strategic choices to better deliver on their unique goals and to meet the needs of their student bodies. It will encourage diversity and specialisation, which will allow universities to play to their strengths. It will also help transform the scale, potential and quality of our universities and higher education providers, allowing them to grow in the sector and opening up doors to higher education for a whole new generation of Australians.

As we enter a period of rapid growth of enrolments in universities and higher education institutions in Australia, it is important that we as a government and as a nation have confidence in the quality of the education that students are receiving and that there are assurances around this. This bill establishes the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, otherwise known as TEQSA, as a single national regulatory and quality assurance agency for higher education. Using a standards based approach for regulation, TEQSA will require institutions to meet or exceed threshold standards in order to register and deliver higher education in Australia. This will ensure that the expansion of our higher education system will not come at the expense of quality. TEQSA will combine the regulatory activities currently undertaken at this stage by states and territories. This government believes in a single national approach to education reform, and I think this will lead to that happening.

I now turn to the specifics of the functions undertaken by TEQSA. TEQSA will undertake a variety of regulatory functions, including registration and re-registration, accreditation and re-accreditation, and compliance and quality assessments. TEQSA's regulatory approach will be based on proportionality and risk. To support this approach, the government has established a set of basic principles for regulation which TEQSA must adhere to in all of its functions. The principles include the principle of regulatory necessity, which provides that TEQSA should not burden a provider more than is necessary in the functions which it undertakes; the principle of reflecting risk, which provides that TEQSA should have regard to a provider's history, including the history of compliance with state and federal laws relating to higher education; and the principle of proportionate regulation, which provides that TEQSA must exercise its powers in such a way that it is proportionate to a provider's noncompliance. TEQSA will be required to tailor its regulatory actions in order to comply with these principles. Importantly, TEQSA will have the power to undertake enforcement action to address quality issues where necessary. As a statutory agency, TEQSA will be subject to the Financial Management and Account­ability Act 1997 and its staff will be engaged under the Public Service Act 1999.

The Higher Education Standards Framework will incorporate national quality standards and benchmarks. These will be central to ensuring that the bar for entry to the higher education sector is sufficiently high and will provide a solid base of performance from which all providers can build excellence and diversity.

As I mentioned earlier, I am very proud to be one of a number of members in this place who have a Deakin University campus in their electorate. Deakin University was of course established in Geelong back in the 1970s and has rapidly grown since then. The university has informed me that it is planning on taking full account of the opportunities to grow its student base over the coming years. I certainly look forward to working closely with it to assist, wherever I can, in enabling it to grow and continue to perform a vital educational set of opportunities for people not only within my electorate of Corangamite but from the seat of Corio and from the federal seat of Wannon, to the west.

Establishing a national framework that deals with quality of our universities makes enormous sense. There is of course some risk that if universities grow too quickly without having some regard for quality those institutions might slip. By putting in place these reforms I think we can grow university student numbers but do it in a way that is sustainable and ensures we have a quality based system. As a consequence I commend these bills to the House and commend the work that has been undertaken by all of our education ministers in making sure that we grow opportunities for all Australians.

See this speech in context