Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a revised explanatory memorandum relating to the bill and move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Provider Category Standards and Other Measures) Bill 2020 will future-proof Australia's higher education system, cutting red tape and simplifying regulation.

The Bill amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act) to:

Review of the Higher Education Provider Category Standards

It also amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to replace references to 'Indigenous Students' with 'Indigenous Persons'.

PCS Review

The 2017‒18 Budget included a measure to undertake a Review of the Higher Education Provider Category Standards, which are part of the Higher Education Standards Framework Threshold Standards. The PCS Review was completed in 2019 by Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake AO, who recommended amending the Provider Category Standards to clarify and streamline the regulatory framework, to ensure it is fit for purpose for all stakeholders, including students, the regulator, and current and future providers. The Government accepted all ten of the PCS Review's recommendations.

The key recommendation of the Review was to both simplify and enhance the categorisation of higher education providers by:

The University College category will introduce a mark of quality and better signal diversity and differentiation in the non-university sector. It will provide an opportunity for the highest quality providers to operate in regional and thinner markets without the burden imposed by the need to undertake research in the university categories. It will offer an achievable and practical transitional pathway for institutions seeking to work towards university status. It will also provide a new pathway for the future establishment of 'greenfield' universities, should a state or territory government or significant Australian or overseas entity wish to establish a new university from scratch.

The new provider categories also clarify the obligations of institutions in both the Australian University and University College categories to be active participants in their communities and enhance the employability of graduates through civic leadership and engagement with employers and industry. The new categories also clarify how the quality of research activity will be assessed in the Australian University category, giving more certainty to institutions about the expectations for research quality.

The amendments to the TEQSA Act in this bill are consequential to the amendments to the Standards themselves, which will be remade through a new legislative instrument once this bill has been passed. The changes to the Standards have been drafted by the Higher Education Standards Panel, as required by section 58 of the TEQSA Act. The commencement date for the related provisions in this bill will be fixed by proclamation so that they take effect on the same day as the new Threshold Standards instrument. I expect this to be 1 July 2021, so that higher education providers have certainty and time to prepare for any minor impacts expected.

Impact Review

This bill also enacts a change recommended by the Review of the Impact of the TEQSA Act on the Higher Education Sector undertaken by Deloitte Access Economics in 2016-17. While the majority of recommendations from this review were responded to through a previous bill, an outstanding recommendation to simplify the framing of the Threshold Standards in the TEQSA Act was deferred until after completion of the PCS Review. These amendments will present the Threshold Standards as a single unified framework, instead of four distinct types of Threshold Standards. This will enable the structure of the Threshold Standards instrument to be simplified, making it clearer for providers, students and others to read and use.

Student records provisions

The recently announced Job-ready Graduates package of higher education reforms included a measure to provide TEQSA with the legislative authority to assume control of higher education student records from a registered higher education provider in the event the provider ceases operations. These amendments will give TEQSA similar legislative powers to those of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) in relation to providers that cease operating. This is a significant reform that will help current and future higher education students obtain ready access to their academic records in the event a higher education provider ceases to operate.

Domain names

The bill includes a measure to ensure protection of the word 'university' in Australian Internet domain names, by requiring ministerial consent to use an Australian Internet domain name containing the word 'university' or derivatives. This measure is consistent with existing provisions that protect use of the word 'university' in company and business names and will enable an approval process that previously operated in relation to domain names to be reinstated.

A Government amendment to the Bill was introduced in the other place to insert an updated version of Item 29 following further consultation with the Minister for Communications and the domain name administrator for the .au [pronounced "dot-ay-you"] domain space. This amendment is reflected in the Bill now before the Senate and was designed to better align some technical aspects of the provision to the highly automated process the domain administrator uses to manage domain name applications. While the expected application and approval process remain the same, the amended Item 29 ensures the domain administrator can't technically breach the law if a domain name licence is issued through an automated process before the applicant has sought the Minister's consent to include the word 'university' in the name.

Domain names are issued automatically on application if the name is currently unused. To administer this new law, some very obvious domain names will be blocked from application – like "university.com.au" and "uni.com.au". Other requested domain names will be subject to review shortly after they are issued. Where a domain name has been issued with "university" somewhere in it and there is no record of the Minister having provided consent, the purchaser will be asked to seek that consent. If consent is not provided, use of the domain name will be suspended by the domain administrator. For most applicants and those who have sought consent up-front there will be no administrative burden at all.

Other measures

Other measures in the bill to improve higher education regulation will:

Schedule 2 to the Bill amends the Higher Education Support Act to replace references to 'Indigenous Students' with "Indigenous Persons'. These amendments will confirm the existing arrangement that higher education providers can use Indigenous student assistance grants to assist prospective, as well as existing, Indigenous students.

In summary, the measures in this bill will reduce red tape and simplify the regulation and administration of Australian higher education.

I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned.