TEQSA Accreditation for higher education
Teqsa accreditation for higher education was formed to ensure quality in Australian higher education. It traced through the problems on why some education institutions failed to achieve student learning outcomes with the help of the country’s governing bodies. The blog details what Teqsa is all about in a nutshell.
What is Teqsa?
TEQSA is Tertiary Education Quality and Standards which is an independent agency that operates to safeguard and improve the quality of Australia’s Universities. In Australia, the standards for HEI and its quality assurance are regulated by law.
The Teqsa act was established in the year 2012, following the Bradley Review of Australia on higher education, which recommended that an independent national regulator be found for all higher education types. Teqsa was a milestone reform in Australian education that tried to iron out the current gaps and helped institutions reach their excellence.
What is Teqsa accreditation for higher education?
A kind of accreditation, Teqsa is designated by the ministry of higher education Australia to safeguard the reputation of the country’s higher education standards and students' interests by underpinning quality assurance and enhancement. According to Teqsa, all universities have self-accrediting authority and need not have to get their courses accredited by Teqsa as per Australian education standards.
It makes sure whether the Higher Education providers meet and are registered by the Higher Education Standards Framework (HES ). Therefore all courses regardless of face-to-face, blended, online, offshore, onshore, private, public have to meet the Teqsa standards of quality assurance.
Teqsa’s HES Framework
Teqsa carries out this regulatory work with a set of threshold standards framework. The HES framework consists of 2 standards;
1. Threshold standards:
This is nothing but a compliance framework that ensures quality providers and courses. These are the basis for how providers are regulated and they apply to all modes of delivery.
This is broken into 7 domains;
- Student participation and attainment
- Learning environment
- Teaching
- Research and research training
- Institutional quality and assurance
- Governance and accountability
- Representation, information, and information management
2. Set of criteria:
TEQSA also uses a set of criteria to categorize types of providers and their responsibility for self-accrediting the courses they deliver. Therefore the courses are usually accredited by TEQSA in line with the Threshold Standards. In other words, TEQSA gives providers a 'self-accreditation status', where they can accredit their own courses in line with the Threshold Standards.
What is the role of Teqsa?
- Registers the regulated entities as higher education providers give them the privilege to accredit their own courses of study.
- Conduct regular audits to make sure the providers are complying with these standards and encourage them to continually improve their practices.
- Guides re-accreditation assessments of courses produced by providers without self-accrediting authority
- Constantly render advice and make recommendations to the Commonwealth Minister of Education on concerns relating to the quality and regulation of higher education providers
- Cooperates with equivalent agencies from countries far and wide to collate, examine, interpret and transfer information associated with quality assurance practice and quality improvement in higher education.
- Supports providers to be flexible and adaptive in their delivery of higher education and to support students no matter where they are in the world.
TEQSA’s guidance for online delivery
TEQSA continues to embrace online learning and urges providers to consider support for students in the new learning environment. To ensure the same it includes guidance on
- Orientation and Progression
- Wellbeing
- Safety
- Learning Resources
- Educational Support for teaching staff
- Maintaining the quality of education and learning outcomes
- Learning Outcomes and Assessment, Academic Research, and Integrity
- Other governance arrangements to support online delivery - guidance on Governance Obligations, Corporate Monitoring and Accountability, and Academic Governance)
Teqsa recognizes that many providers have been shifting to online delivery in short time-frames. So in the interest of staff and student welfare, they have worked with peak bodies and experts to develop online learning good practice websites and webinar series to provide useful resources to support providers delivering quality online education.
What is a PIR?
The PIR is simply a mandatory data collection process that is owned by the Department of Education, Skills, and Employment that works in the name of TEQSA to ensure higher education providers submit key information about students, courses, campus, enrolments, and staff. This helps in TEQSA’s risk-based approach to regulation of the sector and minimizes the burden associated with regulatory processes, which includes renewal of registration.
What is Teqsa's assessment of risk?
Teqsa’s Risk Assessment Framework (RAF) undertakes risk assessment, annually for all providers, which follows the PIR and data acquisition process from all existing annual national collections received. It focuses on key risks across the sector and measures them on a regular basis.
The renewal of registration involves a deeper assessment of evidence to determine compliance with the Standards. Based on the emerging information, TEQSA may decide to update risk assessment beyond its annual cycle. Here’s an overview of the risk assessment process.
As mentioned in the above figure, with the data gathered Teqsa prepares risk assessments which will then be issued to the providers with an invitation to comment. Unless specifically requested by Teqsa, it is optional for providers to react to Teqsa’s annual risk assessments. The provider may choose to provide additional information. If Teqsa believes it is required to take further steps, a meeting is scheduled with the provider for risk assessment. A provider will then receive an updated copy of the risk assessment of the forthcoming renewal of the registration process.
TEQSA Accreditation and how Creatrix Campus product suite could help
Creatrix Campus suite has modules that can automate Teqsa’s HES framework intelligently, meeting Australian education standards.
End-to-end accreditation management system software that is highly configurable to meet several of the world’s leading accreditation standards like ABET, AACSB, Washington Accord, LIMA & Bologna processes, now including Teqsa.
Student participation and attainment with our expert Student Mentoring pathway and Student Success Management that helps students be on the right academic path, ensuring on-time graduation.
Improved teaching-learning practices through our modern and mobile-first Learning Management System that has an array of pedagogical tools, resources library to raise the bar of learning and teaching methods.
The learning environment is achieved by Creatrix’s flexibility to integrate with any third-party software to create an effective online learning environment.
For better Teaching, Creatrix has modules like Outcome-based Education (OBE) and Competency-based Education (CBE), and their pedagogical learning tools, Learning Management System (LMS) are expressly designed for today’s mobile-ready students. Creatrix Faculty Lifecycle Management system and Research management take complete care of faculty operations by bringing academic work, Research and research training, data, and processes together in a centralized place.
For institutional quality and assurance with institutional lifecycle management that supports institutions with meaningful data and powerful reporting for insights that help students thrive, faculty shine, and administrators perform better.
Ensuring representation, information, and information management is our platform’s compatibility with security standards like GDPR and ISO 27001 for added security. It is a flexible on-cloud deployment with cutting-edge security, data encryption tools, and customizable account access so your data remains safe.
With over a decade of experience, the Creatrix Campus product suite has been powering higher education institutions with deeper analytics, system integration, innovative on-cloud, and mobile capabilities to digitally evolve while controlling costs. Our team of experts from educational backgrounds can help improve your efforts on research output, academic performance, and the overall quality, and directly impact your Teqsa accreditation efforts. Contact us to know more.
