Today, more Australians than ever, particularly those from lower socio-economic status backgrounds are participating in higher education. All the while, Australia continues to maintain its outstanding reputation for delivering quality education.

Our educational institutions, on the whole, comprise people at all levels committed to ensuring quality and striving for excellence for their students and in support of the Australian community and economy more generally. In an increasingly competitive and global education market, it is crucial that Australia continues to demonstrate and further develop the quality of its higher education sector.

To ensure Australia’s ongoing competiveness, an effective regulator is a necessary and crucial component of the higher education regulatory architecture.
This review was established to address concerns raised by the sector about the effectiveness of Australia’s higher education regulatory framework. We have concluded that having one body responsible for compliance and monitoring such as the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) is crucial to maintaining the quality of Australia’s higher education sector. Moreover, we have found wide and continued support for the role of a national higher education regulator.

However, TEQSA faces challenges which require action. Some of these challenges are a by-product of the higher education architecture and indeed the legislation underpinning regulation, while others are a result of TEQSA’s regulatory approach. To address these, a range of reforms are recommended that aim to improve both the broader regulatory architecture and the regulatory approach currently implemented by TEQSA.