The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) has opened consultation on three Guidance Notes for the higher education sector in its ongoing effort to improve efficiency and support greater self-assurance.
The three draft documents are:
The first two guidance notes remind providers of their responsibilities under the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 and the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act) in these two areas.
Providers should pay particular attention to the ‘identified issues’ in the guidance notes, which TEQSA says in the context of the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 are indicative of risk. These ‘identified issues’ are likely to provide an insight to concerns of the regulator and potentially where it will turn its attention when engaging with individual providers.
Information for prospective and current students
In the context of international education, in the draft guidance note on information for prospective and current students TEQSA highlights an identified issue with there being limited or no information about requirements under the National Code.
Representation
Identified issues of concern for TEQSA for representation of interest to the international education sector include:
- making false claims about being able to guarantee migration outcomes and/or visas to students for studying with the provider
- incorrectly representing the costs of a course, regardless of whether it was unintentional
TEQSA also identifies the following issues relating to representations of agents or other parties acting on behalf of the provider:
- lack of clear or enforceable contractual arrangements with agents or third-parties about how the agent or third-party should represent the provider or conduct themselves
- lack of monitoring, and/or process for monitoring concerns about agents’ or third-parties’ conduct and representations
- lack of monitoring of student engagement and progression for students coming through these pathways
- maintaining arrangements with agents and third-parties who have a history of misrepresentation.
If you have any feedback on the guidance notes it should be sent to consultation@teqsa.gov.au by 5.00pm on Friday, 18 July.
More information on this current consultation and previous consultations may be found here.
