The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) is currently conducting consultations on its service charter review, stakeholder engagement strategy, and fit and proper person determination, and has invited the education sector to comment. The comments for all three consultations are due by 5pm (AEST) on Monday 20 May 2024.
TEQSA’s service charter details its commitment to those it deals with, including higher education providers, current and prospective students at Australian higher education providers, peak bodies and so on. The charter was last updated in July 2020, and in response to feedback from the sector a review of the service charter commenced in August 2023. A survey of the sector formed the first phase of the consultation process, and feedback from the survey has been incorporated into the new draft service charter, which is now open for comment.
TEQSA has also developed a draft stakeholder engagement strategy for consultation, to improve its sector engagement activities and guide its work.
The final consultation is for proposed amendments to the Fit and Proper Person Determination 2018 (Determination), to state, in addition to what it already covers, that it has regard to:
- whether a relevant person has been found guilty of a foreign offence (within the meaning of section 85ZL of the Crimes Act 1914).
- whether a relevant person has been found not to be a fit and proper person for the purposes of any law of the Commonwealth or of a state or territory (other than those specifically listed in the Determination).
- whether the public is unlikely to have confidence in a relevant person’s suitability to be a person who makes or participates in making decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of a registered higher education provider’s affairs.
The three consultation papers and further background information is available on the TEQSA website: https://www.teqsa.gov.au/About-us/engagement/consultation
