The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) hosted its second TEQSA talks webinar for 2025 yesterday, and there was some welcome news for the international education sector that an update of TEQSA’s Transnational Education (TNE) toolkit will be released “in the next month or so”.
The updated toolkit will address the evolving risks and changing environment of TNE delivery since the original toolkit was released in 2022.
International education integrity was highlighted as a compliance priority for 2025 by TEQSA’s Executive Director, Regulatory Operations, Jen Bahen. Admission and recruitment of overseas students, including what mechanisms providers are using to recruit genuine students who are academically prepared, is one category of compliance focus.
Working with the Tuition Protection Service, protected amounts and refund policies is a second area of compliance focus for TEQSA, including whether providers are meeting their financial obligations to students regarding tuition protection.
On TNE, the markets in which providers are operating in, models of delivery, and the way TNE is connected to governance within the home institution, are some of the possible integrity risks considered by TEQSA. Bahen encouraged providers to “be alert” to the specific risks that are present in the delivery of TNE and reminded providers of their Material Change Notification (MCN) obligations.
Following recent issues in the early childhood sector in Australia and subsequent media reporting, it was unsurprising that the webinar had a spotlight on the issue of genuine students, academic standards and workplace learning. Although not solely related to international students, TEQSA’s early analysis has identified that issues are more prevalent in the international student cohort.
TEQSA’s concerns include:
- There are large changes in enrolments and practices in some courses.
- Not all students are genuine.
- Some education agents are promoting certain courses as a fast-track to permanent residency.
- Student supports and systems are not always appropriate.
- Some work placements are not appropriate.
“Check your house is in order, and if it’s not, start fixing it,” said Bahen.
The legislative priority of the current government to focus on strengthening the integrity of the international education sector was also briefly mentioned (as reported by TKN 170725).
The TEQSA presenters (in order of appearance) were:
- Jen Bahen, Executive Director, Regulatory Operations
- Professor Kerri-Lee Krause, Chief Commissioner
- Dr Lenka Ucnick, Acting Director, Higher Education Integrity Unit
A recording of the webinar will be available on the TEQSA website, and the next webinar will be held on Wednesday, 24 September.
