August 31, 2016

TEQSA’s proposed External Reporting program: IRU Submission

The IRU supports the intention of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) to use its data sets to provide:

• better information about its actions; and
• evidence of broad trends about how higher education providers are achieving or not quality outcomes.

Done well, it will:

• assist universities understand where they stand against other universities and providers, making any adjustments considered useful; and
• provide an insight to TEQSA’s thinking and assumptions.

It is essential that the release of information by TEQSA is designed to improve understanding of quality strengths and potential weaknesses across providers while avoiding creating unfounded concerns or targeting any individual provider.  Issues with individual providers should be addresses through TEQSA’s formal regulatory activity in response to any concerns about achievement of standards by a provider.

The consultation paper proposes five kinds of information for release. Read the response in full attached.