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Deloitte Access Economics undertook a review of the impact of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 on the higher education sector between July 2016 and March 2017, with oversight from the Higher Education Standards Panel. The review was a substantial body of work: 36 written submissions were received, 33 stakeholders were interviewed, and the provisions of the TEQSA Act were extensively analysed. Overall, the review was positive about the establishment of TEQSA as the national regulator in 2012, and noted that the TEQSA Act is broadly operating effectively and as intended. The review did not recommend changes that would significantly alter the regulatory framework or the role of TEQSA.

The Government's response addresses each of the review's recommendations in detail, including where amendments will be needed to the TEQSA Act. The Government will develop a bill to give effect to these proposed amendments which will improve the Act's administration, strengthen TEQSA's regulatory role and better reflect the evolution of the role of the Higher Education Standards Panel statutory advisory body.

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The agencies responsible for tertiary education quality assurance in Australia and New Zealand have established regulatory regimes that increasingly intersect with tertiary institution policy management. An examination of university meta-policies identified good practices guiding university policy and policy management. Most Australian and half of New Zealand universities have developed meta-policy, or policy on policy, with the most comprehensive articulating policy definitions, range and application of policy instruments, categorisation, approval authorities and policy cycle stages. Sound meta-policy provides an essential framework for good policy-making, and is the key to the development of positive policy outcomes. Increasing tertiary sector regulation provides a contemporary imperative to embrace university meta-policy as one mechanism to embed good practice policy process to facilitate these improved policy outcomes.

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In this lecture, the author argues the need to think about the Australian tertiary system moving from one which included a higher education system for the intellectual elite, and a vocational education system focused on practical skills, to one that provides a more comprehensive tertiary system for everyone. In this lecture, the author elaborates on the argument that tertiary education in Australia has not properly adapted to this new environment and therefore requires a reconceptualisation. As this lecture coincides with the radical de-regulation of higher education in the 2014 Commonwealth Budget, the author assesses these measures and whether they assist with the reconceptualisation of tertiary education.

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In this position paper, TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) agrees that student choice to enrol in undergraduate degrees and higher education courses should be recognised and supported by Commonwealth supported funding. It notes that, to date, Commonwealth funding is allocated almost exclusively to university students for undergraduate course enrolments and completions. The provision of higher education qualifications by 23 TAFE institutes across Australia is in direct response to increasing industry demands for work-ready graduates with specialist higher education qualifications. TDA advocates for access for non-university providers including TAFE institutes to Commonwealth Supported Places for students, with preference for areas of skills shortages. TDA also advocates that the capability of TAFEs to deliver higher education is recognised through a specific category in the Higher Education Provider Standards. This will allow wider branding capacity for those TAFE institutes operating in this area.

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The private tertiary education sector has experienced ongoing growth in Australia. Based on current trends, this sector is predicted to grow, contributing to the social and economic development of Australia and many other countries. While the private tertiary education sector is experiencing growth and tough competition from other providers, it is important and timely to revisit the quality assurance framework used in all tertiary education providers to assure internal quality and meeting external requirements. This paper is aimed to encourage debate on the need for private tertiary education institutions to develop internal capacity for quality assurance with the view to using a single framework to meet both internal and external requirements in a highly regulated tertiary education environment. The paper outlines the current dilemmas in some institutions that use a range of different quality frameworks, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the vocational education and training (VET) quality framework monitored by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), the higher education quality framework monitored by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) and the National [English Language Teaching] ELT Accreditation Scheme (NEAS). [The authors] argue that there is a need for institutions to develop a single framework to meet internal and external needs that are economical, sustainable, and morally responsible in order to improve academic quality and to monitor standards.

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The key objective of this inquiry was to produce a set of policy recommendations to better protect students and the reputation of higher education (HE) in England in the aftermath of substantial reform. These reforms aimed to create a more financially sustainable sector, improve the student experience and widen access to institutions, and will transform the HE system to a demand-led one. This report makes the case for a new, pluralist regulatory architecture for higher education in England.

The report acknowledges the 'long and largely successful self-regulatory history' of the HE sector as a whole, with academic norms, peer review and sector-wide representatives remaining 'bulwarks' against poor performance. It further argues that the principle of regulatory pluralism that currently defines higher education should be continued, with a new over-arching regulatory body providing effective sectoral coordination, rather than centralist control. It stresses that in an increasingly open and market-driven HE sector, new alternative providers of higher education are not being picked up by the regulatory regime, putting students and the sector as a whole at risk. The report argues that effective regulation also has an important 'positive focus' and would have 'strong developmental effects' for the sector by increasing investor confidence and encouraging innovation across institutions.

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In response to the shortage of pharmacists in Northern Sweden, a web-based Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy program was established at Umea University in 2003. In 2009, the Swedish pharmacy market was re-regulated from a state monopoly to an open market, but it is unknown what impact this has had on education satisfaction. The objectives of this study were to examine the level of satisfaction among graduates from a web-based pharmacy program and to describe what subjects and skills students would have liked more or less of in their education. A secondary objective was to compare the level of satisfaction before and after the Swedish pharmacy market was re-regulated. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2015 with all alumni who had graduated from the pharmacy program between 2006 and 2014 (n = 511), and responses to questions about graduates' satisfaction with the program were analyzed (n = 200). Most graduates (88 per cent) agreed or strongly agreed that the knowledge and skills acquired during their education were useful in their current job. The graduates stated that they would have wanted more applied pharmacy practice and self-care counselling, and fewer social pharmacy and histology courses. Further, 82 per cent stated that they would start the same degree program if they were to choose again today, and 92 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend the program to a prospective student. Graduates were more likely to recommend the program after the re-regulation (p = 0.007). In conclusion, pharmacy graduates were very satisfied with their education, and no negative effects of the re-regulation could be observed on program satisfaction.

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In this paper, [the authors] propose the creation of a new, income-based system of student-loan repayment to replace current US federal loan programs. In an increasingly competitive global labor market, it is more important than ever that student-loan policy be designed to help make a college education accessible to all students. The proposal is to replace the current student-loan system with an income-based repayment system. A single, simple, income-based repayment system, Loans for Educational Opportunity (LEO), will replace the current complicated federal loan system. Employers will withhold a fixed percentage from individuals' paychecks, and payments will be spread out beyond the low-earning early years so that young workers are not hit with large payments when they can least handle them. Instead of paying off loans during a fixed, 10-year period, borrowers will have up to 25 years to repay, although most borrowers will repay in about 10 years, as is the case now.

The proposal also involves eliminating private servicing of loans and regulating private loans more tightly. Currently there are protections in the student-loan system for lenders, but not enough protections for borrowers. To protect students and their families from taking on too much debt and to ensure that individuals are properly informed of their options in repaying their loans, the authors propose a number of changes to how private lenders operate: private student loans should not survive bankruptcy, loans that need a credit check will not be marketed as student loans, and individuals must exhaust all federal student loans before being allowed to take out any private loans.

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This paper has argued that to achieve the goal of diversity in our post-school education system, the right place to start is to review the distortions created by our regulatory structures and then our funding systems. Once we have freed up regulation, and aligned funding to different priorities, post-school education providers have a much greater opportunity to focus on what they are good at and what their communities want of them. Once Australia has redesigned the system for regulation and funding we can sensibly address questions of system governance and stewardship.

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In 2010, the Australian Federal Government announced their intention to establish the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Authority (TEQSA) to audit tertiary education institutions against new standards, including standards for graduate learning outcomes. This induced significant sectoral concern about potential 'perverse consequences' such as standardisation of curricula. In response, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funded the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards (LTAS) project to support discipline communities to develop graduate learning outcomes for nominated degrees. This paper provides a sociological analysis of the LTAS project for science. [The authors] reflect upon the process of attaining national endorsement of science threshold learning outcomes (TLOs) through a fundamentally collegial project design: consulting academics, students, employers and graduates in science professions. Project data were analysed by varying the unit of analysis, and using different theoretical frameworks from Science Technology and Society (STS) literature to elicit insights about the process and outcomes of the project. Activity Theory allowed us to interpret the project as initiating a cycle of expansive learning; Communities of Practice theory provided insights into the catalytic role of the Discipline Scholars. In leading a discipline-community response to quality assurance requirements of higher education awards, the LTAS project provided a social framework for defining and evidencing graduate capabilities, including ongoing engagement.

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