House of Representatives

Second Reading Speech

Mr TEHAN (Minister for Education)

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Provider Category Standards and Other Measures) Bill 2020 will futureproof Australia's higher education system, cutting red tape and simplifying regulation.

•

The bill amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011(TEQSA Act) to:

•

implement the recommendations of the review of the higher education provider category standards;

•

introduce a measure to preserve and protect the academic records of students whose higher education provider has ceased to exist; and

•

make a small number of other measures intended to improve the regulation of Australia's higher education sector by strengthening the TEQSA Act's administration and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency's (TEQSA) regulatory role.

It also amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to replace references to 'Indigenous students' with 'Indigenous persons'.

PCS Review

The 2017 -18 budget included a measure to undertake a review of the higher education provider category standards, which are part of the higher education standards framework threshold standards. The PCS review was completed in 2019 by Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake AO, who recommended amending the provider category standards to clarify and streamline the regulatory framework to ensure it is fit for purpose for all stakeholders, including students, the regulator, and current and future providers. The government accepted all 10 of the PCS review's recommendations.

The key recommendation of the review was to both simplify and enhance the categorisation of higher education providers by:

•

reducing the number of domestic university categories from three down to a single category-'Australian university';

•

reducing the number of overseas university categories from two down to one-'overseas university'; and

•

enhancing the categories for non -university providers by introducing a second category for those providers with a track record of the highest quality delivery and learning outcomes-'institutes of higher education' and a new category of provider to be called 'university colleges'.

The university college category will introduce a mark of quality and better signal diversity and differentiation in the non -university sector. It will provide an opportunity for the highest -quality providers to operate in regional and thinner markets without the burden imposed by the need to undertake research in the university categories. It will offer an achievable and practical transitional pathway for institutions seeking to work towards university status. It will also provide a new pathway for the future establishment of 'greenfield' universities, should a state or territory government or significant Australian or overseas entity wish to establish a new university from scratch.

The new provider categories also clarify the obligations of institutions in both the Australian university and university college categories to be active participants in their communities and enhance the employability of graduates through civic leadership and engagement with employers and industry. The new categories also clarify how the quality of research activity will be assessed in the Australian university category, giving more certainty to institutions about the expectations for research quality.

The amendments to the TEQSA Act in this bill are consequential to the amendments to the standards themselves, which will be remade through a new legislative instrument once this bill has been passed. The changes to the standards have been drafted by the Higher Education Standards Panel, as required by section 58 of the TEQSA Act. The commencement date for the related provisions in this bill will be fixed by proclamation so that they take effect on the same day as the new threshold standards instrument. I expect this to be 1 July 2021, so that higher education providers have certainty and time to prepare for any minor impacts expected.

Impact review

This bill also enacts a change recommended by the Review of the impact of the TEQSA Act on the higher education sectorundertaken by Deloitte Access Economics in 2016 -17. While the majority of recommendations from this review were responded to through a previous bill, an outstanding recommendation to simplify the framing of the threshold standards in the TEQSA Act was deferred until after completion of the PCS review. These amendments will present the threshold standards as a single unified framework, instead of four distinct types of threshold standards. This will enable the structure of the threshold standards instrument to be simplified, making it clearer for providers, students and others to read and use.

Student records provisions

The recently announced Job -ready Graduates Package of higher education reforms included a measure to provide TEQSA with the legislative authority to assume control of higher education student records from a registered higher education provider in the event the provider ceases operations. These amendments will give TEQSA similar legislative powers to those of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) in relation to providers that cease operating. This is a significant reform that will help current and future higher education students obtain ready access to their academic records in the event a higher education provider ceases to operate.

Other measures

Other measures in the bill to improve higher education regulation will:

•

include reference to the new Australian Qualifications Framework qualification type 'undergraduate certificate' in the definition of 'higher education award';

•

allow TEQSA to extend the period of a provider's registration or course accreditation more than once, which will help TEQSA manage its regulatory workload better and provide low -risk providers with additional flexibility, including in response to the COVID -19 pandemic;

•

allow review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of a decision by TEQSA not to change a provider's category if this was requested; and

•

ensure protection of the word 'university' in Australian internet domain names, by requiring ministerial consent to issue an Australian internet domain name containing the word 'university' or derivatives. This measure mirrors existing provisions that protect use of the word 'university' in company and business names and will enable all approval processes that previously operated in relation to domain names to be reinstated.

Schedule 2 to the bill amends the Higher Education Support Act to replace references to 'Indigenous students' with 'Indigenous persons'. These amendments will confirm the existing arrangement that higher education providers can use Indigenous student assistance grants to assist prospective, as well as existing, Indigenous students.

In summary, the measures in this bill will reduce red tape and simplify the regulation and administration of Australian higher education. I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned.