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Australian agency seeks “root cause” of widespread issue and praises draft structure of tertiary commission
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency continues to be concerned about wage underpayment at Australian universities, suggesting it points to deeper governance issues.
In a webinar on 4 July, Teqsa’s acting chief commissioner Adrienne Nieuwenhuis spoke of current “regulatory risks and issues”.
“The top two on my list would be everything to do with international education and international education integrity and the second on my list would be student wellbeing and safety, particularly having seen what’s occurred with regards to the student protests on campus,” she said.
She is also concerned about governance and the “robustness of self-assurance processes”. In 2022, a Senate report said that “around half of Australia’s universities have been implicated in underpayment of staff, with underpayments affecting both casual academic and professional staff”.
There is a “continuing problem we’re having in the sector with wage underpayment”, Nieuwenhuis said. “When two providers tell you they’re having a problem, that’s acceptable. When a few providers start to tell you they have problems, it becomes a little bit of an uncomfortable coincidence. But we’re nearly up to 30 providers who have informed us and [the Fair Work Commission] with regard to wage underpayment. Which tells me there is something deeply going on in our providers with regards to governance, risk, risk assurance [and] controls.”
She added: “I’m starting to see that we’re needing root cause analysis, not just the fixing of a particular problem.”
Other items on her list include academic integrity, artificial intelligence and the “financial standing of providers”.
“We are definitely seeing a weakening in the financial position of many of our providers, and that has a range of potential risks in terms of compliance with the standards and the quality of education…The worst-case scenario would be provider default.”
Teqsa continues “always to have a very close eye on everything to do with student experience”, she said.
Commission consultation
Nieuwenhuis also addressed the draft structure for the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, which is currently open for consultation.
“From Teqsa’s perspective, I think it’s good to see in the consultation paper a governance structure which separates Teqsa from the commission, so that the commission is intended to be a policy and a funding body, leaving regulation and quality assurance quite separate in Teqsa,” she said.
“Some of the things that are in that consultation paper, like performance measures, will be beneficial to Teqsa as well. We already look at a range of data with regard to the performance of providers, which informs our risk frameworks and our regulatory processes, so we’re looking forward to working with the commission on some of those broader issues as well.”
The separation between Teqsa and the commission is positive, she said. “I think it’s very important that those who fund higher education are not also the regulators.”
New strategy
Teqsa chief executive Mary Russell told the webinar that the agency was working on a “new strategy to guide Teqsa’s future regulatory approach”.
She said that the sector would be consulted on changes in a process that would take up to 18 months.
“It will support us to meet the expectations of government and sector stakeholders, including both providers and students,” she said.