Commonwealth of Australia

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011

Ministerial Direction No. 2 of 2013

I, Christopher Pyne, Minister for Education, make this Direction under subsection 155(1) of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011.

Dated:  22nd October 2013

Signed

______________________________

CHRISTOPHER PYNE

Minister for Education

Part 1   Preliminary

1 Citation

This Direction may be cited as Ministerial Direction No. 2 of 2013.

2. Commencement

This legislative instrument commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

3. Interpretation

In this instrument:

Act means the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011.

Chief Executive Officer has the same meaning as given at section 5 of the Act.

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency or TEQSA has the same meaning given at section 5 of the Act.

Part 2  Direction

The Government seeks to support higher education providers to deliver teaching, learning and research of the highest quality. This will require the application of a deregulatory and quality enhancement philosophy and deliberate action to remove red tape, to enable providers to spend more time on the things they do best and less on compliance and reporting.

3. To consult and seek advice

The Chief Executive Officer should consult broadly across the higher education sector and its constituent parts in the formulation of strategies and implementation plans and in their execution, and must at least seek the advice of:

1. the National Advisory Group for Higher Education Data and Information (NAGHEDI), (on which TEQSA is represented) regarding its policies and approaches for Provider Information Requests and any sector-wide data collection and/or survey activities; and
2. the TEQSA Advisory Council, when established, regarding:
   1. TEQSA’s strategic objectives and plans, performance against these plans, reform agenda, streamlining activities and resourcing requirements;
   2. approaches to deregulation, including by the application of the principles of risk, necessity and proportionality to different types and categories of higher education providers; and
   3. approaches to use existing reporting processes such as compacts, funding agreements and the Institutional Performance Portfolios to streamline re‑registration processes,

and perform his or her functions under the Act consistently with the advice.

4. To improve the focus and timeliness of regulatory activities, and to advance the appropriate deregulation of the higher education sector:

The Chief Executive Officer must prioritise tasks to ensure deregulation, including through:

1. simplified processes and improved timelines of decisions for its key activities of provider registration and re‑registration applications, course accreditation and re‑accreditation applications; and
2. only working on sectoral quality assessment activities if TEQSA has surplus resources after fully achieving the above tasks and priorities.

5.  To enhance accountability and reporting, the Chief Executive Officer must detail in writing to the Minister for Education:

1. The number and status of all applications being assessed by TEQSA and the expected date of completion for these applications;
2. the number and type of decisions made by a delegate of TEQSA pursuant to a delegation of TEQSA’s powers under section 200 of the Act;
3. the resourcing allocated to carry out each activity in 4(i) and its usage;
4. progress on implementing TEQSA’s reform agenda, in particular, the use of risk assessments to reduce the information required of providers; and
5. the estimated cost savings for providers from deregulation arising from the above strategies.

These reports will report on progress to-date at the end of the identified period and must be delivered:

1. within 30 days of this notice;
2. within six weeks of 31 December 2013; and
3. within six weeks of 30 June 2014.