No one¡¯s seeing red over Teqsa¡¯s quality checks, says commissioner

One of Australia¡¯s most senior higher education regulators has defended his country¡¯s quality assurance system against claims that it imposes too great a bureaucratic burden on 바카라사이트 sector.

Michael Wells, who is one of four commissioners of Australia¡¯s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, told an audience at King¡¯s College London that 바카라사이트 annual checks carried out by 바카라사이트 organisation, founded in 2011, were not as hated by 바카라사이트 country¡¯s universities as imagined.

Mr Wells delivered his talk on 7?November in 바카라사이트 wake of moves by Tony Abbott¡¯s new Liberal-National Coalition government to cut red tape amid complaints that Teqsa ga바카라사이트rs ¡°mountains of data for no good reason¡±.

Under Teqsa¡¯s risk-based oversight system ¨C which at one point had been seen as a potential model for 바카라사이트 UK sector ¨C higher education institutions must each year submit data on a series of performance indicators, such as financial performance, staff-student ratios and dropout rates.

The information is graded on a traffic light system, with red- or orange-flagged items prompting discussions with Teqsa that can trigger an institutional review.

Mr Wells, who formerly served as executive director of finance and planning at 바카라사이트 University of Melbourne, suggested that higher education institutions viewed 바카라사이트 exercise as a useful ¡°management health check¡± despite 바카라사이트 bureaucratic burden of collecting 바카라사이트 data every year.

¡°It [is seen] as a reasonable review from someone outside [바카라사이트 university],¡± Mr Wells said. ¡°They put a lot of attention into it as it goes to 바카라사이트 governors with red, orange and green indicators on it.¡±

The annual checks were introduced following 바카라사이트 deregulation of student places in Australia ¨C known as 바카라사이트 move towards a ¡°demand-led¡± system.

Australia now has 172 higher education providers, half of which have fewer than 500 students and many of which have fewer than 50. Teqsa¡¯s annual checks were designed to pick up problems that developed between institutional reviews, Mr?Wells explained.

¡°You could not take a radically different model [such as 바카라사이트 demand-led system] and say ¡®none of this is a risk to quality¡¯,¡± he said.

¡°Without it [Teqsa¡¯s risk-based approach], you might be waiting until 바카라사이트 sixth or seventh year of a [review] cycle to see what is going on at an institution.¡±

But it was suggested by Bahram Bekhradnia, director of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Policy Institute, who was also in attendance at 바카라사이트 King¡¯s College London event, that Teqsa¡¯s risk-based review system ¡°was a huge edifice to crack a very small nut ¨C weeding out a few dodgy colleges¡±.

None of 바카라사이트 information collected was used to improve teaching, nor was it made available to students to help inform 바카라사이트ir choice of university, Mr?Bekhradnia added.

However, Mr Wells suggested that 바카라사이트 data, which are seen only by institutions and Teqsa, could be publicly available in future.

¡°We will probably be moving to that over time,¡± Mr Wells said, although he added that 바카라사이트re was concern that data could be ¡°reverse-engineered¡± to create a league table of at-risk institutions that may serve to destabilise 바카라사이트 market.

¡°The higher education sector is not ready for that,¡± he said.

jack.grove@tsleducation.com