Measuring the Quality of Higher Education

The Australian Government is setting up a Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) to oversee universities in Australia. This replaces state based agencies from January 2012. There will be a www.myuniversity.edu.au website, similar to the "My School" site. There are various funds for universities to prepare for the new system, including an initial $400M Structural Adjustment Fund (SAF), and $50.1M in project and award fund, 30.8M in "Reward Funding".

There are extensive consultations and reference bodies as part of the process, such as the Advancing Quality in Higher Education Reference Group. While most of the people on such bodies are from universities (Vice Chancellors and Professors), there are also representatives of bodies such as the Business Council of Australia and the National Union of Students.\

There is extensive documentation on the process:

• Mission Based Compacts
• Performance Funding
• My University website
• Structural Adjustment Fund
• Promotion of Excellence in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
• University Experience Survey
• Collegiate Learning Assessment
• Teaching Quality Indicator
• Australian Graduate Survey
• Geocoding software for universities
• Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People