Higher Education Quality Assurance and Improvement

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) (opens in a new window) is Australia's independent national regulator of the higher education sector. TEQSA's role is to ensure that quality standards are being met by all Australian higher education providers so that the interests of students and the reputation of Australia's higher education sector are promoted and protected.

TEQSA registers and evaluates the performance of higher education providers against the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 (opens in a new window), which all providers must meet to enter and remain within Australia's higher education system.

TEQSA also regulates against the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 and its associated legislation, which includes the National Code, the English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) National Standards and the Foundation Program Standards. Further information is available at ESOS and the ESOS National Code Information for Students and Staff webpages.

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) (opens in a new window) is the national policy for regulated qualifications in Australian education and training.

The aim of the AQF is to ensure that higher education institutions deliver quality education outcomes that are equivalent to those offered in other institutions. It incorporates the qualifications from each education and training sector into a single comprehensive national qualifications framework. The Higher Education Standards related to higher education qualifications reference the AQF.

The AQF enables consistent naming, volumes of learning (e.g. in years of full-time study) and learning outcomes for AQF qualification types. It also provides clearer pathways to higher qualifications and recognition of prior learning, supports national and international mobility, and enables alignment with international frameworks of academic qualifications.

To assist staff with ensuring consistency with the AQF, a University guide (opens in a new window) on volume of learning and admission requirements has been developed by the Office of Quality and Performance.

The Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) (opens in a new window) was launched by the Australian Government Department of Education & Training in 2015. QILT provides prospective students with relevant and transparent information about Australian higher education institutions from the perspective of recent students and graduates. This feedback is collected via a series of surveys of higher education students to clarify and understand the overall experience of attending a specific higher education institution. The quality indicators collected through the surveys relate to:

• Students' satisfaction with key aspects of their study experience, such as teaching quality, learning resources and support services.
• Graduates' satisfaction with their course.
• Graduates' employment and further study outcomes, including information on the proportion of graduates finding work and median salaries

For more information about these National and Western Sydney University-specific surveys, please go to our Surveys section.