Under the legislation to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, introduced into Parliament late last month, ATEC would advise the minister on the Higher Education Threshold Standards. All higher education providers must meet these standards as a condition of registration. The enforcement agency is the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.

This post compares the current system for setting the Threshold Standards with how this would happen if the ATEC legislation passes unamended.

Current process for setting the Threshold Standards

The Threshold Standards are a legislative instrument – and so disallowable by either the Senate or the House of Representatives – made by the education minister: section 58 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011. Under the same provision the minister can make other quality-related standards, as part of a Higher Education Standards Framework.

The minister must not make a standard unless a draft has been developed by the Higher Education Standards Panel (discussed shortly): section 58(3)(a) TEQSA Act 2011.

The minister must consult with the state and territory education ministers: section 58(3(b)(i) TEQSA Act 2011.

The minister must consult with the research minister if that is a separate role (not currently): section 58(3(b)(ii) TEQSA Act 2011.

The minister must consult with TEQSA: section 58(3(b)(iii) TEQSA Act 2011.

The minister must have regard to any advice or recommendations given by the Panel or the consultation parties: section 58(4) TEQSA Act 2011.

The role of the Higher Education Standards Panel

The Higher Education Standards Panel is appointed by the education minister: section 167 of the TEQSA Act 2011. The panel members need to collectively have:

• Professional knowledge and demonstrated expertise, including in higher education and the development of quality standards: section 167(2)(a) TEQSA Act 2011.
• Contemporary experience in the provision of higher education, including universities and non-university higher education providers: section 167(2)(aa) TEQSA Act 2011.

In appointing between 4 and 10 Panel members the minister needs to have regard to the interests of the states and territories, of current and prospective students, and the staff of higher education providers. The current membership includes seven current or former academics, including a vice-chancellor and a former NTEU president. It also includes the president of the National Union of Students. The membership appears to partially breach section 167(2)(aa) as, based on their published biographies, none have experience in non-university higher education providers. This will need fixing if the ATEC bill fails to pass.

The Higher Education Standards Panel can advise the minister on making and varying the standards if requested by the minister or on its own initiative: section 168(1)(a) TEQSA Act 2011.

The Higher Education Standards Panel must consult interested parties when performing its functions: section 168(2) TEQSA Act 2011.

The Higher Education Standards Panel may establish advisory committees to assist with performing its functions: section 168(3) TEQSA Act 2011.

The Higher Education Standards Panel can also:

• Advise and make recommendations to TEQSA on matters relating to the Standards Framework, on its own initiative or if requested by TEQSA: section 168(1)(b) TEQSA Act 2011.
• Advise and make recommendations to TEQSA, if requested or on its own initiative, on its strategic objectives, corporate plan, performance against that plan, reform agenda, streamlining of activities and resourcing requirements: section 168(1)(c)(i) TEQSA Act 2011.
• Advise and make recommendations to TEQSA, if requested or on its own initiative, on approaches to deregulation, including application of principles relating to regulatory necessity, risk and proportionality in respect of different kinds of higher education providers: section 168(1)(c)(ii) TEQSA Act 2011.

ATEC to replace the Higher Education Standards Panel

The government proposes to abolish the Higher Education Standards Panel: schedule 1, item 16 Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025.

The Higher Education Standards Panel would be replaced by ATEC: proposed new section 58A in the TEQSA Act 2011, reforming amendment schedule 1, item 13 Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025, plus the list of ATEC functions at section 11(e) Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025.

Once the draft standards get to the minister, the next steps will be the same as described under the Current process for setting the Threshold Standards section above, other than ATEC replacing the Higher Education Standards Panel.

As under current legislation ATEC will be able to advise TEQSA in relation to the Threshold Standards on its own initiative or at TEQSA’s request: section 11(f) Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025. However the current Panel powers to advise TEQSA, at section 168(1)(c) TEQSA Act 2011, are not carried over to ATEC.

ATEC membership versus Higher Education Standards Panel membership

A major difference between the current and proposed systems for advising on the content of the Threshold Standards is the advisory panel membership. Most current Panel members are university staff but none will be if ATEC takes over. The ATEC bill requires commissioners to have ‘appropriate independence from all tertiary education providers’: sections 56(3)(c), 57(3)(d) & 58(3)(b) Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025.

The criteria for ATEC commissioners do not include expertise in the ‘development of quality standards’, as is required for membership of the Higher Education Standards Panel. The collective experience required by the three ATEC commissioners – higher education, vocational education, tertiary education governance and administration, stakeholder consultation and engagement, regional education, significant understanding of issues affecting ATSI issues – focuses on ATEC’s mission-based compacts functions: section 59 Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025, not its Threshold Standards advisory functions.

This new standards advice membership increases the chance that the Threshold Standards will change significantly, to reflect the government’s low trust approach to regulation and its instrumentalist view of higher education, as represented by ATEC’s proposed objectives.

The Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 explanatory memorandum suggests that an ATEC advisory committee may be formed to advise on the Threshold Standards (p. 26). Such a committee can be created under section 25(2) of that bill. If this committee is created, ATEC must ensure that its members have appropriate knowledge or experience: section 25(4). A partial mitigation of the risks created by the new system would be to create a statutory advisory committee on the Threshold Standards that includes people with relevant expertise.

Before advising the minister on the Threshold Standards ATEC must consult with higher education provider representatives and higher education student representatives: proposed new sections 58A(2)(c) & (d) in the TEQSA Act 2011, reforming amendment schedule 1, item 13 Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025. TEQSA and state and territory ministers must also be consulted: sections 58A(2)(a) & (b). This is more explicit about consultation than the current legislation, which manages stakeholder interests through Panel membership rather than consultation requirements.

Regulatory rationality

The government’s philistine and bureaucratic approach to higher education makes me nervous about ATEC in general and its role in devising the Threshold Standards in particular. I expect revised Threshold Standards to be much more prescriptive than the current principles and risk-based approach.

But combining funding and regulatory advice in the same organisation has potential benefits. Revised Threshold Standards being introduced alongside Job-ready Graduates in 2021 was a case study in incoherent policymaking. The Threshold Standards significantly increased how much research activity was required to be a university, while JRG cut implied research funding in student funding rates. A single body being responsible for funding advice and Threshold Standards advice might support better policy alignment.

The ATEC bill also lists as one of its functions – albeit only if the Minister requests it – advice on ‘opportunities to streamline the regulation of higher education providers’: section 11(d)(iii) Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025. In my submission to a review of TEQSA’s powers I gave examples of regulatory overlap between TEQSA and the Department of Education. ATEC could propose ways of eliminating or minimising such overlap.

When the Threshold Standards are revised

The current power of the Higher Education Standards Panel to advise and make recommendations on the Threshold Standards on its own initiative, as well as on request by the minister, will be continued with ATEC: section 58A(1) in the TEQSA Act 2011, reforming amendment schedule 1, item 13 Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025.

A routine revision of the Threshold Standards will have to occur every five years: Section 58B.