TEQSA and the AQF

What is higher education?

Also known as tertiary education, higher education consists of awards spanning Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) levels 5-10, which include:

• diplomas
• advanced diplomas
• associate degrees
• bachelor degrees (including honours)
• graduate certificates
• graduate diplomas
• masters degrees
• doctoral degrees
• higher doctoral degrees

^{(Statistics report on TEQSA registered higher education providers 2019)}

Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 (HES Framework)

As illustrated below, the HES Framework has been structured to align with the student experience or ‘student life cycle’ i.e. as they progress from prospective students through to the award of a qualification. The HES Framework is also grounded in the core characteristics of the provision of higher education. As such, the Standards are intended to be useful to higher education providers as a framework for internal monitoring of the quality of their higher education activities.

The HES Framework consists of two parts:

Part A 

Standards for Higher Education (which represent the minimum acceptable requirements for the provision of higher education in or from Australia)

Part B

Criteria for Higher Education Providers (which enable categorisation of different types of providers and whether a provider is responsible for self-accreditation of a course(s) of study it delivers.

TEQSA

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) is Australia’s independent national quality assurance and regulatory agency for higher education.

In alignment with their objective of “protecting student interests and the reputation of Australia's higher education sector”, in order to be able to achieve this, TEQSA requires all higher education providers to register with TEQSA and to ensure their courses meet, and continue to meet, the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 (HES Framework).

The HES Framework includes the requirement that the learning outcomes of all higher education qualifications (Levels 5-10 of the AQF) must be consistent with the level of the course. To assess whether the expected learning outcomes for a course meet the AQF level, TEQSA compares the expected course learning outcomes with the specified learning outcomes for the relevant AQF level and assesses whether the design of all components of the course support achievement of the course’s learning outcomes as a whole.

For more information regarding the HES Framework 2015 visit the Federal Register of Legislation.