Australia¡¯s higher education regulator has been accused of having a belated epiphany, after telling a Senate committee that it needed stronger powers to do its job.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa) said its legislation forced it to focus on individual institutions and impeded its ability to manage the ¡°systemic¡± issues sweeping the sector.

These ¡°concerning trends¡± included opaque financial reporting, inadequate expertise on governing bodies, over-casualisation of staff and weak processes for preventing academic misconduct or managing conflicts of interest. Others included?underpayment of staff,?sexual harassment?of students,?safety threats?during protests and a lack of accountability for the?expenditure of public money.

Teqsa chief executive Mary Russell said these trends were increasingly evident across the university sector. ¡°We believe we need additional powers,¡± she told a Canberra hearing of the Senate¡¯s Education and Employment Committee.

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The committee is?examining the quality of governance?at universities and colleges. In a submission to the inquiry, Teqsa said ¡°limitations¡± in its legislation also blunted its ability to respond to ¡°acute¡± issues like fraud, deception, financial collapse or ¡°uncontrolled mass enrolment¡± of students.

The submission recommends legislative amendments that broaden the circumstances under which Teqsa can cancel or curtail the registration of universities or colleges, and allow it to immediately suspend their registration in ¡°acute¡± cases. The agency also wants powers to issue infringement notices, obtain warrants and pursue civil penalties for governance failures.

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The demands contrast with advice in a submission from Michael Tomlinson, Teqsa¡¯s former director of assurance, who said the agency?already had ample power?to oversee universities¡¯ financial reporting and legal compliance.

Other submissions express similar views. The University Chancellors Council said Teqsa¡¯s roles and powers were ¡°sufficient in the context of legislative and regulatory frameworks for university governance¡±. UNSW Sydney said the agency had ¡°adequate powers to fulfil its mission¡±. The Group of Eight said the sector would be better served by ¡°addressing the complexity of university governance under eight Australian jurisdictions¡± and ¡°cutting unnecessary and burdensome red tape¡±.

Independent Higher Education Australia said Teqsa already had ¡°the frameworks and powers to adequately undertake its role¡± and recommended against ¡°additional, blunt regulation for all provider types¡±. It said any extra powers should be ¡°targeted to address the specific source of the concerns¡± and not ¡°applied on a sector-wide basis¡±.

But the committee heard that Teqsa had been a ¡°toothless tiger¡± over ¡°wage theft¡± and ¡°rampant insecure work¡± at universities. Shadow education minister Sarah Henderson accused the agency of sitting on its hands after shortcomings in its legislative authority became apparent.

¡°You¡¯ve not used the powers that you do have to the full extent the legislation provides and nor, from my understanding, have you sought additional powers,¡± she said.

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Russell said the agency had not formally requested additional powers from the education minister, but intended to do so. ¡°We have been developing our understanding¡­and looking at what types of regulatory approaches and powers are needed for us to respond in the way that we believe is now both necessary and¡­expected by the public.¡±

She said Teqsa had ¡°compliance processes in train¡± regarding governance at 11 universities and was pressing several to improve their mechanisms for appointing governing council members. ¡°This is not something that Teqsa takes lightly, or is in any way sitting on its hands,¡± she continued.

¡°We are learning from¡­the work that we¡¯re doing around concerns about governance, to¡­inform our views about additional powers.¡±

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The National Tertiary Education Union¡¯s president, Alison Barnes, said her organisation had been ¡°raising issues around governance¡± for about a decade. The union¡¯s Victorian secretary, Sarah Roberts, said staff representatives on university councils were routinely intimidated and excluded from decision making.

Mathew Abbott, NTEU branch president at Victoria¡¯s Federation University and staff-elected member on its governing council, said he had been shut out from discussions, instructed not to raise items for discussion, mocked during council meetings and warned to ¡°quieten down¡± as a union spokesman.

Abbott said that when a letter from the chancellor to senior colleagues contained ¡°serious implications regarding my honesty and integrity¡±, he had been denied permission to write to the recipients to defend himself.

¡°It¡¯s crucial that the staff voice is heard at every level in a university, including and especially at a university council,¡± Abbott told the hearing. ¡°My experience tells me that when that voice is raised, the response is one of intimidation, vilification, exclusion and attempts at silencing.¡±

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Federation acknowledged the ¡°serious¡± allegations. ¡°We have formal processes in place to investigate such matters,¡± a spokeswoman said. ¡°We will be formally responding through the Senate process.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com