Tertiary education in Australia is dominated by a division between two large systems of provision: vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE). Over time, these tertiary education sectors have become distinct in several respects, including the way curriculum is conceived and practiced. In VET, competency-based training…

'Grievance and Complaint Handling' encompasses the policies and procedures implemented by higher education providers in response to a grievance or complaint expressed against the provider by another party, including students, staff or members of the wider community. However the "Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards)…

The article examines current trends in the development of the national models of higher education in Russia and European countries. The paper reveals the key problems of their functioning in the context of the processes of globalization, standardization, and integration into the pan-European and global educational space. These processes are…

Australian universities offer diverse approaches to bachelor's (honours) degrees as a means of dealing with a range of contemporary demands. These demands include responding to (i) the Bologna Declaration, (ii) tensions between the conventional role for honours as a PhD pathway and an emerging role for honours as professional development, and…

"The Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015" (HES Framework) includes a Section on wellbeing and safety that requires providers to provide timely and accurate advice on access to student support services and to promote and foster a safe environment on campus and online. While the Standards of the HES Framework…

Quality assurance processes have been applied to many aspects of higher education, including teaching, learning and assessment. At least in the latter domain, quality assurance needs its fundamental tenets critically scrutinised. A common but inadequate approach has been to identify and promote learning environment changes "likely to…

The Commonwealth Minister for Education and Training has made new national standards for higher education in Australia -- the "Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015" (HES Framework). The new HES Framework will apply for regulatory purposes from 1 January 2017. From this date, all providers of higher education in…

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare developed a national data standards strategy and implementation plan to enhance the comparability, quality and coherence of information across the Australian education and training sectors, including early childhood education, school education, vocational education and training (VET) and higher…

Quality in education at the tertiary level is constantly questioned, and increasingly "professional standards" are offered as the solution to the perceived decline in quality. Foucauldian archaeological analysis of teacher graduate and geography graduate standards in Australia is conducted, revealing tensions between the different…

In view of recent legislation to introduce the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency in Australia, greater emphasis is being placed on the notion of standards in higher education. A standards-based audit or assessment implies that institutions need to demonstrate performance or achievement against a set of explicit thresholds. This…

The Australian government initiated a review of higher education in 2008. One of the outcomes of the review was the formation of a national regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), with responsibilities to: register all higher education providers, accredit the courses of the non self-accrediting providers, assure…

The research assessment framework is an unstable reality in many countries. While few would disagree that there is a need to measure and reward research excellence, there has been little investigation of how assessment mechanisms relate to knowledge itself. With a focus on the arts and humanities and writing from an Australian perspective, this…

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and…

The National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes (the "National Protocols") are a key element of the national quality assurance framework for Australian higher education. They protect the standing of Australian higher education nationally and internationally by assuring students and the community that higher education…

National and international rankings of institutional performance are playing a growing role in contemporary higher education. It is critical that researchers develop pragmatic, educationally sensitive and methodologically informed approaches for managing this aspect of higher education. This paper compares three approaches for modelling key…