Address to TEQSA Conference 2025

I start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to elder past and present.

I also want to start by thanking TEQSA for the invitation to speak with you today.

It is the third time I have had this privilege.

And I want to thank Professor Mary Russell, Professor Kerri-Lee Krause and the whole team at TEQSA for the work you do.

I also want to thank everyone here for everything you do.

In our universities and our private higher education providers.

You are part of something special.

You have chosen to be part of something very special.

Our education system.

The most powerful cause for good.

You know what it can do because you see it in action every day.

What happens inside the places where you work has a massive impact outside of it.

The teaching and training you do, changes lives.

The world leading research reimagines and remakes the world that we are going to live in.

And the world our kids will live in.

A good education system changes countries.

And it’s changed ours.

But as you hear me say a lot, it can be better, and it can be a lot fairer, than it is at the moment.

And that’s not just about who gets through the door. It’s what happens inside.

We have great universities, great higher education institutions, in this country.

I know that. I see it.

And for the most part they are run well.

But it doesn’t mean they are perfect. You know that. There is plenty of evidence for that.

And where something isn’t working the way it should, we need it fix it.

And that’s not just the job of TEQSA. It’s all our job.

Just one example is what I spoke about here last year.

About sexual violence on campus.

I am not going to repeat the terrible statistics. You know them.

But when I was here last year the Student Ombudsman Bill was in the Parliament.

Now it is a reality.

Sarah Bendall leads a team based right here in Melbourne and they are doing some good work.

I think they got their first complaint 15 minutes after they opened the door and they have now had about 2,400.

The feedback I am getting from the Ombudsman and universities is that the work they doing is working.

It’s helping to resolve complaints and improve the way universities and other higher education institutions work.

In about six-weeks, the next part of the puzzle falls into place.

On the first of January the Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender Based Violence comes into force.

It will give the Ombudsman’s recommendations real teeth.

It will hold all providers to the sort of standards that students, staff and, I think, the whole community expect of us.

This isn’t the only place where reform is needed.

A couple of weeks ago I released the report of the Expert Council on University Governance.

It’s a serious report.

And in parts it makes for hard reading.

It says we have got a lot of work to do, to improve culture and leadership.

It sets out eight principles it expects all universities to sign up to and implement.

They cover everything from accountability and transparency to remuneration.

And as recommended we will put them into law.

They will be written into regulations through the Threshold Standards.

And universities will be required to report annually to TEQSA on an “if not why not” basis.

That will all start next year.

As I said at the AFR Higher Education Conference in August, this isn’t about belting universities, or anyone else.

That’s not my style.

This is about making the organizations you run and work in better.

Building trust inside your organizations.

And building public support for what you do.

That’s why I think getting the Remuneration Tribunal to help set salaries for Vice Chancellors makes sense. And why we are going to do that.

It’s also about time we looked at the powers and the tools that TEQSA has and how they work, or don’t work.

And I am indebted to Professor Russell here.

We haven’t really looked at this since TEQSA was established nearly 15 years ago.

And a lot has changed since then.

Mary wrote to me earlier this year and recommended we look at this. And I agreed.

I think there is a good argument that TEQSA needs better tools and stronger powers to be able to step in and act when it’s justified in the public interest.

And to be able to respond to systemic risks, not just the compliance of individual providers.

That’s what the consultation over the last few months has been all about.

The feedback I have got isn’t very surprising.

A lot of the organizations in this room say TEQSA doesn’t need more powers.

And a lot of the ones outside this room say they do.

I will have more to say on that in the next few months.

One more thing on governance.

In a few weeks I will receive a report from the Race Discrimination Commissioner on racism in our universities.

Antisemitism. Islamophobia. But not just that. Racism in all its repugnant forms.

Let’s not kid ourselves, we have challenges we have to confront here too.

For staff and students.

For Australian students. And international students.

Just like the work that the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins did on sexual violence in our universities, I expect this will make difficult reading.

They have surveyed more than 76,000 students and staff.

Out of it you can expect to hear some pretty awful things.

And it’s going take some courage and some honesty from all of us to tackle this.

All of this work, has its roots in the Accord.

The Ombudsman, the Code, the Expert Council, its report, the reform that will come from that, the work that is happening right now about the powers TEQSA should have, and the work on racism, all of that was called out or called for by Professor Mary O’Kane and the team that put together the Universities Accord.

But the Accord isn’t just about that.

It’s a blueprint for everything we need to do to set the whole system up for the next decade, and the one after that.

What it says in really basic terms is that in the years ahead more and more jobs are going to require more and more skills.

Sixty percent of people working today have a certificate or a diploma or a degree.

Over the next few decades the Accord says that needs to jump to about 80 percent.

That’s a big jump.

It means more people in the system. More people at TAFE. More people at university. More people in the institutions you run and work in.

It means what do you will be even more important. That it will affect more people.

And it means change.

Making sure the system is ready for the changes that are going to come at us.

That includes what we teach and the way we teach it.

AI is a good example of that. It won’t just require us to rethink how we assess students.

If this is going to be as ubiquitous and transformative as we think it will be, as we know it will be, then teaching students how to use it needs to be embedded in almost every course.

I also think we are going to need a greater focus on teaching generally.

It worries me that some of our highest ranked institutions have some of the lowest student satisfaction results.

It is almost like there is an inverse relationship between international rankings and QILT results.

If we are going to build a bigger system where more people want to go we need to fix this.

If we need to help more people, young and old, to get a degree, we also need to give them the skills to start one.

The Accord recommends we massively increase funding for the bridging courses that a lot of universities offer that get you ready to take on a degree.

And that’s what we are doing. An extra billion dollars over the next ten years.

Next year that will mean an extra 1,500 people will be able to do one of these courses.

And more again the year after that.

And after that.

And after that.

And they are free.

If there are going to be more people at uni, we also need to fund more places so they can come.

And that’s what we are doing too.

More Australians will start a university degree next year than ever before.

Over the last few months the interim ATEC, led by Mary O’Kane, has helped to allocate an additional 9,500 commencing places for next year right across the system.

In 2027 it will be even more. An extra 16,000 places.

Over the next decade it will be an extra 200,000 places.

The Accord also tells us that opening the doors of our universities wider means making sure more people from poor families, from our outer suburbs and from the regions and the bush, get in those doors, and get through.

That’s what the changes we are about to make to the funding system are about.

A real needs based funding system to provide more support for the students who need it.

That starts in January.

And a new demand driven system for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

What the Accord calls demand driven equity.

If you are from a poor family and you get the marks, you get a place.

That starts in just over a year.

These are the two big equity engines in the Accord.

Demand driven equity is all about prizing the doors of universities open to more people from disadvantaged backgrounds and needs based funding is about making sure they have the support they need to get through.

But it’s not the only thing we need to do.

The way a course is structured also makes a difference.

Look at what’s happening at Southern Cross University.

Over the last few years they have moved to a six week block model, where you study 1-2 units at a time across four terms.

What do you think the results have been?

I talked about student satisfaction rates a moment ago. Satisfaction rates are up.

But not just that.

Drop out rates are down. Massively. They have almost cut them in half. From 35 percent five years ago, to 19 percent today.

Victoria University has been doing something like this for even longer and results are similar.

What they call their progression rate has jumped from 75 percent to 91 percent.

That’s real change making a real difference.

There is also more that we can do to make it easier to earn and learn at same time. To improve work integrated learning.

And I think there is also a lot we can do to make it easier to get the qualifications you want and you need quicker and cheaper.

Part of that is breaking down that artificial barrier we have built up between vocational education and higher education.

Cracking the code of credit transfer and recognition of prior learning.

I know the University of Canberra isn’t the only one doing this, but what they announced a few weeks ago is what we need a lot more of.

They announced they would take a year off a whole bunch of degrees if you have completed a diploma in the same area.

That includes nursing, early education, graphic design, and accounting.

That saves you time.

But not just that. Money too. And lots of it.

They think that over the next few years this could save thousands of people on average about $6,000 off the cost of their degree.

If you have done a diploma in accounting and next year you start a degree in accounting at UC you will save up to $12,000.

I want to see more examples like that.

Making it easier for people to get the skills and qualifications they want and need, quicker and cheaper.

A more joined up tertiary system.

The interim ATEC has already started working on this.

Next week something else that’s important for the whole sector will happen.

Next week I will introduce legislation to formally create the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. The ATEC.

Of all the recommendations in the Accord this might be the most important.

As one someone told me the other day, the ATEC is the Accord.

The Accord is big and will take more than one Minister or one Government to make real.

It is a national project and it needs a steward that is there for the long haul.

The Accord made it very clear that this is needed to improve policy, administration and coordination of the sector.

And if we build it right, if it becomes a body that has bipartisan support, the ATEC has the potential to do that.

To help drive real and long lasting reform.

To turn the higher education sector into a system.

To open that door of opportunity, that education is all about, for more Australians.

And to help us break down the barriers that still exist, and that we have built up, between higher education and vocational education.

It will have three Commissioners, including a Chief Commissioner and a First Nations Commissioner.

It will craft mission based compacts with individual universities, setting out the number of domestic and international students they will teach.

It will provide advice, recommendations and reports to federal and state and territory ministers in relation to the higher education and tertiary education system.

It will take over responsibility for the Higher Education Standards Framework from the current Higher Education Standards Panel and provide advice on it to TEQSA and myself.

It will undertake and coordinate research and data analysis.

And it will be required to prepare and publish a State of the Tertiary Education System report every year.

In performing these functions and exercising these powers the ATEC will be required to have regard to what is called the National Tertiary Education Objective.

This was the very first recommendation of the Universities Accord.

That we put into place an objective, not just for the higher education system or the vocational education system, but both.

And that at its core, the objective of these the two systems combined should be to underpin a strong, equitable and resilient democracy, and help drive national, economic and social development, and environmental sustainability.

The ATEC will also have to have regard to another objective.

That I think is fundamental.

And that is to improve outcomes for Australians who still face systemic barriers to education.

Indigenous Australians. Australians with a disability. Australians from poor families and Australians living in our regions and the bush.

That is what the Accord is about.

And it’s what the ATEC will be about.

I want to thank the Implementation Advisory Committee who have helped to shape the bill that I will introduce next week.

I also want to thank the States and Territories that we have consulted with. They are a critical part of this.

I also want to thank you.

There are a number of people in this room who have been part of the work we have done over the last few months to get the bill to this point where it is about to be introduced.

It’s just the start.

I imagine the scope and the role of the ATEC will change over time to meet the different challenges we will face.

There are some people who say university is overrated. They are wrong.

Just look at the people coming through your doors. In record numbers. They are the proof of the value you provide.

There are some people who say universities are friendless. That everyone hates them.

That’s not right either.

And there are also people who say that everything that I am trying to do to open the doors of our universities wider has zero chance of success, and presumably I shouldn’t even try.

To that I say countries aren’t changed by people who say it’s just too hard.

They are changed by people who turn up.

They are changed by people who try.

And they are changed by people who are willing to work together.

That’s what I am about.

It’s what I have always been about.

And I know that’s what drives you too.

And that’s good, because there is a lot to do. 

And we are just getting started.