Join us for the launch of our toolkit Gen AI strategies for Australian higher education: Emerging practice.

This new resource has been informed by TEQSA’s Request for information (RFI): Addressing the risk of generative artificial intelligence.

At the webinar TEQSA will share analysis, trends and perspectives gathered from the RFI, which was issued to all registered higher education providers in June 2024.

We will also launch the first resource arising from this analysis. The toolkit Gen AI strategies for Australian higher education: Emerging practice, is designed to support the sector in addressing the risk gen AI poses to the integrity of awards by showcasing the practical actions providers are putting in place for the short and medium-term horizons.

Details

Gen AI strategies for Australian higher education: Emerging practice
Webinar, 2:00-3:00pm (AEDT), Thursday 28 November 2024

• Please register via this link to attend
   

Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) has commenced legal proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Chegg Inc (Chegg).

TEQSA alleges that Chegg has contravened Australian laws designed to prohibit academic cheating. These laws were introduced in 2020 following an amendment to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act).

Subsection 114A(3) of the TEQSA Act prohibits providing, offering to provide, or arranging for a third party to provide, an academic cheating service to a higher education student.

TEQSA alleges that Chegg contravened this provision on 5 occasions across 2021 and 2022. TEQSA is seeking declarations about the alleged contraventions, civil penalties, costs and other orders.

As Australia’s independent national regulatory and quality assurance agency for higher education, TEQSA takes seriously its role to protect the integrity, quality and reputation of higher education in this country.

TEQSA has taken this action after receiving concerns from multiple institutions about Chegg’s operations in Australia and engaging with US-based Chegg in an attempt to resolve those concerns.

This is the first time TEQSA has initiated proceedings for alleged contraventions of Australia’s academic cheating laws.

This legal action is another element of TEQSA’s extensive and ongoing work to strengthen the ability of Australian higher education providers to protect academic integrity from the threats posed by academic cheating services and artificial intelligence.

Since 2020, when the academic cheating provisions were enacted, TEQSA has:

• disrupted access to almost 370 websites and 925 social media accounts offering academic cheating services to higher education students at Australian providers
• collaborated with leading experts to develop a range of resources to strengthen the higher education sector’s capacity to prevent, detect and respond to cases of academic cheating. One of these resources is the TEQSA Masterclass: Contract cheating detection and deterrence which has been accessed by more than 3,500 academics and professional staff from Australian higher education providers
• developed resources to help students identify and avoid predatory cheating services, and understand Australia’s legislation and expectations relating to academic integrity, including materials in languages other than English
• continued to build on our existing range of toolkits and good practice notes which are available on the TEQSA website. 

Importantly, TEQSA also continues to engage deeply with Australian higher education providers to support efforts to mitigate the risks posed by generative artificial intelligence. In June 2024, TEQSA issued an information request to all registered Australian higher education providers asking for institutional action plans addressing the risk generative artificial intelligence poses to assessment integrity. In November, we will launch the first resource informed by this information request, a toolkit showcasing the practical actions providers are putting in place for the short and medium-term horizons.

Quotes attributable to TEQSA Acting Chief Commissioner Ms Adrienne Nieuwenhuis

“Where TEQSA finds academic cheating services being advertised or offered to students, we will take appropriate action to protect the integrity and reputation of Australia’s higher education sector.”

“TEQSA welcomes reports from students, providers, academic staff and the wider public about suspected cheating services via our website at teqsa.gov.au.”

Our Annual Report 2023-24 is now available.

The report outlines our progress throughout the 2023-24 year to assure the quality of higher education in Australia.

The report provides an account of our performance against measures and targets set out in our 2024-28 Corporate Plan and the 2023-24 Portfolio Budget Statements.

In August, we published our 2024-28 Corporate Plan, which outlines our priorities for the coming years.

As generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) tools continue to evolve and become more sophisticated they provide both opportunities and challenges for students’ learning.

The University of Sydney’s Professor Danny Liu has developed a series of videos, on TEQSA’s behalf, to highlight the risks and opportunities of gen AI and their potential impact on academic integrity. He explains some of the ways students can use, and misuse, gen AI and offers some ideas on how to address the challenges gen AI poses.

The first video in this series looks at the use of gen AI for assessments and is available to view on TEQSA’s YouTube channel.

• Access the Gen AI and student learning video (opens in YouTube)

Higher education providers are invited to give their feedback about TEQSA’s proposed updates to our fees and charges to take effect from 1 January 2025.

TEQSA has reviewed the operation of the fees and charges outlined in our Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS) to ensure it fairly and accurately reflects the cost of our regulatory activities.

As a result, TEQSA is proposing changes to how the annual Registered Higher Education Provider (RHEP) charge is calculated.

These proposed changes will ensure the costs of our sector-wide compliance activities and updates to our enquiries management and provider liaison approach are fairly recovered.

If adopted, these changes will reduce the RHEP charge for smaller providers while increasing costs for larger providers that are responsible for a greater proportion of TEQSA’s sector-wide compliance activities.

These activities include matters such as to safety and wellbeing on campus, freedom of speech and academic freedom, and the governance of institutional responses to wage underpayments.

TEQSA will consider all feedback when developing an updated version of the CRIS. We expect that the updated CRIS and any changes to our fees and charges for 2025 will be approved and shared in November.

The consultation will close at 5:00pm (AEDT) on Monday 28 October 2024.

• Visit our Consultation page to learn more and provide feedback
   

Wednesday 16 October is International Day of Action for Academic Integrity. To recognise the shared responsibility of academic integrity, TEQSA has released Key considerations: Academic integrity and generative AI.

This one-page document outlines key considerations of process, people and practice for every institution to keep in mind when considering academic integrity. It’s available on our website in a printable A4 format.

The International Day of Action for Academic Integrity is organised by the International Centre for Academic Integrity and this year’s theme is All hands on deck: Making academic integrity everyone’s job.

Academic integrity is fundamental to the reputation and credibility of Australia’s higher education sector. TEQSA is working to support the higher education sector in addressing the threats posed by contract cheating services and generative artificial intelligence (gen AI).

In November we will launch a new toolkit, Gen AI strategies for Australian higher education: Emerging practice. This toolkit is informed by TEQSA’s Request for Information: Addressing the risk of generative artificial intelligence, which was issued to the sector in June 2024.

The toolkit will showcase practical actions providers are putting in place for the short and medium-term horizons to ensure students are learning the skills and qualifications reflected by their qualifications and also graduate knowing how to ethically and effectively use gen AI.

• Register for the webinar on 28 November