The self-assurance report is an opportunity for you to demonstrate the effectiveness of your institution’s self-assurance mechanisms. The report outlines how your governing body assures itself of the quality of higher education operations and compliance with the Threshold Standards. In particular, it should demonstrate to TEQSA how a provider monitors, manages and mitigates institutional risks.
In preparing your self-assurance report for self-accrediting authority (SAA), TEQSA highly recommends demonstrating how your institute manages key sector risks in the following areas:
| Academic governance | TEQSA highly recommends providers consider its guidance on academic governance and engage with the higher education good practice hub |
|---|---|
| Institutional quality assurance |
TEQSA highly recommends providers consider its guidance on: |
| Threats to academic integrity, including contract cheating and artificial intelligence | TEQSA highly recommends providers consider TEQSA’s good practice notes on addressing contract cheating to safeguard academic integrity and academic and research integrity, and TEQSA’s resources on artificial intelligence. |
| Staffing arrangements and employment practices, including preventing and responding to wage underpayments and high turnover of academic leaders | TEQSA highly recommends that providers consider TEQSA’s Statement of Regulatory Expectations: Compliance with workplace obligations and Compliance in focus: Wage underpayments and commentary on Domain 3: Teaching. |
In addition, you are expected to self-identify and address any significant risks specific to your individual circumstances. This should include, but is not limited to, how you manage risks associated with:
- regulatory history and compliance, including the management of conditions, voluntary undertakings, compliance assessments, or other adverse outcomes in recent regulatory assessments by TEQSA
- risks identified as high by TEQSA in its most recent annual Provider Risk Assessment (e.g. high rates of student attrition, casualisation of academic staff, etc)
- recent significant changes, including changes to senior leadership, ownership, third-party arrangements, courses, or organisational structure, or significant events, including media reporting or public attention surrounding an issue at the institute
- issues identified by other government and regulatory bodies (ASQA, the Department of Home Affairs, etc), or professional accreditation bodies.
Further information
For further information when preparing your application for SAA, please contact TEQSA’s Re-registration team at reregistration.enquiries@teqsa.gov.au.
How to apply for self-accrediting authority (SAA)