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A Study Of Higher Education Quality Assurance Approaches In Australia Based On Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA)

Posted on:2016-09-20Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:L XiaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2347330473466466Subject:Education
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Australian higher education keeps the advanced level around the world, which is guaranteed by its outstanding higher education quality assurance system. This system, experiencing a long history of development, finally forms the “five-in-one” structure. Among these five parts, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency(TEQSA), which is a nonprofit, independent quality assurance agency for higher education, plays an important role in the Australian higher education quality assurance system. TEQSA had evolved from the Australian Universities Quality Agency(AUQA) and was founded in 2011, which is a mature higher education quality assurance agency with its own objectives, functions, values, principles as well as specific higher education quality assurance approaches. The main three approaches include quality audit, course accreditation and quality assessment. This work firstly summarizes the development history of Australian higher education quality assurance on a macro level; then investigates the important role played by TEQSA in the Australian higher education quality assurance system, followed by the detailed analysis of current situation of TEQSA from different aspects. Based on these analyses, this work comprehensively introduces and deeply studies the three main quality assurance approaches of TEQSA, which are quality audit, course accreditation and quality assessment. Finally, considering the reality of higher education quality assurance in our country and the successful experience gained in the establishment of Australian higher education quality assurance, this work makes reasonable suggestions for higher education quality assurance in our country. The quality audit is realized through the registration of higher education institutions, which means the successfully registered higher education institutions have passed the quality audit of TEQSA. TEQSA provides course accreditation to those higher education institutions without the self-accreditation authority, which means institutions can only teach those accredited courses and grant degrees accordingly, so the quality of courses provided by higher education institutions is guaranteed. The highlight of quality assessment conducted by TEQSA lies in its risk assessment, which means TEQSA evaluates the potential risks lying in the higher education institutions via a series of risk indicators and risk calculating methods, and then relevant risk controlling approaches are implemented according to the results of risk assessment. Investigating the Australian higher education quality assurance approaches through the case study of TEQSA has significant implications for the higher education quality assurance in our country. Relevant laws for higher education quality assurance need to be perfected; intermediary evaluation system should be established; the process of adding risk assessment into quality assurance needs to be quickened; scientific and objective quality assurance criteria should be founded; and the national database for higher education quality assurance information also needs to be established. So many aspects could be used as references for our country including the higher education quality assurance system, audit and assessment criteria, as well as data processing methods, etc.
Keywords/Search Tags:higher education quality, quality assurance approaches, TEQSA
PDF Full Text Request
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