When providers ask what TEQSA is really looking for, the honest answer is: evidence that your provider can assure academic quality independently and consistently. Academic governance is where that is proven or disproven. This article sets out what TEQSA expects from academic governance — and, just as importantly, how it tests for it. It is the regulator's-eye companion to our complete guide to academic governance.
What the Standards require
The Higher Education Standards Framework sets expectations for both corporate and academic governance. In practice, for academic governance TEQSA wants to see three things working together: independent oversight of academic quality, decision-making authority that is real (not advisory-in-name-only), and a quality assurance cycle that leads to improvement.
Independence above all
The defining expectation is independence. TEQSA needs confidence that academic decisions — what counts as a pass, whether a course meets standard, how an integrity breach is handled — cannot simply be overridden by owners or management for commercial reasons. For private providers this is the crux of the assessment. It is demonstrated through the academic board's composition (including suitably qualified and genuinely independent members), its delegated authority, and evidence that it has exercised that authority in practice.
Function over form
A constitution and a set of terms of reference are necessary but nowhere near sufficient. TEQSA repeatedly distinguishes providers whose governance functions from those whose governance merely exists. The evidence it wants is operational: minutes that show real discussion, decisions that show judgement (a course sent back, a policy tightened), and a clear line from oversight to improvement. This is also the most common failure point — see governance mistakes that stall applications.
The evidence to prepare
Assemble, and keep current: the academic board constitution and committee terms of reference; a delegations schedule; the core academic policies (admissions, assessment, moderation, academic integrity, appeals); and, above all, the records that show them operating — a year or more of minutes, decisions and actions. If you are building an academic board from scratch, design it to generate this evidence from day one.
Getting ahead of it
Governance evidence cannot be manufactured retrospectively — a board cannot show a year of functioning if it was formed last month. This is why governance is the thing to build first, well before you lodge. If registration or re-registration is on your horizon, the time to strengthen governance is now. Talk to us — it is our core expertise.
The Academic Governance Toolkit for Providers
The board structures, committees, delegations and policies TEQSA expects — a practical checklist, free.
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Frequently asked questions
What does TEQSA expect from academic governance?
Credible, independent academic oversight of quality — an academic board with real authority and appropriate expertise, clear delegations, functioning committees and policies, and evidence (minutes, decisions, improvements) that the system works in practice, not just on paper.
Does TEQSA require an academic board?
In substance, yes — providers need a body that oversees academic standards and can advise the governing body independently. The name matters less than the function and its demonstrable authority.
How does TEQSA test governance independence?
It looks at whether academic decisions can be overridden by owners or management, the composition and expertise of the academic board, and evidence that the board has actually exercised independent judgement.
What governance evidence does TEQSA want to see?
Constitutions and terms of reference, delegations, current policies, and — critically — records that they operate: meeting minutes, decisions made, issues acted on, and improvements that followed.
Is governance assessed at re-registration too?
Yes. Governance is assessed at initial registration, re-registration and course accreditation. Re-registration in particular wants current evidence that governance has functioned across the registration period.
Dr Brendan Moloney is the founder of Darlo Higher Education. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, is a Cambridge University Press author on governance in higher education, and has advised private providers on academic governance, registration and course accreditation for more than fifteen years.