News and Regulator updates

This section contains updates on:

• Child Safety Standards (Vic) (VRQA registered Schools and VET Providers)
• TEQSA Standards (HE providers)
• ESOS Act changes (All CRICOS registered education providers)

Child Safe Standards

The Victorian Government has now introduced child safe standards for organisations that work with children. They are appropriately based on the premise that children have the right to be safe and protected. Child abuse and the arrangements that allow it to occur will not be tolerated.

Registered schools have until 1 August 2016 to meet the requirements of the standards.

The standards already apply to other organisations including overseas secondary student exchange organisations that are not registered schools and non-school senior secondary providers.

To create and maintain a child safe organisation, organisations must have:

• Strategies to embed an organisational culture of child safety, including through effective leadership arrangements
• A child safe policy or statement of commitment to child safety
• A code of conduct that establishes clear expectations for appropriate behaviour with children
• Screening, supervision, training and other human resources practices that reduce the risk of child abuse by new and existing personnel. School staff includes a volunteer or a contracted service provider (whether or not a body corporate or any other person is an intermediary).
• Processes for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse
• Strategies to identify and reduce or remove risks of child abuse
• Strategies to promote the participation and empowerment of children.

One of the key shifts that schools need to be aware of is the broadening of the definition of staff to include volunteers and all contracted services supplied to students such as outsourced sport or other recreational activities.

The VRQA has been working with stakeholders in the schools sector to understand how to help them prepare for the 1 August 2016 implementation of the child safe standards. The VRQA website has a range of information and a self-assessment that all schools can complete so that they can assess their level of readiness for the new Child Safety Standards.

TEQSA Standards (in effect 1 January 2017)

Following extensive consultation over 2012-14 by the Higher Education Standards Panel, the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 will take effect from 1 January 2017.

The updated standards have a strong student focus across eight ‘domains’ and consist of:

• the Provider Registration Standards
• the Provider Category Standards
• the Provider Course Accreditation Standards, and
• the Qualification Standards.

All applications for higher education provider registration or reregistration and all applications for course accreditation or reaccreditation lodged on or after 1 January 2017 will be assessed against the revised standards framework. TEQSA will continue to assess any applications made before 1 January 2017 against the requirements of the 2011 Framework.

ESOS amendments

There were a number of changes made to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS) on 11 December 2015. The ESOS changes included:

• Removal of study periods from written agreements – they now just need to reflect payment arrangements
• The definition of a study period has been removed from the ESOS Act. Previously it was defined as a maximum 24-week period.
• A study period still must not exceed six months as defined in the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2007 (the National Code).
• Providers are no longer restricted to collecting outstanding tuition fees two weeks prior to a second study period.
• Written agreements must still set out course details, an itemised list of course money payable by the student including tuition fees, and refund arrangements, as required by the National Code.
• While written agreements no longer need to set out prescribed information for study periods, providers should still clearly set out the period of time to which a particular payment of tuition fees relates for refund calculation purposes.

Reporting of student default and refunds - now 31 days

• Providers no longer need to report a student default within five business days.
• To meet Tuition Protection Service (TPS) reporting obligations, providers only need to report on whether they have provided a refund to a student in two cases of student default:
1. where a student’s visa is refused, even if there is a compliant written agreement in place
2. where there is no compliant written agreement in place. 
• Providers do not need to report on student refunds where a compliant written agreement is in place and it is not a case of visa refusal.
• Providers must still report changes to a student’s enrolment as required by section 19 of the ESOS Act.
• The timeframe for reporting changes to a student’s enrolment under section 19 has been extended from 14 to 31 days.
• There are two exceptions to this timeframe for students under 18 years of age. Providers must report within 14 days where an under 18 student either does not commence their course or terminates their studies. This ensures extra protection for this vulnerable group of students.

Flexibility on upfront fees

• Students, or the person responsible for paying the tuition fees, can now choose to pay more than 50 per cent of their tuition fees before they start their course.
• Providers cannot require students to pay more than 50 per cent of their tuition fees before they start the course.
• Providers should be able to show evidence that students have exercised choice in how much of their tuition fees are paid up front.
• Short courses with a duration of 25 weeks or less are not subject to the 50 per cent limit.
• There are no longer any restrictions on collecting tuition fees after a student has started their course.
• Non-exempt (private) providers are still required to hold any tuition fees paid before a course commences in a designated account.

Changes to registration and regulatory processes 

There will be further changes to simplify registration and regulatory processes that take effect from 1 July 2016.  The changes include:

• The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) and the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training will be referred to as the ‘ESOS agency’.
• As ESOS agencies, TEQSA and ASQA will have direct powers to regulate higher education and vocational education and training providers respectively under the ESOS Act.
• The Department of Education and Training will be the ESOS agency for school providers. The state and territory authorities maintain their role of recommending school providers for registration and monitoring compliance under the ESOS Act but will now be referred to as the ‘designated state authority’ (DSA).
• ESOS agencies can now register providers for up to seven years under the ESOS Act, and align a provider’s ESOS registration and domestic registration. As a result, ESOS agencies may request information for a provider’s registration only once, for both domestic and ESOS registration.
• Where an ESOS agency or a designated state authority takes action against a provider relating to their domestic registration and accreditation, the ESOS agency can take the same action against a provider under the ESOS Act.