By Janaki Kremmer

Sydney

To help oversee what some see as an confusing higher-education system, Australia is setting up a new agency to regulate the country's colleges and universities. But academics and other officials involved agree that much work needs to be done to balance the need for improved oversight with the demand that universities not be subject to a "one size fits all" approach.

The new Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, or Teqsa, will develop a set of national education standards and conduct audits of the nation's wide variety of higher-education institutions. It is slated to start in 2011, and the government has allocated $51-million to develop the agency.

The decision to establish an accreditation-and-standards organization was prompted by a government examination of Australian higher education two years ago. The so-called Bradley Review concluded that Australia needed a more coherent approach in part because the responsibility of accrediting institutions, assuring their quality, and providing financial support is split among states, territories, and the federal government.

What's more, the oversight of colleges and universities came under public scrutiny after a recent series of violent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and elsewhere, which marred Australia's reputation as an academic destination.

Some of the victims were enrolled at what were discovered to be fraudulent vocational institutes that had lured them to the country with promises of permanent residency but did not deliver the education and services they said they would provide.

Janice Reid, vice chancellor of the University of Western Sydney and a member of the group of academics and government officials who are organizing the new standards body, said Teqsa would help fix such problems.

The current system "has allowed some of the smaller private institutes with inadequate funding and inadequate internal mechanisms to fall between the cracks," Ms. Reid said. "This especially affects the foreign students coming to this country."

Help or Hinder?

At present, quality assurance for the country's 39 universities and other larger institutions like the Australian College of Applied Psychology is controlled by the Australian Universities Quality Agency. But responsibility for the approximately 150 vocational schools and other small institutions is shared by local and federal governments. Often states have different policies for higher education, with institutions operating in more than one state subject to multiple sets of rules.

The confusing system means students, parents, and others are frequently unsure who to contact for information and advice, said Bill Scales, chancellor of the Swinburne University of Technology, who is also helping to craft the new standards agency.

With Teqsa, "there will be better and reliable transparency for parents and students to make informed decisions," he said. "Some universities don't like this as it makes them more competitive with each other and puts the power back in the hands of the students."

While many academics agree that more rigorous and better enforced standards are needed, some wonder if the new agency is the right approach.

Glenn Withers, chief executive of Universities Australia, which represents 39 of the largest universities in the country, said the new agency could bog down higher education with too many regulations, which would hurt research and innovation.

"Teqsa should ensure that academic standards should be the same across the board, but it's not clear how it's going to be able to do that," he said. "Although we support the idea of a national regulator, we feel that the government has not dealt with the crucial questions, such as how it will involve itself in research matters."

He added: "There is a real fear that its going to be a one-size-fits-all approach to higher education."

Mr. Withers and others are also concerned about how the agency will be governed.

The current plan is for its chief executive to report to government officials in Canberra, the capital. But higher-education leaders would like the top executive to answer to a board that includes academics as well as representatives from the states and territories.

"The chief executive officer will have very strong powers, but relatively little accountability," wrote Peter Coaldrake, chairman of Universities Australia and vice chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology, in a recent letter to the Australian department of education.

Ms. Reid, who is helping to set up Teqsa, acknowledged that the effort needs to build more support, especially among small colleges and vocational schools. While the standards agency is badly needed, she said, changing the Australian system is a challenge.

Said Ms. Reid, "It's like climbing the highest mountain."