AUSTRALIA: Agency to protect international standing

A new national accreditation agency should be considered to help private providers expand their territories and protect the reputation of Australian education overseas, a joint committee on higher education has said, reports The Australian. A national agency to regulate the burgeoning private higher education industry is the strongest of four options presented to the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

Under the most contentious model favoured by big private providers, the states and territories would surrender their coveted accreditation and registration powers to the commonwealth agency. It also has options short of that contained in an 81-page final report, Inquiry into the Desirability of a National Higher Education Accreditation Body, that the joint committee commissioned education consultant PhillipsKPA to produce.

The report, timed to feed into the Bradley review of higher education, follows sharp criticism that internationally recognised operators such as Kaplan Higher Education and Carnegie Mellon University faced the same establishment processes in Australia as fly-by-night operators.
Full report on The Australian site