Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA)

Introduction

The Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) was formally established by the Ministerial Council on Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) in March 2000 as an independent, not-for-profit national agency that promotes, audits, and reports on quality assurance in Australian higher education.

AUQA commenced its auditing activities in 2001 and conducts quality audits of self-accrediting Australian higher education institutions and higher education accreditation authorities on a five-yearly cycle. Universities are advised their audit date in the year preceding the proposed visit. The National Audit Schedule is updated on an annual basis as the schedule for each subsequent year is determined.

AUQA audits involve each institution carrying out a self-assessment, which is audited during the panel site visit. AUQA assesses:

• the extent to which institutions are achieving their missions and objectives, usually as stated in their Strategic Plan (are targets are being met?, how do we know? (evidence of review processes), etc;
• the adequacy of the institution’s quality assurance arrangements in the key areas of teaching and learning, and research and management, including the institution’s overseas activities (i.e. evidencing clear improvement cycles through regular monitoring and review, addressing review recommendations, etc); and
• maintenance of standards consistent with university education in Australia (through use of performance indicators, benchmarking, etc).