TEQSA’s guiding legislation is the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (the TEQSA Act). The TEQSA Act confers powers and functions on TEQSA, among other things, to:

• register regulated entities as registered higher education providers and accredit courses of study
• conduct compliance assessments and quality assessments
• provide advice and make recommendations to the Commonwealth Minister responsible for Education on matters relating to the quality and regulation of higher education providers
• cooperate with similar agencies in other countries
• collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to quality assurance practice and quality improvement in higher education.

Under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act), TEQSA also has responsibility as an ESOS agency for regulating all providers delivering higher education to overseas students studying in Australia.

Taken together, the legislative frameworks of these two Acts incorporate the following quality standards:

• the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 (HES Framework)
• the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (National Code)
• the Foundation Program Standards (Foundation Standards)
• the ELICOS Standards 2018 (ELICOS Standards).

In addition, the agency has responsibilities under several other Acts and Rules. See Appendix A: Legislative framework for more information about these responsibilities.