{"id":"BILL-r7408","name":"Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025","slug":"universities-accord-australian-tertiary-education-commission-consequential-and-transitional-provisions-bill-2025","collection":"bill","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":446033,"registerId":"commonwealth-BILL-r7408-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-05-05","status":"royal_assent","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[],"analysis":{"summary":{"status_summary":"The bill received royal assent on 1 April 2026 and is now Act No. 26 of 2026.","complexity_score":4,"likely_questions":["What specific amendments does this bill make to the Higher Education Support Act 2003?","How does this bill enable the Australian Tertiary Education Commission to begin operations?"],"complexity_factors":["Amends two existing Acts to support a new statutory body","Includes transitional and application provisions"],"plain_english_summary":"The Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025 was introduced with the main bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. Its purpose is to make necessary changes to existing legislation so that the new commission can operate effectively within the current regulatory environment. This bill ensures that the establishment of the commission does not create inconsistencies with prior laws governing higher education.\n\nThe bill amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003. These amendments support the commission in carrying out its functions related to higher education providers and funding arrangements. The bill also amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011. This change transfers responsibilities for the Higher Education Standards Framework to the commission.\n\nThe bill includes transitional arrangements and application provisions. These are set out in its two schedules. Schedule 1 deals with the amendments to the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011. Schedule 2 provides rules for how the changes will apply during the transition period.\n\nThis legislation affects higher education providers. It also affects the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency by shifting some of its responsibilities regarding standards. Additionally, it enables information sharing between the Department of Education and the commission to facilitate coordinated oversight of the tertiary education system.\n\nThe bill has received royal assent on 1 April 2026. It will commence 28 days after that date. This timing allows the commission and affected bodies to prepare for the new arrangements before they take full effect."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act is consequential and transitional: its primary function is to implement parts of the ATEC Act by amending existing statutes. It does not materially expand the overall policy scope beyond the ATEC Act’s purpose. Instead, it (a) operationalises the ATEC model by making mission‑based compacts a condition of grant payment, (b) transfers the Higher Education Standards Panel’s advisory role to ATEC, and (c) creates transitional and data‑sharing arrangements. Compared with the broader recommendations of the original Universities Accord, the enacted measures are narrower in several respects (for example they do not embed the ARC or give ATEC pricing/funding allocation powers); those omissions reduce scope relative to some original recommendations rather than expanding it."},"complexity_factors":["Short text but heavy cross-referencing to two major Acts (HESA and TEQSA Act) and to the separate Universities Accord (ATEC) Act","Replaces an existing HESA provision (s19‑110) with a new compact precondition that interacts with grant payment rules","Repeals Part 9 of the TEQSA Act and inserts new advisory and review duties (ss 58A–58B) — changes to statutory architecture of quality regulation","Transitional provisions preserve and convert existing compacts and create potentially wide-ranging transitional rules by legislative instrument","Data disclosure and information‑handling changes (HESA s179‑15 amendments) introduce privacy and administrative compliance interactions","Interplay with provisions and powers in the separate ATEC Act (e.g. compacts, ministerial priorities and directions) — must be read together for full effect","Limited but meaningful constraints on the Minister’s rule‑making power add conditional complexity (what may and may not be prescribed)","Reliance on definitions and status of ‘Table A’ and ‘Table B’ providers means practical effect depends on other regimes and administrative classifications"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this Act does (mechanically)\n\n- This is a short consequential and transitional Act that implements parts of the new Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) law by amending two existing Acts: the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HESA) and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act).  (See Schedule 1 and Schedule 2.)\n\n- It makes it a legal requirement that a mission‑based compact (or a default mission compact) with ATEC must be in force between ATEC and any Table A or Table B higher education provider for each year a Commonwealth grant is paid to that provider (Schedule 1, item 1 replacing HESA s 19‑110).\n\n- It removes the Higher Education Standards Panel from the TEQSA Act and slots ATEC into the roles that Panel had: ATEC is now the body that must advise the Minister and TEQSA about the Higher Education Standards Framework and must review the Framework’s standards at least once every 5 years (Schedule 1, items 5–16; new TEQSA Act sections 58A and 58B).\n\n- It inserts ATEC commissioners into a range of places where ‘entrusted persons’ or similar roles are recognised in HESA so ATEC officials can receive and use information under HESA (Schedule 1, items 2–4).  The amendments therefore enable ATEC to obtain HESA personal and HESA information (Schedule 2, item 2 clarifies retrospective application for information obtained before or after commencement).\n\n- It preserves existing mission‑based compacts: any compact that was in force immediately before commencement continues in effect as if it were an ATEC compact for the remainder of its term (Schedule 2, Part 1, item 1).\n\n- It gives the Minister the power to make transitional rules by legislative instrument to carry the enactment into effect (Schedule 2, Part 2, item 3). The rules may be broad but cannot create offences, taxes, appropriation amounts, or change the text of the ATEC Act or this Act.\n\n- The Act commences at the same time as the main ATEC Act (s 2).\n\nWho this affects and how\n\n- Higher education providers designated as Table A or Table B (most Australian universities and registered higher education providers) — they must have a mission‑based compact with ATEC in force to receive Commonwealth grants (Schedule 1, item 1).\n\n- ATEC and its commissioners — the Act enables ATEC to carry out the advisory and standard‑review functions previously performed by the Higher Education Standards Panel, and to access HESA information through specified disclosures.\n\n- TEQSA — its existing Panel (Part 9 of the TEQSA Act) is repealed and TEQSA will receive advice and recommendations about the Higher Education Standards Framework from ATEC (Schedule 1, items 5–16).\n\n- The Department of Education — ATEC is to be supported through departmental arrangements under the ATEC Act, and the transitional rules permit administrative steps needed to move responsibilities and data.\n\nWhy it matters (claimed purpose, then practical tests)\n\n- Claimed purpose: the instrument implements the governance and operational plumbing needed for ATEC to function — in particular it ties grant eligibility to mission‑based compacts and centralises advice on the Higher Education Standards Framework in ATEC.\n\n- Practical effects, trade‑offs and implementation issues:\n  - Funding leverage: making a compact a precondition for grant payment gives ATEC and the Commonwealth practical leverage over provider behaviour. That creates a clear incentive for providers to negotiate compacts that align with ATEC’s statement of strategic priorities. (HESA replacement s 19‑110; ATEC Act Part 3 compacts provisions.)\n  - Centralisation of standards advice: abolishing the Higher Education Standards Panel and placing the advisory and review role in ATEC centralises technical influence over the Framework. This reduces the number of separate advisory bodies but concentrates responsibility in ATEC (TEQSA Act amendments, new ss 58A–58B).\n  - Information flow and privacy implications: amendments permit ATEC commissioners to receive HESA personal and HESA information (Schedule 1, items 2–4; Schedule 2, item 2). That enables system‑level data analysis but raises compliance tasks and privacy safeguards that must be managed in practice.\n  - Transitional discretion and legal certainty: the Minister can make broad transitional rules by legislative instrument to implement the change (Schedule 2, item 3). The instrument‑making power is constrained (cannot make offences, impose taxes or change appropriation) but may be used to prescribe detailed transitional arrangements — which concentrates implementation discretion in the executive.\n  - Continuity and disruption: existing compacts continue until their scheduled end, which reduces immediate disruption (Schedule 2, Part 1, item 1). However, after expiry providers will negotiate new compacts with ATEC’s terms and methodology, which may impose new reporting and performance measurement obligations.\n  - Interaction with other policy gaps: the Act implements some structural changes but does not create new funding or pricing powers for ATEC (those issues are left to separate or future amendments). Where policy decisions (for example, international student allocations, load allocation or funding models) are intended to be made later, providers face uncertainty until those mechanisms are finalised.\n\nWho pays, who decides, and what behaviour changes\n\n- Who pays: providers bear compliance costs from negotiating and reporting under compacts and from meeting any performance indicators in those compacts. The Department/ Commonwealth bears administrative costs of housing ATEC and supporting its functions, but this Act does not itself appropriate new funds.\n\n- Who decides: ATEC (under the ATEC Act) decides compact form and content in negotiation with providers; the Minister remains able to set strategic priorities and the ATEC Act contains directions powers (details in the ATEC Act). TEQSA will continue to regulate providers against the Framework, but ATEC now performs the statutory advisory and review role for the Framework.\n\n- Behaviour changes: providers will be induced to align institutional mission, planning and measurable targets with ATEC’s strategic priorities and compact requirements if they wish to receive Commonwealth grants. TEQSA and the Minister will rely on ATEC for Framework advice and reviews.\n\nKey sections to note\n\n- Schedule 1, item 1 (replaces HESA s 19‑110) — compacts must be in force for grant years.\n- Schedule 1, items 5–16 — amend the TEQSA Act: repeal Part 9 (Higher Education Standards Panel) and insert new ss 58A and 58B requiring ATEC to advise on the Framework and review standards at least every 5 years.\n- Schedule 2, Part 1, item 1 — existing compacts continue as ATEC compacts for their remaining terms.\n- Schedule 2, Part 2, item 3 — Ministerial legislative instrument power to make transitional rules (with explicit limits).\n\nBottom line (neutral): This Act is a narrowly‑focused implementation law. It moves responsibility for advising on the Higher Education Standards Framework from the existing Panel to ATEC, makes mission‑based compacts with ATEC a legal precondition for receiving Commonwealth grants for Table A/B providers, enables certain HESA data disclosures to ATEC commissioners, preserves existing compacts during transition, and gives the Minister limited rule‑making power to manage the transition. These changes increase the formal role ATEC plays in shaping provider obligations and standards advice, while leaving broader funding and pricing powers for later decisions or separate amendments."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/universities-accord-australian-tertiary-education-commission-consequential-and-transitional-provisions-bill-2025","history":"/api/acts/universities-accord-australian-tertiary-education-commission-consequential-and-transitional-provisions-bill-2025/history","analysis":"/api/acts/universities-accord-australian-tertiary-education-commission-consequential-and-transitional-provisions-bill-2025/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/universities-accord-australian-tertiary-education-commission-consequential-and-transitional-provisions-bill-2025/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/universities-accord-australian-tertiary-education-commission-consequential-and-transitional-provisions-bill-2025/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/universities-accord-australian-tertiary-education-commission-consequential-and-transitional-provisions-bill-2025/documents"}}