澳洲TEQSA品質保證與規範對跨國高等教育的影響：追求精進或打安全牌？

The Study on the Impact of TEQSA Quality Assurance and Regulation on Australian Transnational Higher Education: Pursuing Excellence or Playing Safe?

為整頓並重建國際市場對澳洲教育服務品質的信心，澳洲政府設立了一個全國性的品質保證機構──「高等教育品質與標準署」（TEQSA），取代原「大學品質局」。TEQSA統一過去由各省及領地政府自行認證課程的事權，採用「標準」及「風險」導向的規範模式。本研究旨在透過跨國高等教育利益關係人的訪談，瞭解TEQSA品質保證與規範對其跨國高等教育的影響。本研究主要發現：一、TEQSA標準規範並未造成澳洲大學及其境外夥伴在品質保證上太大的壓力或困難；二、TEQSA風險控管強化了與有經驗且有品質的跨國高等教育夥伴合作的重要性；三、無論在何種品質保證架構下，跨國高等教育兩難議題仍持續著；四、期待TEQSA多與他國品質保證機構對話，以消弭跨國雙邊在品質保證規範上的不一致。最後，依據研究結果與討論，提出本研究主要論點為：澳洲大學已習於澳洲政府在品質保證上的所有規範，且TEQSA標準規範仍採最低門檻的標準，對於向來在品質保證上較自律的大學或跨國高等教育夥伴而言，並不認為TEQSA的規範過高或過強，也認為跨國高等教育品質的精進在於跨國雙邊機構的自我要求，而非只為符合外部品質保證機構的規範；惟為了控管風險，澳洲大學勢必打起安全牌，漸漸採用「高度澳洲化」的境外課程，這勢必將加深跨國高等教育的兩難議題。

For re-strengthening international confidence and trust in Australian education services quality, Australian government established the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). The TEQSA, replacing AUQA, becomes the first national regulator to unify the quality regulation and accreditation responsibility, devolved to individual states and territories. The TEQSA adopts standards and risk-based regulatory schemes. The study aims to understand the impact of the TEQSA quality assurance and regulation on Australian transnational higher education (TNHE) through the stakeholders’ views. The main findings include: 1. The TEQSA regulation didn’t impose pressures and difficulties on Australian universities and their TNHE partners as much as expected. 2. The TEQSA risk approach strengthened the importance of working with the experienced and quality TNHE partners. 3. No matter how Australian quality assurance framework evolved, the dilemmas facing the TNHE existed. 4. The TEQSA was expected to have more talks with other national and international quality agencies to resolve the mismatch between quality assurance and regulation. The paper argues that, while Australian universities have been used to quality assurance and regulation set by Australian government, and the TEQSA adopts the minimum level of standards, the TEQSA regulation is fine, particularly for those self-disciplined universities and TNHE partners which can do good for quality not because of the external quality agency regulation. However, responding to the TEQSA risk approach, Australian universities may ‘play safe’ to offer highly Australianized curriculum in offshore program and the dilemmas facing TNHE will be further worsened.