We welcome this opportunity to provide our comments on the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (Prohibiting Academic Cheating Services) Bill 2019. We previously provided our view on the idea of contract cheating legislation in a submission earlier this year (CAPA 2019).
We commend efforts by the Department of Education, Higher Education Standards Panel (HESP), and Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) to promote a culture of academic integrity. In this submission, we communicate partial support for the proposed amendment to the TEQSA Act. We agree that it would be beneficial to have legislation targeting commercial cheating providers. Crucially, we argue that the scope of the draft legislation should be narrowed, such that it is not an offence for an individual to assist a student to cheat.