Guidance note: Staffing - Version 1.0 - 11 June 2025

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by James

TEQSA’s guidance note on staffing provides high-level, principles-based direction for interpreting and applying the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 and related instruments. It supports higher education providers to develop policies and processes for workforce planning, oversight, and ensuring academic and professional staff have adequate knowledge, skills, resources, qualifications, or experience. It also highlights compliance risks and explains what TEQSA will look for regarding staffing and workforce planning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Guidance note overview

Purpose and intent

What does staffing encompass?

What TEQSA will look for

Related standards referenced

Guidance note: Staffing Version 1.0 (11 June 2025) TEQSA’s guidance notes are concise documents designed to provide high-level, principles-based guidance on interpretation and application of specific standards of the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 . They also draw attention to other interrelated standards and highlight potential risks to compliance. They do not introduce prescriptive obligations. The definitive instruments that set out providers’obligations in delivering higher education remain the Threshold Standards (as amended on advice from the Higher Education Standards Panel to the Minister for Education from time to time) and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011. In early 2024, TEQSA consulted stakeholders with a draft version of the guidance note about staffing and considered all feedback. This guidance note was finalised on 11 June 2025. The purpose and intent of the guidance note about staffing is to support providers in developing policies and processes to ensure there is requisite workforce planning and oversight of staffing arrangements and that both academic and professional staff have sufficient knowledge, skill, resources, qualifications or experience to provide adequate support to students and lead them towards expected learning outcomes. For the full list of guidance notes and resources, please see the TEQSA website. ! 1. What does staffing encompass? Under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 (Threshold Standards), registered higher education providers (providers) have obligations around staffing1 to ensure that: • student and staff support and services are sufficiently resourced by appropriately trained and qualified professional staff • academic staff have sufficient knowledge, teaching capacity and teaching expertise to meet the needs of students • research, research training, and scholarship is supported through appropriate policy frameworks and resources. Workforce planning supports a sound approach to planning, developing, maintaining and optimising staffing arrangements. Successful workforce planning ensures a staffing profile that will fulfil the provider’s higher education mission and ensure that the provider meets, and continues to meet, the requirements of the Threshold Standards and operates as an efficient organisation, both academically and corporately. The primary part of the Threshold Standards that sets out providers’obligations around staffing is Section 3.2. Providers are expected to ensure their students: • are supported in their learning • have teachers who are qualified and equipped to lead them in their chosen course of study and towards expected learning outcomes • can access teaching staff when seeking individual assistance. Professional staff make important contributions to the delivery of learning and teaching. Providers should ensure they have sufficient professional staff to support the administration of learning and teaching operations and that these staff have the contemporary knowledge and skill needed to meet the requirements of their roles. Similarly, providers should confirm, through regular oversight, that academic staff, particularly those responsible for teaching and supervision, are appropriately equipped for their roles. This includes ensuring academic staff have, and continuously hold through ongoing professional development: • knowledge of contemporary developments in their discipline or field, informed by continuing scholarship and/or research • knowledge of current teaching and assessment approaches relevant to the discipline, and the skills and capacity to apply and disseminate disciplinary knowledge relevant for the mode of delivery and the needs of students • knowledge of institutional policies on academic integrity and how to identify potential academic and research integrity breaches and take appropriate action • a qualificat

FAQs

What is the purpose of TEQSA’s staffing guidance note?

It supports providers in developing policies and processes for workforce planning and oversight, ensuring adequate staffing capability and resources for student support and learning outcomes.

What obligations do providers have under the Threshold Standards regarding staffing?

Providers must ensure students and staff support and services are sufficiently resourced by appropriately trained and qualified professional staff, that academic staff have adequate teaching knowledge and capacity, and that research and research training are supported through appropriate frameworks and resources.

How does workforce planning help providers meet staffing expectations?

It supports planning, development, maintenance, and optimisation of staffing arrangements, enabling a staffing profile that fulfils the provider’s mission and continues to meet Threshold Standards efficiently, academically and corporately.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by James