Effective Risk and Compliance Management in Higher Education

In a consistently evolving regulatory and risk environment the one constant remains the ability to respond promptly, appropriately and almost preemptively to these changes.  This has fostered a need for deep embedment of risk management and more particularly compliance to regulatory requirements into the corporate culture of all organisations, some more highly regulated than others. The bottom line is that risk management and compliance are no longer perceived burdens but rather form an integral part of doing business in the right way. Efficient and effective risk management practices place organizations at a competitive advantage.  It is not sustainable to consistently allocate additional resources to these issues.  This is where intelligent, automated, integrated risk management solutions play a key role.

The bottom line is that risk management and Compliance are no longer perceived burdens but rather form an integral part of doing business in the right way.

The financial services industry has experienced the brunt of it through changes in regulation and regulatory frameworks, hefty penalties and fines and commissions of enquiry, with heightened expectations from consumers.  Other industries such as higher education have also followed suit under these regulatory pressures and expectations.

Since its establishment in 2011, the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (“TEQSA”) has focused on the protection of students’ interests and in preserving the reputation of the higher education industry. TEQSA’s regulatory approach is a risk-based and standards one to regulation.  Its remit in conducting compliance and risk assessments, re-accreditation assessments of courses and in collecting and analyzing information for these assessments has necessitated effective risk and compliance management practices and the flow of qualitative, accessible data to TEQSA. 

TEQSA conducts its risk assessments on an annual basis. According to TEQSA these serve as a regulatory tool guiding TEQSA’s priorities and regulatory scoping activities in a risk-reflective manner. And therein lies the opportunity to manage risk preemptively based on the results of the preceding risk assessment conducted. 

In order to accommodate higher education practises in a Covid 19 climate, TEQSA has introduced interim relaxations to the standards.  Staying on top of these changes in addition to industry-relevant legislative changes can pose a challenge.

The IRM Practice of Enable Professional Services can add value to risk management and compliance practises in the higher education industry.

Enable Professional Services is the most qualified, certified and capable ServiceNow partner in the APJ region.  ServiceNow Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) helps transform and integrate inefficient GRC processes into an integrated GRC risk program. Through continuous regulatory change alerts, control compliance monitoring, issues and incident management, key risk indicator (KRI) monitoring and automation, and dashboard reporting, ServiceNow GRC delivers a real-time view of compliance and risk levels, improves decision making, and increases GRC performance across organisations.

Related links:

For more TEQSA related information please refer to the TEQSA website:  https://www.teqsa.gov.au/

Written by –

Myhendri Govender

LEAD CONSULTANT – GRC

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