Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Bill 2021 and another

The majority voted in favour of a motion "that the bills stand as printed." In other words, the majority voted in favour of keeping the bills in their current form. They can now decide on whether to pass the bills in the Senate.

What do the bills do?

According to the bills digest, the two bills were introduced:

to create a framework for the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Australia’s independent national higher education regulator, to begin phasing-in cost recovery arrangements from 1 January 2022.

In other words, the bills will allow TEQSA to seek more money from universities to cover certain government costs in respect to the tertiary sector. Read the bills digest for more detail on what costs will be recovered from universities.

This bills are controversial in light of the dire financial situation most Australian universities are now in, mostly due to a combination of government funding cuts and COVID-related drops in international student intakes.