Legislation

The functions of the TEC are set out in section 159C of the Education Act 1989 and are primarily to give effect to the Government’s tertiary education strategy, including the allocating of funding to tertiary education organisations, and to provide advice on matters affecting tertiary education to the Minister for Tertiary Education.

Other major functions set out in that section are to develop and implement funding mechanisms and to monitor the performance of organisations that receive funding from the TEC.

Under section 159KBA of the Act the chief executive of the TEC must monitor tertiary education institutions that receive funding to assess the risk of their operational and long-term viability.

The TEC is a crown entity for the purposes of section 7 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 and is categorised as a crown agent under Schedule 1 of that Act.

Under section 103 of the Crown Entities Act the TEC must give effect to a government policy that relates to its functions and objectives when directed by the Minister for Tertiary Education.

The TEC also has functions and powers under:

Industry Training Act 1992

Modern Apprenticeship Training Act 2000.