TEQSA regulates academic integrity in Australian higher education and can block websites that provide academic cheating services. The offence covers providing or advertising work for a student to submit as their own; tutoring, teaching and feedback on your own drafts sit outside it and remain lawful.
What TEQSA Is
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency is Australia's independent higher education regulator. Since amendments to the TEQSA Act in 2020, it holds specific powers over academic cheating services: it can seek civil penalties against providers, and it can direct Australian internet carriers to block access to offending websites. Several hundred sites have been blocked under those powers.
What the Law Prohibits
Two offences: providing an academic cheating service, and advertising one. An academic cheating service means completing part or all of an assessment for a student where the work is passed off as the student's own, or sitting an exam in their place. Penalties reach substantial fines, and the provisions apply to services offered to Australian students regardless of where the provider is based.
As in the UK, the offence sits with the provider. A student is not committing a criminal offence, but is breaching their university's academic integrity policy, which is the consequence that actually affects them.
The blocking power is the practical difference. Unlike other jurisdictions, TEQSA can make a site disappear for Australian users. A service that vanishes mid-order takes your money and your deadline with it — which is a reason to check who you are dealing with before you pay, not after.
What Remains Lawful
- Tutoring — explaining concepts, working through methods, checking understanding.
- Model answers on a different question, used to learn the standard.
- Feedback and proofreading on your own draft, within your university's policy.
- Referencing help for Harvard author-date, APA 7th or AGLC.
- Similarity checking before submission.
The legislation was drafted deliberately to avoid capturing legitimate academic support, because Australian universities rely on tutoring and learning-support services themselves.
What Australian Universities Treat as Misconduct
Institutional policies go further than the criminal law. Commonly listed:
- Submitting work written by someone else, purchased or not
- Unauthorised collusion — working together where the assessment required individual work
- Recycling your own previously submitted work without permission (self-plagiarism)
- Fabricating data or sources
- Undeclared generative AI use, which most Australian universities added to policy from 2023
How Allegations Are Handled
Most institutions run a two-stage process: an initial meeting with the unit coordinator or an integrity officer, then referral to a panel if the matter is not resolved. You are entitled to be told the allegation, to see the evidence, to bring a support person, and to respond before a decision.
Your student association almost certainly provides free advocacy. Use it — advocates attend these meetings routinely and know what the panel responds to.
Choosing a Service Safely
Ask whether the work is intended for submission. A compliant provider says no and publishes an integrity policy saying so. Check for a registered entity, a contactable address and a complaints route. A site promising guaranteed HDs, ghost-written assignments or exam-sitting is describing conduct TEQSA exists to stop.
Frequently asked questions
Is assignment help legal in Australia?
Tutoring, model answers and feedback are legal. Under the TEQSA Act it is an offence to provide or advertise an academic cheating service — work completed for a student to submit as their own, or sitting an exam in their place. The offence applies to the provider, and TEQSA can also have offending websites blocked by Australian internet carriers.
Can TEQSA block a website?
Yes. Since the 2020 amendments TEQSA can direct Australian carriers to block access to sites providing academic cheating services, and it has done so for several hundred sites. For students this is a practical risk as much as a legal one: a blocked provider can disappear mid-order.
What counts as academic misconduct at an Australian university?
Submitting work you did not write, unauthorised collusion, recycling your own previous submissions without permission, fabricating data or sources, and undeclared generative AI use. Policies are published by each institution and go further than the criminal law.
Can I get help with my assignment without breaking the rules?
Yes. Using a tutor to understand a framework, to review your draft, or to check your referencing is permitted at every Australian university, and most run their own learning-support services for exactly that purpose. The line is whether the submitted writing and argument are yours.
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