Arts & Humanities in Higher Education 12(1) 20–35 ! The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1474022212460745 ahh.sagepub.com Forum article Learning outcomes assessment and History: TEQSA, the After Standards Project and the QA/QI challenge in Australia Sean Brawley University of New South Wales, Australia Jennifer Clark University of New England, Australia Chris Dixon University of Queensland, Australia Lisa Ford, Shawn Ross, Stuart Upton and Erik Nielsen University of New South Wales, Australia Abstract Higher education in Australia is currently in a state of flux, with the Federal Government’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency commencing oper- ations in January 2012. The ‘After Standards Project’ has been working with Australian university history departments and the Australian Historical Association, educating and empowering the discipline to act as a united community and assert ownership of a standards process. This article provides a stocktake of the achievements and challenges the After Standards Project has faced in coming to terms with the new environment and resultant new demands around compliance and accountability. It dis- cusses the After Standards Project’s work in terms of both quality assurance and quality improvement, with reference to the establishment of a set of discipline standards and the trial of an accreditation scheme. Corresponding author: Sean Brawley, School of Humanities, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia. Email: s.brawley@unsw.edu.au by guest on November 19, 2015 ahh.sagepub.com Downloaded from