On 25 August 2025, the Australian Parliament passed the Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence) Act 2025 (Cth), which empowers the Minister for Education to make a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence (GBV Code).
The GBV Code will set rules for higher education providers to embed a whole-of-organisation approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and is intended to:
a) strengthen prevention efforts;
b) improve the response to gender-based violence;
c) hold higher education providers accountable for their performance, including in relation to student accommodation; and
d) ultimately through these measures, to reduce the incidence of gender-based violence in higher education communities.
The GBV Code codifies a range of existing legal and regulatory obligations with respect to preventing and responding to gender-based violence, and builds upon those obligations to strengthen effective governance by higher education providers over prevention and response. While there is a large degree of overlap between the subject matter of the GBV Code and existing legal and regulatory obligations, for almost all higher education providers, the GBV Code will require significant changes to systems, policies, procedures and practices.
Obligations under the GBV Code
While the final form of the GBV Code has not yet been published, it is expected to reflect the terms of the proposed GBV code.
The GBV Code will require providers to take actions that are proportionate and safe when students or staff of the provider experience or engage in gender-based violence, regardless of where, or the context in which, the gender-based violence occurs.
The GBV Code sets seven standards which, in summary, require:
- a whole of organisation approach to prevention and response (with a written plan led by the Vice-Chancellor);
- continuous system improvement, with specific obligations in relation to the content and application of policies on preventing and responding to gender-based violence);
- knowledge and capability building;
- safe and person-centred responses and support, both for those who experience gender-based violence and those who are alleged to have engaged in gender-based violence);
- safe and timely processes, with a requirement that procedures be designed to allow formal reports to be finalised within 45 business days (including any disciplinary processes), and any appeals to be finalised within 20 business days;
- the use of data to inform the approaches to prevention and response, measuring change and contributing to the national evidence base; and
- the provision of safe student accommodation.
The GBV Code imposes specific obligations on a provider's peak corporate governance body, including with respect to ensuring there is expertise in student and staff safety and wellbeing within that body or a subcommittee.
The GBV Code also imposes specific obligations on providers in relation to student accommodation, including accommodation which is not directly owned, operated or managed by a provider. These obligations include requiring an accommodation provider to comply with the provider's policies and procedures, or to otherwise have policies and procedures which comply with the GBV Code.
Non-compliance with the GBV Code
Non-compliance with the GBV Code can result in regulatory or legal action by the Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Education (the Department), which may result in a compliance notice issued by the Department. Providers are bound to take any remedial action specified in the compliance notice, or may be liable to pay a civil penalty. The Department does not need to issue a compliance notice before taking other regulatory action.
The Department also has broad powers to monitor, investigate and enforce compliance with the GBV Code. These powers include powers to search, and take evidence from, provider premises. The Department may enter an enforceable undertaking with a provider, and may issue infringement notices to providers in relation to an alleged breach of the GBV Code.
The Department can also seek remedies in the Federal Court of Australia or the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia to enforce the provider's compliance with the GBV Code. Importantly, the Department is not bound to take regulatory action as a first step to enforcing compliance with the GBV Code. It can, in the first instance, take legal action through court proceedings against the provider.
Conduct that contravenes the GBV Code may also give rise to regulatory action by TEQSA under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth), put at risk the provider's approval under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (Cth) for non-compliance with the quality and accountability requirements, and lead to claims by disgruntled staff or students in contract, tort and/or under the Australian Consumer Law.
Intersection between the GBV Code and existing obligations on preventing and responding to harmful behaviours
Providers are already subject to overlapping legal and regulatory frameworks that govern safety and wellbeing of staff, students and their communities. These frameworks create obligations in the conduct of a provider's operations (including its response to reports of gender-based violence and other harmful behaviours), governance, and external and internal reporting.
The GBV Code will codify in granular detail, through the imposition of seven standards, the specific steps higher education providers must take regarding gender-based violence, and therefore removes some flexibility that providers have historically had when determining the steps they take to discharge their legal and regulatory obligations in relation to safety and wellbeing. However, importantly, steps taken by a provider in compliance with the GBV Code will significantly assist them to meet their obligations under other legal and regulatory frameworks (including workplace health and safety laws, the positive duty to eliminate sexual harassment, and safety, wellbeing and governance obligations under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 (Cth). Careful compliance with the GBV Code will not guarantee compliance with other frameworks, but it will significantly strengthen overall legal and regulatory compliance and reduce risk.
With the expected commencement date of the GBV Code fast-approaching for universities, they should focus on achieving base level compliance by 1 January 2026. In particular, universities should focus on:
- updating policies and procedures relating to prevention and response, including amending policies relating to behavioural expectations (and their scope and application, including to student accommodation and affiliated organisations) and how the university will respond when incidents arise;
- engagement with the university's peak corporate governance body, including to embed necessary reporting into the university's governance reporting schedule to ensure the governing body can discharge its governance obligations; and
- documenting a whole-of-enterprise plan, which universities can prepare by drawing upon existing plans (eg. prevention plans relating to the positive duty to prevent sexual harassment, and psychosocial risk assessments), and documenting the actions the university intends to take over the coming 3, 6 and 12 month horizons.
From 1 January, universities should seek to strengthen compliance by aligning processes and systems with best practice to discharge its obligations across all relevant legislative and regulatory regimes. In this respect, there is a large degree of overlap between the GBV Code and existing legal and regulatory obligations, and universities will be assisted by ensuring relevant internal functions are aligned and acting collaboratively to implement a whole-of-organisation approach, reducing duplication of effort, strengthening compliance, and maximising the university's efforts to prevent harm.
The expected commencement date of the GBV Code for non-university higher education providers is 1 January 2027, allowing more time for the remaining part of the higher education sector to align systems, policies, procedures and practices to the new requirements. However, the existing legal and regulatory regimes will continue to apply in the interim.
The legal and regulatory landscape for student, staff and community safety and wellbeing continues to evolve. It increasingly elevates responsibility for preventing and responding to harm to the provider's peak corporate governance body. An effective whole-of-organisation approach is required to ensuring the prevention of harm to university and other provider communities.
