Dr Helen Gniel | Director - Higher Education Integration Unit
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA)

Dr Gniel joined TEQSA to establish the Higher Education Integrity Unit in January of 2021, following a 20 year career in Australia's higher education sector as a scientist, academic, and quality assurance professional. The Higher Education Integrity Unit identifies increasing or emerging threats to the integrity of higher education and works in partnership with the sector to mitigate these threats. Key areas of current focus for the unit are supporting Australia’s universities to mitigate the risks and harness the opportunities that generative artificial intelligence poses for the sector, and disrupting the commercial academic cheating industry through use of Australia’s legislation prohibiting such services. In recognition of the global nature of higher education and research, Dr Gniel has driven increased focus on international partnership between regulators to support the integrity of higher education, as one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Global Academic Integrity Network. Prior to commencing as the inaugural director of TEQSA’s Higher Education Integrity Unit, Dr Gniel served as the Senior Advisor, Quality and Standards at Monash University, and as an academic in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University. Dr Gniel holds a PhD in Medical Sciences (Neuroscience), a First Class Honours degree in Physiology and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.