Regulating for Learning in the Tertiary Education System

For most people, government regulation means laws, rules and formal systems of control. This is but one slice of regulation. To understand regulation we need to start with a much bigger view of what it is and how it works. The purpose of regulation is to steer the flow of events (Parker & Braithwaite J 2003) so that harms are avoided and benefits realised. In the broadest sense, regulation then is commonplace. It can be informal and local, and most importantly responsive to individuals, contexts and environments. Most times, regulation is so low key and taken for granted that we would not even think of it as regulation (Braithwaite V 2006).