The Australian government recently established a national regulator with responsibilities of registration and accreditation of all kinds of higher education providers including universities. The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) subsumes the functions of the previous Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) with legislative powers to place sanctions on institutions for non-compliance. One of the key changes in relation to quality assurance and external reviews is a shift of focus from an improvement-led audit to a compliance driven assessment using externally set standards and risk based reviews. The new quality and regulatory framework introduced by the government is extensively based on the review of documentation and institutional performance on various metrics to identify compliance or non-compliance against standards and analysis of risk using risk indicators. Unfortunately, unlike the previous AUQA audit, TEQSA's quality assessment does not engage students in the review process as a way to identify areas of good practice and areas needing improvement. This paper argues the need for the national regulator to engage students in the review process rather than assessing the quality of student experience solely based on paper trail and documentation review. Failure to engage students in the assessment of quality raises questions on the role of students in external review, and whether the national regulator is established to serve the purpose of the government only in advancing quality and or transforming student learning and enhancing their experience.