by: Dianne van Eck
Hello everyone,
It has been an extremely busy three months! It is difficult to believe that the first quarter is over, Easter is almost upon us and the Fringe in Adelaide has been and gone. Hopefully some of you had the opportunity to see some of the events during the past two months.
I start this newsletter to you with a touch of sadness. Last week we all received the devastating news from RMIT of the death of Saskia Loer Hansen, DVC International and Engagement and Vice President, RMIT University. Saskia was a highly respected and beloved senior leader in the Australian Higher Education sector. We send our sympathy to her family.
Recruitment and projects at DVE
Recruitment continues at DVE as the projects increase. Last month, we welcomed two new team members – Project Manager, Hendrika Sloot, and Senior Consultant, Governance and Compliance, Heather Sainsbury, to the team. More recently, Larissa Pearce joined us as Managing Consultant to lead our Organisational Improvement business line. It is always great to bring new people into DVE providing a fresh perspective and helping to guide improvements in our service delivery.
Some of our projects during this past quarter have included project managing the implementation of a curriculum management system, analsying the reasons for late changes to timetables, merging two teams together for placement processes, reviewing and improving compliance measures in serveral private providers and developing Third Party policy and procedures.
DVE Webinars
The first webinar on Student Support and The Universities Accord presented on 21 February 2025 was an outstanding hit with over 300 registrants.Another webinar on the challenges of Rural and Regional Placement ran on April 2. Recording fom both session can be accessed at:
- Student Support and the Accord – 21 February
- Mountains or Molehills? Rural and Remote Placements Process Challenges – 2 April
Follow DVE Solutions on LinkedIn for updates and details on upcoming sessions.
Conferences
My colleagues Carly Boon and Michelle Mosiere attended the Universities Australia ‘Solutions Summit’ from 25-26 February 2025. They enjoyed meeting many of our university colleagues, attending the sessions and in particular the conference dinner at Parliament House, a first for both. (Photo below from Universities Australia)
The Students Transitions Achievement Retention & Success Conference (STARS), Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia (EPHEA) and National Association of Enabling Educators (NAEEA) are joining together to host the Student Success Conference. The conference will be on June 30 to July 2, 2025 so book your ticket now. The conference will be held at the Pullman Cairns International Hotel from 30 June to 2 July 2025.
As mentioned previously ATEM 2025 IMPACT Conference will be held on 7 – 10 September in Canberra with ANU as the ATEM Conference partner. This is a great opportunity to not only attend an informative conference, but to also tour the beautiful ANU campus.
The 2025 Heads of Student Administration (HOSA) conference will be held in Christchurch, NZ from 3 – 5 September.
The ATEM Admissions, Scholarships and Credit Symposium will be held in Adelaide at Flinders University from 28 to 30 May, 2025. This is a great opportunity to visit Adelaide if you have never been, and tour the beautiful Flinders Bedford Park campus as well as visit the University’s new magnificent city building for pre-symposium events. Let me know if you would like to meet for a coffee on campus or in the city whilst you are here. This year’s theme is ‘Fearless: unlocking opportunity’ incorporating ‘frank and fearless’ discussions about service and support to students during these important initial milestones when studying at university.
A fun week with Tommy!
This past week I was lucky to spend a week with Tommy whilst Jo travelled for the first time to Shanghai, a wonderful experience for Jo. Tommy and I decided to buy him some new shoes as he is growing so fast. I thought this would be a difficult activity, but it proved to be a lot of fun. Tommy enjoyed the formal measuring up, the testing of shoes, trying on the first pair, which he loved, and running around the store in his new shoes. The 2 – 3 year old transition is so interesting and children change so fast, so I continue to treasure these special times with Tommy.
Another outing included meeting my friend, Carol’s 40 pregnant cows. The best part for Tommy was when the tractor came out and the hay unrolled onto the paddocks, and the cows followed the hay. This is exactly the scenario in Tommy’s story books, and he loved seeing it in real life. Other fun activities included visiting his Great Aunty Claire (my sister) and my Aunty Betty exploring their back yards, as well as serving pretend cups of tea sitting in sand. 😊
Thanks for taking the time to stay connected. If you would like to catch up for an online or in person coffee at any time, please contact me on 0412 417774.
All the very best for the next quarter of 2025.
Warm regards,
Di
Dianne van Eck
Director Higher Education
