Di’s Coffee Corner – Quarter 1 2025

Posted: 30/01/2025
by: Dianne Van Eck

Happy New Year friends and colleagues!

I hope you all had a wonderful break and spent time with family and friends over the holiday period. I enjoyed the festive season with family and friends. I managed not to think about work for 3 weeks. It was bliss! I was able to spend some time with my friend Judy Szekeres at Brighton, South Australia, where Judy lives. The sunsets and sculptures along the beachfront are marvellous.

The New Year started in a flurry with quite a few new projects kicking off in January, as well as many 2024 projects continuing. We have employed 3 new staff at DVE and currently recruiting a lead for our Organisational Improvement area in the coming weeks.

DVE Webinars

Our DVE webinar series will continue, with the first webinar on Student Support and The Universities Accord scheduled for 21 February 2025. Follow DVE Solutions on LinkedIn for updates and details on upcoming sessions.

WIL/Placements in higher education

This topic remains one of our focal areas for 2025. I will be organising the Communities of Practice for WIL/Placements in the next few weeks, focusing initially on health and education. If you are interested in attending, please let me know. We are working on placement projects regularly and are implementing improved processes as part of this work.

Last year we ran several workshops with a university to understand and document the roles and responsibilities of academic and professional staff for all aspects of the placement lifecycle. It was a rewarding exercise for the teams to undertake, providing greater clarity and reducing misunderstandings between teams. The outcome was a RASIC chart which will become a working document for the teams to use. They all commented on how useful they found this exercise. If you are interested in knowing more about this for your teams, let me know.

Conferences

As mentioned previously ATEM 2025 will be held on 7 – 10 September in Canberra with ANU as the ATEM Conference partner.

I had booked for the Universities Australia ‘Solutions Summit’ confirmed for 25-26 February 2025 however to some health issues I am unable to attend. My DVE colleagues, Carly Boon and Michelle Mosiere will be attending and they look forward to meeting you there.

The 2025 Heads of Student Administration (HOSA) conference will be held in Christchurch, NZ from 3 – 5 September.

Campus Visits

Late last year my colleague Emma Laurence and I unexpectedly met Alan Brideson and Ruth Sims, former UniSA colleagues at the City West campus where Emma and I were working. We had a wonderful time reminiscing our time in those early years from 1997 to 2007 at UniSA, particularly in the marketing and recruitment activities where we all worked.

The new university merger is moving fast now, with many staff now employed by Adelaide University. We are assisting several teams with merger activities which is a privilege and pleasure.

Alan Brideson, Ruth Sims, Di van Eck and Emma Laurence back together again! 

I am also working at Flinders University this quarter and the Bedford Park campus is a beautiful campus to visit. There are many places for students to study, great cafes and eating places and wonderful views.

Tommy is growing up!

Tommy’s excitement at Christmas time was wonderful to experience. He made sure there was food and drink left out for the reindeer at night and was pleased to see this was eaten in the morning. The gifts left behind by Father Christmas and the elves made him very happy. He also loved giving his mum and Oma gifts too. Here are my two favourite people.

He continues to love his time at Day Care and learning many new skills and activities.

The cars and trucks are still a key play focus for him. During the break we could spend a lot of time outdoors playing in the sandpit with toys left over from my toy shop days in the 1980s! I was able to reminisce a little of those interesting times, travelling around the state with my mobile toy shop, selling toys to parents of children at playgroups and kindergartens. It was a great way to see South Australia. I had to stop once Jo went to school, but it’s something I’m always glad I experienced.

Tommy also loves watering the garden. We visited his Great Aunty Claire to help her with the watering.

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 beginning of 2025.

 

Warm regards,
Di
Dianne van Eck

Director, Higher Education