Welcome back to a quite cold and wet winter. I know many of you have experienced serious flooding events, particularly our colleagues at Southern Cross University. I hope that with winter solstice over we can start to appreciate longer days and warmer weather.
Over the past few months, there has been a greater focus for DVE to support institutions, both universities and private providers, initiate large and critical projects. Many of our clients are positive about the changes they can make to their business processes and systems to improve workflow, eliminate workarounds and stop reinventing the wheel (note the 8 Wastes terms 😊).
Speaking of 8 Wastes, we have held two DVE ‘Navigating the 8 Wastes in Higher Education’ events with four universities sending staff to these 3-hour training sessions. The feedback from attendees was positive with comments such as ‘It’s great to have a framework to use for improvement activities’, ‘It’s good to discuss these issues and work out ways to create solutions’ and ‘I now believe I can make change from the ground up’. If you are interested in our DVE 8 Wastes training, our next session will be held in September so contact me if you would like to register your team.
Upcoming travel
I have booked my ticket and flights for the University Australia Conference in Canberra in early July. It was a strange feeling to be booking travel again. I had to download the Qantas app as I hadn’t needed it for a year! I am very much looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the conference. I am hoping we will hear from the new Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare. I was slightly disappointed to hear that Minister Tanya Plibersek had been moved from Education to another portfolio, but I think she will be terrific as our Environment Minister. The Federal election Labour win is an excellent opportunity for the sector to lobby for improvements in key areas, particularly for research funding.
I will also be heading to Sydney in August to attend the Heads of Student Administration (HoSA) conference. This is one of my favourite conferences where I hear about all of the initiatives universities are working on to support the student experience. From our work at DVE, I know that many of you have similar problems and are looking at process and system improvements to automate many manual and mundane tasks so that your staff provide higher value work to support your students and their successful journey at your institutions.
DVE Events
DVE recently hosted a successful ‘Good Governance Minute Taking’ webinar led by two of our senior consultants Danielle Baird and Amber Daniels. If you missed this, contact us via info@dvesolutions.com.au to join the wait list for the next webinar.
Admissions has been a key focus for many universities over the past 12 months. Several of our clients are undertaking student journey mapping activities to understand how their different student cohorts think and feel throughout the admissions process as well as during their first six months at university. We have worked with many universities to improve their admissions processes and support retention activities.
In our experience, the focus needs to be on improving student communications, identifying and addressing specific student cohort needs and ensuring easy and seamless application processes. We are planning a DVE Admissions Webinar to be held in the second half of the year where we will share lessons learned from our admissions improvement work. Details will be provided soon.
DVE Head of Consulting, Ian Thomson will be facilitating our third VC Fireside Webinar, Will Being Different Make a Difference to Future University Success? This event will see the Vice Chancellors from Swinburne, New England and Newcastle come to discuss this question and address some questions posed by attendees. The event will be held on Wednesday 13 July from 4.30 to 5.30 AEST. Register today!
Sector Happenings
There have been some fantastic achievements this past quarter.
- Dr Kathryn Blyth was recently awarded her Doctor of Education from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Kathryn is a great champion for higher education in Australia. She has held leading roles in ATEM for many years. Congratulations Kathryn!
- Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington, DVC Research and Enterprise at UniSA was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, General Division. Congratulations Marnie!
- Professor Hilary Winchester was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to higher education. The DVE team congratulates you, Hilary!
- Patrick Woods who was awarded a Doctor of the University (honoris causa) by the University of Technology Sydney. While he will be moving on from UTS, this comes in recognition of his achievements as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Resources) at UTS over the past 15 years. Congratulations Patrick!
Congratulations also to those who have moved to new positions (apologies if I have omitted someone):
- Associate Professor Chie Adachi is leaving Deakin University to become the Dean and Professor of Digital Education within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London.
- Dr Michelle Gander has accepted the role of Dean (People & Resources) in the College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences at Flinders University.
- Michelle Paez-Kirkland has has been appointed Chief Governance and Quality Officer at the Bendigo Kangan Institute.
- Joel Walker is the new Executive Director, Strategy and Planning at The College, Western Sydney University.
- Michael Wilmore is starting a new position as Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic Development at the University of New England (UNE).
- Mike Ferguson is commencing as the new Pro Vice Chancellor International at Charles Sturt University.
That’s all for this ‘Coffee Corner’! Remember to connect with me on LinkedIn and if you want to have a chat, virtual coffee or on campus catch up just call me on 0412 417774 anytime.
Regards Di
