Quarter 4 Happenings

Hello everyone and welcome to summer!

It has been a very strange quarter weather wise, particularly for our colleagues who are within, or near the extreme fire zones in NSW and QLD. We’ve never had bushfires of such intensity and breadth in spring before. Who says climate change is not real? We hope anyone affected by the fires has managed to stay safe.

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you will have seen that I’ve been travelling across different states over the last few months, visiting colleagues and clients in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Our team has also been running projects in Canberra at both universities and South Australia at three universities.

I’m proud to say that we have now worked with 34 Australian and New Zealand Universities. I never thought this would be possible when I left UniSA after 10 years working there in 2007! What an amazing journey it has been over the last 11 years with a great team that has flexed and changed through this time – with now over 150 subject matter experts on our list. Jo, my daughter and CEO of DVE Solutions, and I are very proud to see our vision of ‘changing education from the inside out’ becoming reality.

Higher Education Frustrations

Implementation – just do it!

Implementing recommendations is often overlooked once the report is written or the process is reviewed. This is often due to consuming business as usual activities, no champion to drive the work, a lack of funds or no plan.

As a result, many of our projects now include Implementation Plans as a tangible outcome to continue with the work already commenced in either a review, system implementation or process improvement project.

The DVE Implementation Plan is one of the most cost-effective tools I’ve come across and I’m now recommending it to all of our clients. It’s a high level but practical plan to enable recommendations to be implemented immediately. It enables teams to continue with the enthusiasm and motivation that they felt while engaging in project workshops or other activities.

Contact us today for your Implementation Plan and make it happen!

Higher Education Happenings

Government announces they are simplifying the Higher Education system

As you may have heard, the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, has confirmed that the Government has accepted all 10 recommendations made in the Review of Australia’s Higher Education Provider Category Standards by Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake AO.

The review recommended:

• Reducing the number of higher education provider categories from six to four.
• Adding greater differentiation among the large majority of private providers.
• Creating a new category of teaching intensive, high performing higher education providers.
• Greater regulatory transparency to facilitate new entrants into higher education and progression to various levels of oversight and self-accreditation.

In the Australian Government Response, the Minister said, “Professor Coaldrake’s ten recommendations aim to simplify the Provider Category Standards by removing underutilised categories, providing differentiation, supporting provider innovation and aspiration, and maintaining Australia’s reputation for world-class higher education.”

He continues, “The amendments to the Provider Category Standards will drive more diversity of providers in higher education, responding to evolving workforce skills needs and driving better collaboration in our research efforts.”

You can view the full response here . This is great news for the Higher Education sector!

University of Adelaide wins big!

The University of Adelaide’s reputation for international education has received a major boost, with the University winning a 2019 Australian Export Award!

The University of Adelaide won the International Education and Training Award at the 57th Australian Export Awards, ahead of six other finalists from around Australia. Great work to the team in the international unit.

CourseLoop Community Forum

Jo, Carly and I attended the CourseLoop Curriculum Management Software Community Event run by Factor5, in Melbourne recently. The event showcased the future opportunities available from the CourseLoop software, which is now implemented in over 20% of Australian universities and starting to roll out internationally as well. As an implementation partner of Factor5 we know firsthand how much the software can help you manage the course approval process, publication to handbook, assurance and governance requirements as well as many other functions around curriculum management.

Caroline McInnis, Executive Director Product Management at Factor5, presented information from the recent EduCause and HEUG EMEA conferences, which she attended with Founder and CEO, Brian Clark in the US and Europe. She highlighted that, “Curriculum management pain exists globally, albeit manifested in slightly different priorities. Professional accreditation is a major pain point across all markets and graduate outcomes and employability (and therefore competency mapping) are increasingly a focus.”

Student Journey and Success Symposium, Noosa Queensland, May 2020

DVE will be a GOLD Sponsor of the inaugural Student Journey and Success Symposium that will be held in sunny Noosa, May 2020. The symposium has been developed around the need for Higher Education practitioners to better understand and develop skills around the themes of service design, journey mapping, experience measurement, enhancing digital experience and/or co-creation with end users.

In organising this Symposium, the organisers are hoping to make this into an exciting, hands-on event – more workshop style than a ‘presenting to’ event. DVE is supporting this initiative and will facilitate a pre-forum workshop showcasing some best practice case studies around these topics, in conjunction with several universities. Go to the symposium website for further details.

Last, but not least, Happy Holidays!

On behalf of the DVE team I wish you all a happy holiday season, restful end of year break and a fantastic New Year. See you in 2020 for new and exciting initiatives in Higher Education in Australia and New Zealand.

Kind regards,

Dianne

P.S. Remember to reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter @Di1358.