Quarter 3 Sector Happenings

Hello again, friends and colleagues!

It’s hard to believe that 2019 is coming to a close with Q4 now upon us. Since my last Coffee Corner, a great deal has been happening in the Higher Education sector. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on – and what is coming up that you might like to know about.

Sector Happenings

Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence Announced

The 2019 Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence list is out and on it are some of the incredible women in our sector. A big congratulations go to:

• Alexandra Phelan – Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University, Global
• Julie Leask – Professor, University of Sydney, Global
• Belinda Tynan – Deputy Vice Chancellor Education and Vice President, RMIT, Board and Management
• Helen Lochhead – Dean, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW Sydney, Board and Management
• Dr Vanessa Pirotta – Marine Biologist and Science Communicator, Macquarie University, Young Leader
• Ngaree Blow – Director of First Nations Health, The University of Melbourne, Young Leader
• Jakelin Fleur Troy – Director, Indigenous Research, The University of Sydney, Innovation
• Professor Anna Moore – Director, ANU Institute for Space, Australian National University, Innovation
• Professor Karen Thorpe – Deputy Director of Research, University of Queensland, Public Policy
• Lucy Taksa – Research Centre Director, Centre for Workforce Futures, Macquarie Business School, Diversity and Inclusion
• Professor Louise Chappell Fassa – Director, Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW Sydney, Diversity and Inclusion
• Professor Mary E Crock – Professor of Public Law, The University of Sydney, Diversity and Inclusion

UniSA announces new Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Enterprise

UniSA announced the appointment of their next Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Enterprise, the former Deputy Vice Chancellor of The Australian National University, Rhodes Trust Australia secretary and internationally recognised historian, Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington.

Congratulations from the DVE team – Prof Hughes-Warrington joining UniSA is an excellent appointment! We have worked with many teams at UniSA since 2008. Jo and I are both UniSA alumni and take a keen interest in how the university continues to grow its capability.

Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings

Congratulations to the QUT and the University of Canberra, who are the two latest universities to rank in the Top 200 universities in the world. Many Australians universities have improved their overall rankings.

As the Times Higher Education organisation points out,

“On average, Australian universities improved on 12 of the 13 metrics underpinning the ranking over the past year…The higher-ranking positions are primarily driven by their improved citation impact scores, as well as excellent scores for research environment and international outlook.”

Conference season has begun!

HoSA Conference

The Higher Education Conference season has begun and it started with the Heads of Student Administration (HoSA) Conference in Wellington, New Zealand last month.

The feedback from the conference has been that it was excellent and showcased many examples of process improvement activities at Australian and New Zealand universities. You can find out more about four of these case studies in our 2019 HoSA Conference Recap.

Tertiary Education Management Conference (TEMC) – 29 September – 3 October

Next up was TEMC which was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre on the 29th September-3rd October. The theme was ‘Distilling Ideas, Transforming Futures’ and the keynotes ranged from Katrina Webb OAM, to Jamie Fitzgerald, Simon Griffiths, Alice Gorman, Jane Caro and Jana Wendt.

You can read my recap here Lessons Learned from the 2019 Tertiary Education Management Conference (TEMC)

ATEM/CMM Best Practice Awards

Congratulations to the winners of the 8th annual ATEM / CMM Best Practice Awards that were announced during TEMC.

• The LH Martin Institute Award for Excellence in Leadership – Naomi Dempsey, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students), Victoria University
• The ResearchMaster Award for Excellence in Research Management- VU Research Model Strategy Team, Victoria University
• The Award for Excellence in Governance and Policy – Dr. Fiona Choon Boey Lim, PhD, Victoria University
• The ESAM Award for Excellence in Innovation – eAssessments Programmes team, Monash University
• The AHEIA Award for Excellence in People and Culture – The HR Development and Engagement team, University of Southern Queensland
• The GFP Graduations Award for Excellence in School and Faculty Management – Professional Staff, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University
• The Universities Admission Centre (UAC) Award for Excellence in Student Engagement – Te Tari Takawaenga Māori – Māori Liaison Services, Hariata Mareroa,
• The UNIPromo Award for Excellence in Community Engagement – Footscray University town, Engagement Team, Victoria Univeristy
• The ECA Award for the Outstanding Achiever 2019 – Trish McCluskey, Director Connected Learning, Victoria University

ATEM 8 Wastes Workshop – 3 October

On behalf of ATEM I facilitated a DVE 8 Wastes Workshop at UniSA for anyone attending TEMC. This workshop provided the catalyst to create an Action Plan for continuous improvement ideas. We had the University of Southern Queensland, University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, UTS and University of Adelaide represented.

During 2019, we have facilitated the DVE 8 Wastes workshops at QUT, UWA, UniSA and Flinders University, to name just a few. These workshops bring together groups of staff from various areas (or teams from one area) to develop their individual Action Plans after identifying and analysing each of the 8 ‘Lean’ wastes in their particular area.

These workshops are a great catalyst for developing ‘Communities of Practice’ so book your workshops today. They are a great professional development opportunity for all staff.

ATEM Admissions Conference – 17-18 of October

The ATEM Admissions Conference will be held on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 October at Macquarie University. Admissions (and credit/RPL) are an essential function in the sector, particularly now that TEQSA has released a new note to the sector to manage admissions better.

The Good Practice Note: making higher education admissions transparent for prospective students was followed by a recent notification that TEQSA would soon review university admissions practices, particularly in relation to the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).

Are you concerned about your admissions practices? DVE has a deep understanding of admissions practices; call us now on 1800 870 677 for your Admissions Health Check.

There are only 8 useful weeks left for 2019 so if you have any budget remaining and need to achieve some ‘quick wins’ call us today. We have over 150 Subject Matter Experts to support our core team in addressing any problem you may have.

That’s it for now! I look forward to catching up with you during the next quarter and hope to see you on my travels! I’d love it if you contacted me for a chat about anything interesting you see happening in the sector and any changes or projects you need some help with. I’m great with Zoom coffee chats now too!

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