The eighth meeting of the Advance HE Australasia Strategic Advisory Board (ASAB), held at the University of Sydney last week, highlighted a range of Advance HE activity in Australasia including:
- The launch of the first cohort of Advance HE’s Top Management Programme for Higher Education Australia and New Zealand, starting in February 2020
- A growing membership in the region, with two new Australian institutional members joining this month
- The launch of Advance HE Connect, an online platform to connect staff from Advance HE’s 350 member institutions around the world.
ASAB was set up to inform Advance HE’s work in Australasia, where it now has 25 member institutions across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, including the Australian Institute for Business which took up membership just this month.
ASAB includes senior representatives from Advance HE’s members in Australasia, along with an indigenous representative from Australia (nominated by NATSIHEC) and New Zealand, and representatives from national bodies such as Ako Aotearoa and the Council of Australasian University Leaders in Learning and Teaching, CAULLT.
Since its inception, ASAB has been chaired by Professor Suzi Derbyshire of Queensland University of Technology, who is now standing down due to her retirement later this year. She was thanked for her substantial contribution. Kathryn Harrison-Graves, Advance HE’s Director of Membership and Accreditation, said, “I would like to personally thank Suzi for her support for ASAB. Her involvement has been instrumental in making the group a driving force to influence our regional and international activities.” An election for a new ASAB chair will take place before the next meeting of ASAB, which is scheduled to take place in Auckland in November.
At the same time as the ASAB meeting, the current UK cohort of Advance HE’s Top Management Programme for Higher Education (TMP HE) was also in Sydney to learn from and share ideas with the Australian sector. TMP HE, currently running for the 44th cohort in the UK and Ireland, is Advance HE’s longest standing leadership development programme and is designed for those aspiring to vice-chancellorships or other very senior appointments in institutions.
The launch of TMP HE Australia and New Zealand follows consultation with a number of vice-chancellors and other sector stakeholders who have welcomed the initiative. Applications for Top Management Programme for Higher Education Australia and New Zealand,are open until 27 November 2019.
Other Advance HE initiatives include:
- A recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with TEQSA which provides the framework for cooperation in areas to support their enhancement role.
- Work with SAGE (Science in Australia Gender Equity), a partnership between the Academy of Science and the Academy of Technology and Engineering who have been piloting Advance HE’s Athena SWAN Charter in Australia. In December last year, 15 Australian institutions were presented with the Athena SWAN Bronze Award, recognising their initiatives to improve gender equity and diversity. The institutions awarded are the first group of a further 45 aiming to complete the Athena SWAN Bronze process this year.
- Ongoing accreditation of teaching development programmes and the award of Fellowships aligned to the Professional Standards Framework, an internationally recognised framework for benchmarking success within higher education teaching and learning support. There are now over 2,730 Fellows in Australia and New Zealand.
For further information about Advance HE membership, please contact: memberships@advance-he.ac.uk