Creating career-ready graduates:
The role of undergraduate research
An opportunity for university managers and staff to come together to explore how students’ employment outcomes can be enhanced.
Are you responsible for:
- Creating university industry partnerships?
- Providing internships and practicums for students?
- Leading Work-Integrated Learning?
- Engaging Students as Partners?
- Creating research experiences for undergraduates?
Universities are working to improve student career outcomes through liaising with industry, through work integrated learning, through engaging students as partners, by engaging students in research, and other related initiatives. The purpose of this Colloquium is to provide an opportunity for university leaders and managers, and academic and professional staff to come together to examine the skills and abilities that students are gaining through such initiatives, and to explore the synergies between them. The Colloquium will address key challenges, showcase best practice, and examine work in progress.
Supporting universities to develop and strengthen partnerships with industry, increasing the number of internships, practicums, and other innovative approaches to work-integrated learning, increasing the number of STEM-skilled graduates and improving their employment outcomes are all key aspects of the Australian Government’s approach to university funding.
Outcomes of the Colloquium
- Enhanced understanding of the synergies between a range of different approaches to addressing students’ employability requirements
- Appreciation of the varied contributions being made to undergraduate student career preparation and identification of possible skills gaps
- Cross-fertilisation of ideas and networks
- Enhanced understanding of the role of undergraduate research as a vehicle for skills development whatever profession students go into.
Program: Click here to see the program
Costs: The Colloquium is free for two Institutional representatives from each ACUR Member Institution and Presenters. If you are unsure if your institution is a member, then you can request this information via email.
All other participants: Staff of Member Institutions $150 | Individual members $100 | Non-Members $250.
If you wish to be a sponsor, email admin@acur.org.au
Speakers:
PROFESSOR CHRIS MORAN FTSE
Curtin University
Chris Moran is Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research at Curtin University responsible for the University’s strategic goals in research and IP commercialisation and Curtin’s Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer funded by the federal government. Appointed Chair of the Australian Research Council Advisory Committee in 2022, he previously chaired the Universities Australia Committee of Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Research.
He has a strong international and national reputation for his research and expertise in soil science, natural resources and water management, and has published widely in scientific literature and the broader media. He is an elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
PROFESSOR FRANZISKA TREDE
University of Technology Sydney
Franziska Trede is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Professional Practice at UTS. She is course coordinator of the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching and Learning where she teaches subjects on practising inclusion: working and teaching for social justice, and student agency and teamwork. Her program of research centres on professional identity development, agency, professional practice education, and educating the deliberate professional. She has published books, book chapters and journal articles and presented her work internationally. She serves on Studies in Continuing Education, Active Learning in Higher Education, and International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning editorial boards. She is the President of the Australian Collaborative Education Network.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR ANGELA BREW
Macquarie University
Angela Brew is the Founding Chair of the Australasian Council for Undergraduate Research (ACUR). Internationally recognised for her work on the nature of research and academic identity, she has published seven books including: The Nature of Research: Inquiry in Academic Contexts (2001); Research and Teaching: beyond the divide (2006), and over 250 papers. In 2009 Angela Brew was awarded an Australian National Teaching Senior Fellowship to enhance undergraduate research engagement. She is an elected Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) and a Life Member of HERDSA.
PROFESSOR DAWN BENNETT
Bond University
Dawn Bennett is Assistant Provost and Director of the Transformation CoLab with Bond University.She is an experienced senior leader, an educational reformist and a passionate educator. Dawn’s expertise is the enhancement of student success and graduate employability. She is an internationally known researcher with 300 academic articles and major reports and AUD$6m in completed research funding. Her EmployABILITY Thinking initiative engages 60 institutions globally and holds the largest dataset of student-derived confidence data in the world.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KELLY MATTHEWS
The University of Queensland
Kelly Matthews is an Associate Professor (Higher Education) at the University of Queensland’s Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovation. She is an internationally recognised scholar in the areas of curriculum development; student partnership in co-design and co-creation; professional development of university educators; and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Kelly has co-created an impressive array of new structures and communities for change, both nationally and internationally, that facilitate teacher–student dialogue through partnership and shift culture. Through her international collaborations she has created the Students as Partners Network (now numbers 1000 students and staff); and co-founded the International Journal for Students as Partners.
JENNIFER CAMPBELL
Griffith University
Jennifer Campbell is a proud Aboriginal woman and a passionate advocate for improving equity and diversity in STEM. In an effort to achieve this Jennifer co-founded the Kungullanji Research Program and other initiatives for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Jennifer is also a science communicator, engineer, and lecturer in the School of Engineering and Built Environment at Griffith University. Her research interests include environmental engineering and green infrastructure, undergraduate research education, problem-based learning, Indigenous perspectives in STEM education, and the integration of play in higher education.
Thank you to our sponsor
