The Federal Government recently released the Australian Universities Accord Final Report – billed as a 'blueprint' for higher education reform for the next decade and beyond.
Experts from across the sector came together to share key report insights. The discussion provided a deeper understanding of what the recommendations look like in a practical sense, how this may shape the sector, and the next steps from a practitioner and lobbying perspective.
You can find below the resources for the event including the speaker recordings, slides, and transcripts from the session.
Event resources
| Final report overview with Professor Barney Glover AO |
| Overview of recommendations with Professor Sally Kift |
| The future of equity and higher ed with Professor Shamit Saggar |
| Student equity and success with The Hon. Verity Firth AM |
| Impact on Indigenous students with Professor Leanne Holt |
| Impact on regional, rural and remote students with Chris Ronan |
| Impact on students with disability with Darlene McLennan |
| Reshaping student outreach with Dr Nadine Zacharias |
| Impact on equity practitioners with Dr Kylie Austin |
| Q&A |
This event was jointly hosted by the UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion and Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia (EPHEA).
If you are interested in hearing about future events, please contact events.socialjustice@uts.edu.au
Speakers
Professor Barney Glover AO is the Vice-Chancellor and President of Western Sydney University and a member of the Australian Universities Accord Panel. Professor Glover is currently the Australian Government representative on the University of the South Pacific Grants Committee, Chair of the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching Working Group, and the Australia-based Patron of the Association for Tertiary Education Management.
Professor Sally Kift is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and President of the Australian Learning & Teaching Fellows. She has held several university leadership positions, including as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at James Cook University. Sally is a national Teaching Award winner, a national Program Award winner and a national Senior Teaching Fellow on the First Year Experience.
Professor Shamit Saggar CBE FAcSS is the Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success at Curtin University. He was formerly the inaugural Director of the Public Policy Institute and Professor of Public Policy at the University of Western Australia. He is a former Senior Advisor to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, has worked in senior roles in government, business, regulation, and philanthropy, and has taken an active part in public leadership board roles.
The Hon. Verity Firth AM is the inaugural Vice-President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement at UNSW. Verity has over twenty years’ experience at the very highest levels of government and education sectors in Australia. She has strong public policy experience and a proven capacity to drive large scale reform across a range of organisations. She was formerly the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice and Inclusion) at UTS and the NSW Minister for Education and Training.
Professor Leanne Holt is a Worimi/Biripi woman and author of Talking Strong, which tracks the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education policy in Australia. She is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) at the UNSW, and the Immediate Past President of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium.
Chris Ronan is the CEO of the Country Universities Centre and National President of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia. He has worked in the higher education and not-for-profit sectors across the United States, New Zealand and Australia with a focus on regional, rural and remote higher education policy, student equity, widening participation, and rural student transitions.
Darlene McLennan is the Manager of the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET). ADCET provides national leadership, information and professional development for educators and support staff in the inclusion of people with disability in Australia's Higher Education and VET sector. Darlene has nearly 40 years of experience working in the disability sector, 19 of which are within the tertiary disability sector.
Dr Nadine Zacharias is the Managing Director and Founder of Equity by Design, a specialist consulting firm in student equity strategy, program evaluation, and inclusive service design. Nadine leads transformative work in higher education to achieve a more equitable and high-performing sector. She has held senior management roles at Swinburne and Deakin Universities and contributed to a proposed policy statement for Australian tertiary education in The Best Chance for All.
Dr Kylie Austin has over fifteen years’ experience in Australian higher education and is currently the Associate Director, Student Equity and Success at the University of Wollongong. During this time, Kylie has led institution wide initiatives aimed to increase the representation and participation of underrepresented cohorts at university. She is also the current President of Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia.