Professor Sandra Harding is Vice Chancellor and President of James Cook University. In that position, she is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the University across all operating sites, including campuses in Townsville, Cairns and Singapore. Her scholarly interests reside around the sociology of work, industry and organisation and she has a keen professional interest in education policy and management. Professor Harding has undertaken a wide variety of external roles within the higher education sector and the business community. She has also served on a number of review panels and accreditation committees within the higher education sector. Her current board commitments include: the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Queensland Premier’s Smart State Council, Skills Queensland, North Queensland Toyota Cowboys, Townsville Enterprise Limited and Advance Cairns. She is also a Board member of Australian universities’ peak body, Universities Australia, a member of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Regional Australia and Australia’s representative on the University Grants Commission for the University of the South Pacific.
Speaking On:
Implications of the base funding review
Institute specialisation in a contested marketplace
After first being elected to the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament as a National Party representative for the Gippsland Province in 1988, Peter Hall describes his time in Parliament before being sworn in as a Minister last December as ‘one of the longest apprenticeships ever served’.
Born and educated in Castlemaine, he came to Melbourne for tertiary study at Monash University where he majored in Mathematics and Psychology. He also played 37 senior games at Carlton in the VFL under the great Ron Barresi, before also playing for Subiaco in Western Australia, and then for over a decade in the La Trobe Valley.
Prior to his election to the Victorian Parliament, Peter was a secondary school teacher in Traralgon specialising in mathematics and science.
From 2000, Peter was the National Party spokesperson on education, tertiary education and resources and the environment. From 2008, he became a Member of the Coalition Shadow Ministry and following the Coalition election win last November, he was sworn in as the new Minister for Higher Education and Skills, and Minister responsible for the Teaching Profession.
From his first career as a teacher, and after entering politics, he has maintained a close interest and commitment to skills training and education over a number of decades, and it for these reasons he is delighted to be given the opportunity to speak on this important issue of how Victoria is dealing with the ever increasing need for skilled labour.
Speaking On:
Fostering innovation under demand driven funding
Richard James is a Professor of Higher Education and Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne. Since 2006 he has been the Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education. He has wide-ranging research interests in higher education that centre on the quality of the student experience, spanning access and equity, the transition to university, student finances, student engagement, quality assurance and academic standards. He has led significant studies in Australia of students’ social and economic circumstances.
Speaking On:
Identifying & defining student selection criteria
Building a universal participation in the higher education sector
Professor Greg Craven, lawyer and academic, commenced as Vice‑Chancellor of Australian Catholic University (ACU National) in February 2008.
An expert in public law, Professor Craven has published numerous journal articles and four books, including Conversations with the Constitution (University of New South Wales Press, 2004). A regular contributor to public debate, he is a columnist for the Australian Financial Review.
Prior to his appointment at ACU National, Professor Craven served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Strategy & Planning) at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, where he also held the position of Professor of Government and Constitutional Law, having previously served as Executive Director of the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy.
Professor Craven was Foundation Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Reader in Law at the University of Melbourne. He also served as Crown Counsel to the Victorian Government from 1992-95.
Australian Catholic University (ACU National), established as Australia’s only Catholic, national, publicly funded university, is open to all. The University empowers its students and staff with a strong sense of social responsibility and concern for the moral and ethical dimensions of their study and their professional and personal lives.
Speaking On:
Managing quality during rapid expansion
Managing Quality & Growth
Entering the first stages of funding reform, the higher education sector is on the cusp of an intensely competitive era. An estimated 195,000 students will commence university studies by 2013 producing 217,000 additional graduates by 2025.
“We are in transition to a truly democratic level of opportunity for higher learning and universities… [demand driven funding] is nothing less than a fundamental economic reform.”
Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education
read more
