The NSW branch continues to provide professional leadership opportunities while supporting HE policy, T&L practice and SoTL, exemplified by our new branch executive committee. Nominations were sort  by the 1 October 2025 from all HERDSA members across NSW, for roles spanning from leadership in governance, membership co-ordination, communication and event planning. Special congratulations to Gina Saliba (ACAP) who is stepping up into a Co-Chair role after her extemporary work as our Events lead.

Join us for the 2024 HERDSA NSW Branch Event on Curriculum, Assessment & AI: Real World Applications. This exciting event will take place at ACAP in Sydney CBD and online, bringing together leading academic educators to explore the transformative role of AI in education and innovation in assessment and curriculum. The conference features a stellar lineup of presentations, including our keynote address by Prof. Danny Liu from the University of Sydney.

Join Dr Alexandra Johnston (University of Melbourne) for this 2-part, interactive series, “Evidence-informed peer review of educational practice: A hands-on approach.”

In the first part of this hands-on series, you will:

The United Nations has articulated 17 Sustainable Development Goals. My own pedagogical and research interest commenced some while ago where the UN previously declared the ‘Decade of Sustainability’. SDGs have now become a critical point of action for us all. But understanding what to do as educators is problematic. My own field of music can seem rather remote from the aim of zero poverty, but perhaps closer to the aim of good health and well-being or quality education. 

Research is emerging on identified functional (how-to) cognitive aspects of employability. Higher education graduates from all disciplines encounter multifaceted and precarious working lives that feature multiple transitions, complex employment arrangements and often a do-it-yourself career management plan to achieve meaningful paid work.

The aim of the webinar is to introduce participants to the valuable HERDSA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) online learning modules. The modules introduce new scholars to the role and value of SoTL in an academic’s professional learning plan and remind experienced scholars of the process of designing and implementing a SoTL project.

The webinar will share some of my more affective experiences of human connection through on campus, on country and online cultural mentoring to support Indigenous Australian cultural competence. I will speak from my reflections on the curious ways of working when on one shoreline I feel deeply drawn towards Indigenous pedagogies and research methods, and in my own doctoral research, whilst on the other I experience intellectual shame risking cultural protocols and insensitivity.

There have always been discipline based academics whose passion has been education rather than research.  The contribution and commitment of these faculty, while often valued within their own department, has largely gone unrecognised at an institutional level in absence of clear guidelines and a national policy.  However, this is slowly changing.  More and more institutions now have teaching/education focused academics  engaging in scholarship, accessing professional development opportunities and with career progression akin to those with traditional teaching and research work portfolios.

This will be an interactive, free-form activity that includes facilitation of skills in yarning, and some background about the practice of yarning. During the session you will engage in yarning, and reflect on this as a way of learning about self and others, in research and teaching. The outcome will be an understanding of a different way of knowing, and a new way of sharing practice.

Presenters Dr Denise Wood (facilitator) and Mr Lloyd Dolan (key presenter)