Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
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* HERDSA Blog Post: Learning only when notified? Mobile Learning Management Systems, Institutional Differences and Complex Individual Practices
* AUT & HERDSA National Webinar Series 2026 – Session 2 Work-Integrated Learning (WIL): Building Sustainable Collaborative Partn
* ASRHE Developmental Writing Workshops May 22
* Voting for HERDSA PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT ELECT is now open
* Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 45 No.3 is now available online
* International Professional Scholarships 2026 – Applications Open
* CRADLE Seminar Series: ‘Is it time to move beyond grades?’
* Symposium: Cognitive Offloading or Effective Practice? Exploring the Future of Learning with GenAI
* On the Shoulders of Giants: Digital colonialism or life-affirming AI?
* Call for Papers: International Conference on Globalisation/Deglobalisation in Languages, Education, Culture and Communication (GLECC2026)
* Invitation to Participate in a Study about Resources to Support Academic Developers’ Mental Health
* New articles in Higher Education Research and Development
To submit an announcement for this list complete the online form at http://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-notices
A full list of HERDSA Notices is online at http://www.herdsa.org.au/latest-news
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HERDSA Blog Post: Learning only when notified? Mobile Learning Management Systems, Institutional Differences and Complex Individual Practices
Elena Balcaite and Dongmei Li, 1 April 2026
Elena and Dongmei discuss the emerging role of mobile learning management notifications in the educational ecosystem.
Read more: https://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-connect/learning-only-when-notified-mobile-...
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AUT & HERDSA National Webinar Series 2026 – Session 2 Work-Integrated Learning (WIL): Building Sustainable Collaborative Partn
Thursday, 30 April 2026 1:00pm – 2:00pm (AEDT
Join us for the second session in the 2026 AAUT & HERDSA National Webinar Series, showcasing the innovative practices and insights of 2024 Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) recipients.
This panel will explore Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) and Collaborative Educational Partnerships, focusing on how universities and industry can work together to design meaningful, sustainable, and scalable WIL experiences.
Chaired by Prof Angela Carbone (RMIT, 1998 AAUT Award recipient), the panel features Dr Wayne Read (Deakin University – 2024 Citation), Dr Jessica Amy Sears (Charles Sturt University – 2024 Citation), and A/Prof Faith Kwa (Swinburne University – 2024 Citation). Panelists will share practical strategies for building and sustaining partnerships, co-designing WIL experiences, and addressing common challenges such as scaling, quality, and equitable access.
This session will provide valuable insights for educators, academic leaders, and professional staff involved in WIL and partnership development.
Further information: Register here: https://tinyurl.com/bdhfwcde
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Voting for HERDSA PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT ELECT is now open
Closes 24 April 2026
Voting is now open for the next HERDSA President/President Elect and closes at 5.00pm AEST on 24 April 2026.
The position of HERDSA President requires a three year commitment. For the first year, beginning at the 2026 conference in July, the successful candidate serves as President Elect, or the current President when already holding that position. From July 2027 the nominee elected as President for 2027-2029 has two years as President before another election is required. The maximum a President can serve is 6 years.
All HERDSA members are encouraged to vote.
You must log into the HERDSA web site and be a current HERDSA member to be eligible to vote.
Vote online at https://herdsa.org.au/president-elect-election-2026
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ASRHE Developmental Writing Workshops May 22
May 22 and at HERDSA Conference
Have you been accepted to present at HERDSA or another Higher Education Learning and Teaching Conference?
We encourage you to work in developing your presentation into a research paper.
ASRHE (Advancing Scholarship and Research in Higher Education), HERDSA’s developmental journal is hosting a series of developmental activities to support authors of the HERDSA Conference showcases, roundtables, and Poster Lightening Talks to develop their presentations into full papers to submit to ASRHE and other outlets.
In preparation, we are hosting a webinar in May, and this will be followed up with one-on-one sessions with the authors and ASRHE editors around the conference. We will guide you from concept to full written draft that you can refine and submit post-conference! This is an ideal opportunity for time-poor HE authors who need some guidance and a ‘bootcamp’ structure.
Initial webinar/workshop Title: Translating your abstract into a research paper: A Hands-On Workshop
May 22, 2026, 11AM-1:00PM (AEST)
Register at URL below:
Further information: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/23mswLHfQB
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Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 45 No. 3 is now available online
Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 45 No. 3 (2026) is now available from the HERDSA website at https://herdsa.org.au/higher-education-research-development-vol-45-no-3
Free online access is available to HERDSA members through your member dashboard.
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International Professional Scholarships 2026 – Applications Open
Round 1: 10 April 2026 | Round 2: 30 June 2026
Applications are now open for a limited number of fully funded International Professional Scholarships for 2026.
These programmes support professionals, educators, and researchers to strengthen applied practice, evaluation capability, and evidence-informed decision-making across education, health, community, and organisational settings.
All programmes are delivered live online with global access and include structured learning, academic support, and pathways toward professional recognition.
Applications are reviewed competitively, and early submission is recommended due to limited places.
How to apply:
Email our team with your CV and a short statement of purpose.
Once received, we will send you the enrolment form and full application guidelines.
Email: admin@nzcdi.ac.nz
Further information: admin@nzcdi.ac.nz
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CRADLE Seminar Series: ‘Is it time to move beyond grades?’
Wednesday 15 April – 2.00 - 3.30 pm (AEST)
Is it time to move beyond grades? Register for CRADLE's seminar on 15 April to find out! CRADLE's Dr Juuso Nieminen will critically discuss why higher education systems continue to use grades, despite plenty of evidence on how they don’t work, and whether we should now move on.
Despite widespread historical criticism, grades continue to be awarded in most universities while gradeless courses and programs remain at the margins. Although recent years have seen extensive attention to assessment redesign, grading policies have not undergone systemic change. Why do universities – harbingers of knowledge, truth and critical thinking – keep using grades? This presentation will argue that perhaps it is time to move beyond grades, proposing a post-critical approach to research and practice on grades that moves our attention from ‘what doesn’t work’ to understanding and shaping the work that grades do in education.
To hear more about why it might be time to move beyond grades, join us at 2.00 pm (AEST) in person at Deakin Downtown or online.
Further information: https://cradle-seminar-time-to-move-beyond-grades.eventbrite.com.au/?aff...
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Symposium: Cognitive Offloading or Effective Practice? Exploring the Future of Learning with GenAI
Symposium Date: 3rd June 2026, Presentation Abstracts due 17th April 2026.
Join us at the University of Melbourne, 3rd June 2026 for a timely and thought-provoking discussion on how higher education can navigate — and shape — the evolving relationship between human cognition and artificial intelligence.
This symposium, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE), will explore the implications of cognitive offloading for higher education. When students outsource aspects of thinking to AI, what happens to learning, understanding, and intellectual development? What tasks or activities are ok to cognitively offload, and how might reliance on AI tools reshape critical thinking, creativity, memory, and disciplinary expertise?
CFP: Abstracts for presentations are due 17th April.
See more info and submissions at https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/events/symposia-on-higher-educatio...
Further information: https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/events/symposia-on-higher-educatio...
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On the Shoulders of Giants: Digital colonialism or life-affirming AI?
Tuesday April 28, 12-1pm
On the Shoulders of Giants: Digital Colonialism or Life Affirming AI?
In conversation with Wiradyuri Wambuul woman, Associate Professor Jessica Russ‑Smith.
Will AI reinforce extractive, colonial systems - or can it be re‑imagined to support life, relationships, and social justice?
Join Associate Professor Jessica Russ‑Smith, sovereign Wiradyuri Wambuul woman and co‑author of The AI (R)evolution, for a thought‑provoking conversation on Country, AI, digital colonialism, inclusion, and life-centred futures. Drawing on Indigenous knowledges, Indigenous Data Sovereignty and critical AI scholarship, Jess invites academics to rethink our relationship with AI, and how AI is designed, taught, governed, and embedded within universities and beyond.
This session is for educators, leaders and others seeking deeper ethical grounding for AI‑related work. Rather than offering simple solutions, Jess challenges us to reflect on our own power, responsibility, relationality, and capacity for action - and to consider what a genuinely life‑centred approach to AI could mean when we centre the oldest surviving knowledges of the world.
Further information: https://otsogapr2026.eventbrite.com.au/?aff=HERDSA
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Call for Papers: International Conference on Globalisation/Deglobalisation in Languages, Education, Culture and Communication (GLECC2026)
Submission deadline: 30 April 2026
The second International Conference on Globalisation/Deglobalisation in Languages, Education, Culture and Communication (GLECC2026) is going to be held 28-30 July 2026, Manchester, UK.
The past two decades have witnessed remarkable advancements in the studies into Education, Second and Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting, Cultural Studies, and Communication. This growth, evident in both the number of active researchers and the volume of scholarly throughput and outcomes, can be largely attributed to the forces of globalisation. Consequently, adopting the globalisation perspective is timely and provides a natural framework for connecting these diverse yet interlinked disciplines.
This conference aims to bring together researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers from the realms of education, foreign and second languages, cultural studies, translation, interpreting, and communication to disseminate research outcomes, share insights, discuss findings, exchange visions, and identify challenges and trends in an interactive and immersive multidisciplinary environment.
Keynote speech: “Translation, Chinese Texts, and World Literature” by Professor Yifeng Sun, University of Macau, China.
The conference is co-organised by AT Publishing in association with its journals namely, Research in Education Curriculum and Pedagogy: Global Perspectives (RECAP) [ISSN: 2977-1633]; New Perspectives on Languages (NPL) [ISSN: 3033-490X]; The International Journal of Chinese and English Translation & Interpreting (IJCETI) [ISSN: 2753-6149]; and Recent Advances in Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) [ISSN: 2978-1345]. There is a “conference first” policy in place. Selected papers will be invited to further develop into full journal articles free of APCs.
Conference proceedings will be published open access with an ISBN.
Submission deadline: 30 April 2026 https://glecc.org/2026
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Invitation to Participate in a Study about Resources to Support Academic Developers’ Mental Health
We are a group of facilitators of the HERDSA Talking about Teaching and Learning (TATAL) professional learning program and we are passionate about supporting colleagues in the space of higher education teaching and learning. We are currently conducting a research study to explore resources to support mental health for academic developers in Australian universities.
If you self-identify as an academic developer working in a university setting, we warmly invite you to participate in this survey and potentially join a followup interview. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes. The interview will take up to 60 minutes.
Click on the link to respond to the short questionnaire: https://jcu.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8G7vCCfVot4GvOK
Your insights will contribute to a deeper understanding of how mental health is supported, and can be better supported, in academic development roles.
Thank you for considering this opportunity!
This project has received ethics approval by JCU HREC (Ethics approval NO. 25H-0519).
If you would like to learn more about the project please contact the researchers, Mei, Luk and Nicole at:
Principal Investigator:
Dongmei Li: Pathways, James Cook University
Phone: 07 4781 6542 Email: mei.li1@jcu.edu.au
Co-Investigator:
Lukasz Swiatek, School of the Arts and Media, UNSW
Phone: +61 2 9385 8535 Email: L.Swiatek@unsw.edu.au
Co-Investigator:
Nicole Reinke, School of Health, University of the Sunshine Coast
Phone: 07 5456 5279 Email: nreinke@usc.edu.au
Further information: Further information about the project is in the participation information sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hVN0oZAp_PW
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New articles in Higher Education Research and Development
Teaching through grief, designing for care: toward trauma-informed and student-centered pedagogy, Enas Aref & David Paul, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617298
Class in session: discussing social class in the university classroom, Stacey Mottershaw, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617304
Co-creation of learning and teaching as an equity-oriented approach, Alison Cook-Sather & Julie Edelstein, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617286
Learning about personally relevant topics in health professional education, Emma Osborne, Vivienne Anderson & Bridget Robson, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617279
Psychology educators’ perspectives on partnering with people with lived experience in psychology training, Rebecca Greenwood, Sarah E. Gordon, Joanne E. Taylor & Brett Scholz, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617306
Involving educators with lived experience of disability in medical education: a qualitative study, Claudia Ng, Patrick Benson, Gisselle Gallego, Katherine Gill, Aishah Moore & Fiona Orr, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617295
Virtual selves and embodied learning: enacting simulated lived experience in the metaverse as critical pedagogy in higher education, Manuel Garcia, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617307
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In the spirit of reconciliation HERDSA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australasia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.