HERDSA Notices 24 December 2025

* Best wishes for the festive holiday season
* HERDSA Blog Post: HERDSA Connect Blog 2025 Wrap – Orals, Assessment & Human connection
* HERDSA Community: Tasmanian Branch Update December 2025
* HERDSA Grants Open
* HERDSA NZ Branch: seeking Committee Members
* HERDSA Workshop: Finalising Abstract for HERDSA2026 Conference
* Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 44 No. 8 is now available online
* TALES 1 – DEAR Workshop Series: Students Reimagining Digital Ethics and Responsibilities
* 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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Best wishes for the festive holiday season

This will be the last edition of HERDSA Notices for 2025. We at HERDSA are looking forward to spending time with family and friends, and we hope you get to enjoy some well earned rest over the summer holidays. Daniel Andrews has put together a list of the six most impactful posts in HERDSA Connect to add to your summer reading. Enjoy, and we'll see you back here in 2026!

Peter Kandlbinder, HERDSA Notices editor

HERDSA Blog Post: HERDSA Connect Blog 2025 Wrap – Orals, Assessment & Human connection
Daniel Andrews, 17 December 2025

For the final HERDSA Connect blog of 2025, we have showcased six of the most impactful posts for 2025!

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HERDSA Community: Tasmanian Branch Update December 2025
Tracy Douglas, Thursday 18 December 2025

The HERDSA Tasmania branch is unique as we are a small branch closely affiliated with one higher education institution: the University of Tasmania (UTAS). As a result, our members support UTAS events, rather than the branch hosting specific events separately. For example, a number of our members were recently involved with organising, chairing or presenting at the UTAS Teaching Matters conference (Facilitating transformative learning). Members also engage, when possible, in a weekly Drop-in session hosted by the branch chair or a nominee to discuss SoTL and learning and teaching in general.

Our key focus as a branch is to support members and UTAS colleagues in SoTL with an emphasis on mentoring and a subtle, community-focused approach to teaching and learning, which particular benefits early career academics or colleagues new to SoTL. For example, a number of our members were involved in a collaborative employability paper that was published in JUTLP in early 2024. This has provided a catalyst for more potential collaborative SoTL projects to be identified by members in 2025. As we move into 2026, members will be working with colleagues at UTAS on SoTL publications in the areas of Employability (stakeholder input, developing employability skills) and Students as Partners (postgraduate students, authenticity in assessment practices).

UTAS currently subscribes to the HERDSA SoTL modules and so we will be launching a member recruitment campaign in early 2026 to showcase benefits of HERDSA membership to all staff at UTAS. We hope that this will boost our membership and opportunities for collaboration, enabling us to continue to break down the discipline silos that historically exist at UTAS.

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HERDSA Grants Open
3 December 2025 to 20 March 2026

HERDSA offers grants to HERDSA members to fund research and/or development projects on teaching and learning in higher education that directly align to the mission of HERDSA. In the 2026 round, up to ten grants of AUD$5000 each are available (plus GST for expenses accruing in Australia). Priority for one grant will be given to applicants identifying as Indigenous/First Nations (e.g., Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori or Pacific Nations).

The call for 2026 HERDSA Grant applications opens in December 2025. Applications close on Friday 20th March 2026 by 6pm (AEDT). Successful applicants will be informed by the end of May 2025. Grant holders have one year to complete their projects. Grant progress reports are due end of January 2027 and final reports end of June 2027.

Further information: https://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-grants-scheme

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HERDSA Workshop: Finalising Abstract for HERDSA2026 Conference
Fri, Jan 16, 2026, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM AEST

The HERDSA Executives and HERDSA2026 Conference Convenors invite members to participate in an online workshop focused on finalising abstracts for HERDSA2026 submission.

This interactive session will provide opportunities for peer review, with guidance on aligning abstracts to conference themes and selecting appropriate presentation formats.

Participants are encouraged to view the recording of Writing an Abstract for the HERDSA Conference (from last year) and bring their best draft abstract to the workshop.

Date: Friday 16 January
Time: 12:30–14:30 (GMT+10:30)
Mode: Online

HERDSA2026 abstract submissions close on 30 January 2026.

Further information: Register here: https://bit.ly/4sme0p4

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HERDSA NZ Branch: seeking Committee Members

HERDSA NZ Branch is looking for Committee Members!

Apply here: https://herdsa.org.nz/about-us/committee/committee-membership-application

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Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 44 No. 8 is now available online

Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 44 No. 8 (2025) is now available from the HERDSA website at https://herdsa.org.au/higher-education-research-and-development-vol-44-no-8

Free online access is available to HERDSA members through your member dashboard.

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TALES 1 – DEAR Workshop Series: Students Reimagining Digital Ethics and Responsibilities
14 January 2026

Join us for the TALES 1 – DEAR Workshop Series: Students Reimagining Digital Ethics and Responsibilities on 14 January 2026 (Wednesday) from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm online via Zoom!

Featuring incredible student voices from HKUST and HKBU, this workshop explores the evolving relationship between humans and AI in higher education. 3 presentations will be delivered by school staff and students from different departments of both universities:

1. Student Perspectives on using GenAI as a Mental Health Counsellor
2. The Human-AI Balance: Trust Implications of AI-Assisted Evaluation in Higher Education
3. Understanding AI for Wellbeing in Higher Education from an Ethical Perspective

Further information: https://chtl.hkbu.edu.hk/workshops/tales-25-26-s2.html#tales1

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New articles in Higher Education Research and Development

ParadAIse L0st? Peter Bannister, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2586653

The trade-off between career aspirations and class status: research on the influence of family background on the realization of doctoral graduates’ career aspirations, Xu Dandong, Xie Xin, Zhao Yue & Shen Wenqin, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2602494

Course experiences and academic engagement among students in Chinese gifted and talented education programmes, Weili Dai, Libao Wu & Carol Fuller, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2591259

An integrative systematic review of career transitions across STEM and HASS disciplines, Assel Shakuliyeva, Michelle Bedeker & Munyaradzi Hwami, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2593916

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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.

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