Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
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* HERDSA Blog Post: An assessment design that promotes learning and academic integrity
* TATAL Webinar 2026
* HERDSA PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT ELECT NOMINATIONS
* CRADLE Seminar Series: 'Preparing graduates for an AI-evolving world (of work)'
* On the Shoulders of Giants: Protecting cultural knowledge using AI
* Join the JANZSSA editorial team | EOIs invited for two Associate Editors
* Design For Learning: Transforming higher education learning and teaching practice in response to rapid changes” Symposium
* Registration open - Webinar 25 March 2026- Identity in Teaching and Learning (2)
* 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: Connecting the dots: An assessment design that promotes learning and academic integrity
Carl Sherwood, 4 March 2026
Carl explains how identity-verified assessment can be used alongside online tasks to check students’ understanding and foster collaborative learning.
Read more: https://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-connect/assessment-design-promotes-learning...
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TATAL Webinar 2026
Thursday 12th March 2026 12-1pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time).
Would you like to learn about what the HERDSA Teaching about Teaching and Learning (TATAL) is about? Are you interested in joining the supportive and nurturing TATAL community? Would you like to see what TATALes are up to? Join us for an exciting online event where you meet HERDSA executives and fellow TATALers, and have a taste of TATAL activities.
Date: Thursday 12th March 2026
Time: 12-1pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time).
Location: Online
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/87876519861?pwd=5pnvfq2QpJOLGBFKlb5OEBb1hZyG4B.1
Password: 350198
Join the Zoom link above on the day, or register via the link below to save a calendar reminder: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tatal-webinar-2026-tickets-1982403228421?...
For more info please email Mei via mei.li1@jcu.edu.au
Looking forward to seeing many of you there!
Further information: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tatal-webinar-2026-tickets-1982403228421?...
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HERDSA PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT ELECT NOMINATIONS
20th March 2026
Nominations for the position of HERDSA President are now open. 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. This one-year position enables the full induction of the incoming president into the current practices and systems of the Society before the full role of President is assumed at the conclusion of the 2027 conference in July.
The President of HERDSA is an important voluntary role which has major responsibility for governance of the Society and effective leadership of the Executive Committee. The role includes strategic guidance of the various Executive portfolios (Secretariat, Publications, Professional Learning, Networks, Communications, Memberships), chairing of Executive meetings and oversight of the various society activities. The President represents HERDSA at international and national forums and liaises with senior leaders. The nurturing of collaborative alliances with government authorities and other higher education societies forms a further part of the role.
HERDSA is seeking an individual who has a strong association with the Society, experience in leadership and effective communication skills. An understanding of higher education and its development is an advantage. Sponsorship from the candidate’s institution is recommended, as the position requires considerable time commitment and requires a dedicated leader who takes strong responsibility for the role. Potential candidates are welcome to speak with the current President Professor Christy Collis. (office@herdsa.org.au)
The nominee, proposer and seconder must be HERDSA members.
If more than one nomination is received, an election will be held.
The current President Professor Christy Collis is eligible to serve another term as President.
The Nomination Form can be requested from HERDSA by emailing office@herdsa.org.au.
Nominations should be in the following format.
• Name, Email and signature of Nominee
• Name, Email and signature of Proposer
• Name, Email and signature of Seconder
The nominee should also provide a single page statement outlining:
• Name, role and institutional affiliation
• Short biography (100 words maximum)
• Personal statement
Please forward to office@herdsa.org.au by 20th March, 2026
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CRADLE Seminar Series: 'Preparing graduates for an AI-evolving world (of work)'
Wednesday 18 March - 2.00 pm - 3.30 pm (AEDT)
Register now for the next CRADLE seminar on 18 March. You'll hear from Deakin's Dr Danni Hamilton, A/Prof. Lauren Hansen and Prof. Phillip Dawson as they share six curriculum-wide recommendations to prepare graduates for the AI-evolving world (of work).
AI is reshaping professional work, creating ethical, technical, and creative challenges that higher education must address or risk leaving graduates unprepared. Curricula need to go beyond safeguarding assessments to actively develop the capabilities students will need to succeed in the AI-evolving workplace. To address this challenge, six curriculum-wide recommendations are proposed. These recommendations respond pragmatically to sector and employer needs and offer a roadmap for curriculum transformation, ensuring higher education fulfils its core purpose while preparing graduates for an unknowable future world (of work).
To learn more about the recommendations and how they can help us prepare graduates for increasingly unknowable futures, join us at 2.00 pm (AEDT) in person at Deakin Downtown or online.
Further information: https://cradle-seminar-preparing-graduates-for-an-AI-evolving-world.even...
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On the Shoulders of Giants: Protecting cultural knowledge using AI
Thursday 19th March, 12-1pm AEDT
What can we learn from innovation leaders who are already building AI systems grounded in cultural responsibility and community governance?
A conversation with Peter-Lucas Jones.
As universities grapple with the rapid uptake of generative AI, critical questions are emerging around ethics, equity and ownership of knowledge. What can we learn from innovation leaders who are already building AI systems grounded in cultural responsibility and community governance?
Peter-Lucas Jones works at the intersection of AI and Indigenous sovereignty. He led the development of a suite of highly accurate AI language tools for te reo Māori to accelerate language revitalisation. Central to this work is kaitiakitanga (cultural guardianship).
As a kaitiaki (guardian) of the data, Peter-Lucas developed a licensing framework that maintains Māori data sovereignty and ensures contributing speakers retain ownership of their knowledge. His work offers a practical model for community-led AI development that challenges extractive approaches to data, open-source norms and knowledge production in higher education.
This session invites you to rethink how AI can be designed, governed and taught – in ways that are ethically robust, culturally grounded, and genuinely aligned with the public good.
Further information: https://otsogmarch2026.eventbrite.com.au/?aff=HERDSA
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Join the JANZSSA editorial team | EOIs invited for two Associate Editors
20 March 2026
The Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (JANZSSA) is seeking two Associate Editors to join the skilled and collaborative editorial team.
Apply your leadership, expertise, and experience through this multifaceted role and contribute meaningfully to strengthening student services scholarship and practice.
You will work alongside a diverse group committed to maintaining JANZSSA's quality, relevance, and scholarly integrity while fostering a distinctive and supportive platform for the student services community to share research, innovations, and insights.
Submit your Expression of Interest by Friday 20 March 2026.
Further information: https://janzssa.scholasticahq.com/post/3701
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Design For Learning: Transforming higher education learning and teaching practice in response to rapid changes” Symposium
Submissions due 23rd March for 1st May at the University of Melbourne,
The "Design For Learning: Transforming higher education learning and teaching practice in response to rapid changes" Symposium will be held at UniMelb 1st May 2026 hosted by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education.
This Symposium showcases how design-led approaches can address the complex pedagogical challenges confronting higher education in an era of rapid global change—including the COVID19 pandemic and the accelerating use of generative artificial intelligence in learning and assessment. Positioning teaching and learning as a design science offers a pragmatic and rigorous way to respond to these challenges by generating innovations that are transferable, research-informed, and adaptable across diverse educational contexts.
The Symposium will explore collaborative, research-based design methodologies such as Design Based Research, Educational Design Research, Design Thinking, and Action Research. These approaches bring students, teachers, learning designers, and educational researchers together from the earliest stages of problem identification through iterative cycles of design, implementation, and evaluation. Such methods embrace the “messy” and fast changing realities of contemporary higher education.
Aligned with the University of Melbourne’s Framework for Educational Excellence, the Symposium highlights how design-led methodologies can be strengthened by connecting these seven dimensions to design-oriented pedagogical research. The Symposium illustrates how systematic, inquiry driven innovation can advance both theory and practice while supporting high quality, future-ready education at scale.
The Symposium will include several parallel streams of presentations, grouped thematically and will feature an invited stream of presentations in collaboration with a special issue of JUTLP - Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (Q1) “Design-based research: Transforming higher education learning and teaching practice in response to rapid changes”.
Call For Presentation Abstracts:
Presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes, with time for Q&A.
We invite proposals (500 word abstracts due 23 March 2026) for the presentation of research aligned with the Symposium theme, including studies of higher education policy and management, teaching, learning and assessment, student experience and outcomes, and equity and inclusion.
More info 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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Registration open - Webinar 25 March 2026- Identity in Teaching and Learning (2)
25 March 2026
The ISSOTL (International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) Grand Challenges for SoTL subgroup working on the theme of how identities affect teaching and learning is hosting another webinar:
Wednesday 25 March, 1300-1400 GMT via Zoom
Free Registration: https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lfYP6BaLQEGz9GMoYYHIFA
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New articles in Higher Education Research and Development
Diving into the blended learning experience: exploring engagement patterns and influencing factors among first-year Chinese undergraduate students in EMI transnational universities in China, Yiqun Sun, Rong Wang & Tünde Varga-Atkins, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2627877
Prioritising relationship, community, and student-centered learning: a systematic literature review of trauma-informed pedagogy in higher education, India Bryce, Brooke Weston-Hill, Jessica Gildersleeve, Kate Cantrell & Katherine Preece, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2627874
Beyond doctoral completions: researcher development expectations for promotion to associate professor in Australian universities, Margaret K. Merga & Natasha Kitano, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2627878
Equality of opportunity in study choices: experiences of university graduates with disabilities in Germany, Inmaculada Orozco & Rosario Lopez-Gavira, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2627875
Status and belonging beyond academia: social identity threat and social approach/avoidance motivation of full-time doctoral students, Jeong Youn Lee, Jin-Kwon Lee & Junghun Hwang, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2593908
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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.