Staff email
Please do remove my email - I do not teach

Major area of teaching
earth science postgrad coursework program coordinator
Inforamtion Technology - Real Worl Learning- Work Integrated Learning
land use planning and community development
Small group PBLs and Clinical Skills, lecture - paediatrics and public health
education - primary, middle , secondary also ed support

Best aspects
Facilitating students to (1) learn how to find information; (2) evaluate that information; and (3) then express that gathered information effectively in both oral and written form.
making an attempt to introduce enquiry based learning
Small class sizes; generally good lecturer student contact and availability
The hands-on experience on a fast majority of different instruments is the key point of this course. Students learn to drive and to operate analytical instruments which are not comment in the undergraduate course (SEM, XRD, XRF, EDX). Based on this experience, students have been enable to get internships and jobs in recent years. The number of students enrolled in this course has increased every year.
QUT is an evolving university that seems to be using student feedback to improve learning outcomes.
There is a continum from the lecture to Tutorials and School based programs. it is a version of PBL
I don't think my institution does-at least not my department.
Provide excellent learning environment. Provide individual help when they need it.
Good online learning management systems. Ways of helping distance students from all around Australia and the world to connect to each other, the academics, support staff and peer mentors.
Range of courses provided Range of learning opportunities within courses Support for students with regard course work
Provides good computing environment; caters for student flexibility.
Relatively small community and relatively small classes so it should be easier for students to interact with academics and peers.
Has very good support programs in relation to maths and english Encourages innovation learning strategies
Placement exercises and hands-on research (Honours, PhD, Placement)
Quality lecturers and cutting edge content.
Small class sizes, ready access to lecturers etc, excellent teaching material
practical classes seem to engage students rather well, keeping them interested with practical demonstrations and experiments that students can relate to. Well trained & informed demonstrators that have a rapport with students.
Organising student-centric class time table and engagements. Organising student lead social events and class activities.
Promoting team work classes and activities. Sports. Casual Work. Seminars.
Through information media, such as the Web-based learning environment.
Comparatively small classes provide more opportunity for students to talk with the person in charge of a unit.
It provides various offices to support undergraduate student performance.
Willingness to try new things and engage students through new technologies.
Small student classes and high staff/student ratio allows frequent personal tutor contact.
It keeps the standards across the board that no student graduates without going through tough examinations and assessment process. This ensures that the graduates are well equipped to face the challenges as professionals.
The university is too heterogeneous for that question to be meaningful.
Good campus environment at Gardens Point
considerable consession to those students unable to attend lectures by podcasting through Blackboard and interaction via wiki pages.
dedicated staff members, low student:staff ratios, high emphasis on sustainability
(1)Providing students with real world type assignments and using external tutors from industry so that the students can experience the relevance of theory to their future employment. (2) Placing emphasis on work integrated learning to improve the student's employability on graduation.
Tutorials, seminars and a wide range of cultural and academic activities
The blending of full time, part time and casual staff provides a way of illustrating to students the applicability of their learning to the workplace. Embracing technology and striving to find new ways to deliver and package information for students ensures some engagement of the student.
Active learning, team work, connected to industry
flexibility with respect to internal and external study
Field Activities - excursions and practical activities Applied task-oriented activities in labs and practical classes - group/individual Field Camps Class discussions/presentations/role-playing Online delivery/forum discussion
Field work supplementing calssroom teaching
university is very supportive and seeks to engage students in as many ways as possible
lots of clinical based learning, good facilities, smallm personalised with lots of access to staff
emphasis on team/project work; focus on learning in a supportive environment; need to respect and work with people from diverse backgrounds
face-to-face tutorials and practical activities
small campus permits individual attention to student needs
use of equiry based learning use of web based learning management system clinical placements throughout course
Clearly defined learning objectives Blended learning modes (eg on-line, written work, oral presentations, practical laboratory work) Timely evaluations Provision of adequate resources
Smaller groups and availability of lecturers outside of lecture time
Small group teaching - high level of supportive student contact. Resonance with 'real life' and vocational aspects of caring for others
we try to integrate different areas - bringing in assistance from student services, teaching and learning, speakers from external sources who can give insight into 'real world' situations.
Working on a very small campus allows the academic staff to engage the students on a far more individual level than the larger campuses. The teaching processes used in tutorials encourages continuing discussion and pursuit of learning that often results in students continuing to discuss the class content in the hallway with the academic.
Provides experiential learning for the students
Online assessments and feedback Use of current clinicians within the field of nursing to teach clinical theory and skills The online learning environments utilised in most teaching units provide a one stop approach to sourcing lectures, resource material and contacts for learning support
It's emphasis on adult education through excellence in learning and teaching methodologies.
Course content is seen to be vocationally/professionally relevant (Pharmacy)
Adult learning processes that treat students as less experienced colleagues from the second year on, our attempts to be available and our enthusiasm for what we all do as teachers, researchers and community members.
people involvement, personal interest, creative learning which is clinically relevant in medicine
Employment of highly qualified and experienced teachers with relevant expert knowledge and a commitment to student learning
Collegial approach to learning and teaching Availability and active engagement of students on the part of academic staff Strong clinical education program Integrated curricula
We are a small university and believe very strongly in a student focussed model of learning. We provide pastoral care in addition to teaching and I believe this to be a strong aspect of engaging students in learning. They understand that we care about them as people not just as numbers who pay our wage!
Good workplace placement and simulation program. The program itself uses a variety of integrated teaching and assessment methods. Tech support/ resources are reasonably good.
Friendly staff who encourage academic excellence
It develops a highly personalised approach (most of my colleagues and I communicate with our students on a first-name basis), and emphasises learning through experience...connecting theoretical ideas to their practical aplications.
Learning is highly contextualised, challenging and engaging. Staff are nurturing and interested, though have high expectations of achievement and effort. High levels of support exist.
extensive industry placement helpful and knowledgeable staff
On an individual basis, most staff support and encourage students. Linking of theory to practice - particularly in career focused programs such as teaching.
It has mechanisms set up within the faculty as well as at the university level to assist students. It is constantly striving to up grade the way it engages with the students.
My course is mostly online, flexible delivery with a focus on the development and management of learning through online communication between students and between students and staff. All surveys indicate a high level of satisfaction with most aspects of course material and delivery. Messages here for other courses.
Friendly approachable lecturers and tutors.
Relating learning to real world practice. Using current technology for learning and communicating.
Provision of effective pastoral care. Employment of lecturers/tutors with real world experiences in school teaching. Effective pedagogy.
Encouragement of interaction within lectures, tutorials (staff development in this area) Real life context Challenging assessment Practical experiences (work experience)
Accessibility of Lecturing staff. Academic Skills embedded within curriculum.
it provides a balnced cultural environment for most students
Provides a professional approach to students and encourages them to be independent workers and personally responsible for their preparation and subsequent performance at their studies. The university is kind and understanding to students experiencing difficulties and supports them to assist them to complete their units.
That would be on an individual academic level rather than a university level. Some of us are more accessible and involved than others
Participation in a virtual business environment
small class sizes, easy contact with /accessibility of academic staff
Hard to say across the board as their is a lot of rhetoric and not much substanace. In my faculty the Peer Assisted Study Support (PASS) program is very effective
particiaption in class discussions,problem solving, and decision-making
Concerted effort taken to ask students about their experience. Concerted effort to secure ongoing comment on students about learning. Small university enables open and regular dialogue with students about how they are going.
emphasis on real-world learning including practical ways to achieve this, extensive support netorks to assiststudents in every aspect of their university life and things outside this that may impactn their study - especially international students, but domestic student also have these opportunities
Very strong on-line & on campus support, particularly for external students.
We can and are providing all the human resources, skills and the infrastructure to pursue their interests and educational goals.
The efforts made by staff to ensure that they communicate effectively with students to ensure that students feel comforatable and confident enough to do their best
The use of tools such as Blackboard is particularly effective.
Provides many computer locations and facilities for laptops.
Tutorials with active student participation and interaction.
An excellent library; a dedicated academic staff; a number of electronic interfaces for teaching and learning (Blackboard and so on); a desire to improve our performance through soliciting feedback from the students re their learning experience, including engagement.
It is a relaxed, multicultural environment that celebrates diversity.
Through the development & monitoring of new teaching and learning techniques
Enthusiasm and personal contact/approachability High quality research which informs teaching
Some of the academic staff are very committed to promoting learning through innovative techniques that are student-centred. The library is a very good service, providing students with a space to work and interact and with excellent training in various IT of relevance to study.
High emphasis on pastoral care and a commitment to small class sizes (especially in tutorials) in order to achieve this. Strong emphasis on academic excellence, work integrated learning & community engagement.
Offering flexible delivery and catering to the needs of a diverse group of people
Use of IT, smaller class sizes, flexible learning
Staff engagement with students are smaller campuses
In my course, variety of ways for students to learn and to practice skill development, incorporating relevant theoretical approaches.
In our small corner of the Uni we try to work to a person-centred / refective pedagogy
We offer places to International students, CALD students and low SES students who bring rich expereinces and perspectives to Utas.
Committment to the support and pastoral care of students and guiding them in the right direction.
Focus on setting applied real-life assessment (e.g. case studies, problem solving), based on the kind of situations they will face once qualified and in the workforce. Assessments encourage critical thinking and reasoning skills rather than just memory/writing ability. Some use of clever technology to support this eg web based interactive assessments that allow students to "see" a patient presentation, and access the likely resources they would have available to them if in the workforce.
The course I coordinate has a good mix of theoretical and practical aspects (fin comparison to most psychology programs). Seeing the application of theory to practice is important for students seeing the relevance of the core theoretical aspects of the course. Our school is also a very friendly, supportive and collegial one, where students are encouraged and welcome to seek advice and support from academic staff. I spend a significant part of each week providing advice on study and career paths, study and personal difficulties and uni/work/life balance, academic difficulties, etc.
Encouraging them to think for themselves
clinical programs allowing students ability to analyse academic studies in law in practice and develope ethical and legal skills in community service
academic skill development programs workshops for teaching and learning issues
Big changes are occurring at the moment, with new expert staff appointment to help academics improve their teaching and learning methodologies. New curricula are being developed, and I hope we will get the support to provide a much better service to students.
Almost universal access to small group teaching - staff who are available to students.
Small teacher student ratio. Strong emphasis on excellence in teaching. University-wide focus on the student.
availability of staff to students, expertise of the staff, fostering of collegiality between students, campus environment, availability of the marae for learning purposes, quality of the tutors
STrong personal relaitonships with students. Large amounts of time dedicated to assisting students. Small class sizes. Pleasant learning environments.
Interactive lectures. Encouraging critical analysis.
By employing lecturers who have real world experience.
There are a number of support services available to students in order to assist them with personal problems that may affect their university experience and learning outcomes. The university also ensures that lecturers and most tutors are experienced in the field in which they teach, which encourages them to bring real-world experiences to the classroom.
Our common units program focus specifially on best practice in engaging all students in learning and graduate attribute skills. management has put considerable effort is being put into learning technologies for online learning and the use of tablet classrooms to improve engagement.

Needs improvement
Maybe some return to study for the sake of understading, rather than study for the task of finding employment, as important as a profession is.
Consistent expectations in terms of standard of performance ie. what is acceptable academic performance.
Require attendance and get rid of externals
Abandon the pointless obsession with useless reserach that is done for dubious reasons (i.e. complying with poorly conceived notions of performance and accountability).
introduce more practical sessions and small group tutorials. Reduce assessment used as a tool to get a numerical assessment and force learning rather then to encourage reflection. Educate academic staff in teaching and learning principles.
More individualised support in chosing units for courses and chosing units that best support their career aspirations.
Unsure, it still comes down to the student to actively want to participate. Some subjects come with a stigma of this is just something I have to do to get my degree and students miss the point of its importance; else, they don't want to engage because of the presumed difficulty.
Provide more flexibilty and small groups in Tuts.
Have lecturers and acedmics that are really willing and pasionate to teach instead of havingto do it as a compulsory requirement. Classes are lazy, laboratory practices are old and boring for students. They get disengage very soon in the semetre
Meaningful content in the courses, better cohesion across the degree, earlier desicions on timetables, expectations and course requirements. Some course coordinators need to be much better prepared and on top of the course, and program it relates to.
More emphasis on teachers knowing how students learn More cooperation across disciplines regarding teaching/learning experiences More emphasis on 'best practice' and a move away from a dependence on lectures A greater range of teaching spaces (rather than the lecture theatre) More opportunities for students, particularly in first year, to be part of a community within the university Better understanding of what skills students bring from secondary school
Provide ways of looking holistically at students' experiences and workloads - all tends to be unit-based and misses the larger picture.
Think less about bums on seats and more about quality of teaching - hire more academic and general staff; don't just cram large numbers of students into lectures/tutorials/practicals and expect them to get quality teaching nor to be engaged in this environment. With such large class numbers (particularly in Medicine) we no longer are effectively able to engage with each student - I could no longer remember everyone's name.
Provide realistic scholarships for under- and postgraduate students. Improve student-staff ratio.
Increase academic staff numbers and decrease workloads Improve administration services
Allow more free time to focus on studies rather than part-time employment.
select the students more carfuly and favour those who have a natural passion for studying and learning, who are naturally curious and probably most importantly who are mature enought to benefit from a university experience
Students would feel more engaged with an increase in social functions by departments. By exposing students to other students studying the same subjects, and academic staff, the student would have opportunity to meet and forge relationships that would create a stronger bond with the university. Many students are part-time or have part-time jobs which often sees them only attending classes and leaving the university. I would imagine that this reduces the level of engagement of students.
Teaching staff?s role must be understood by the University administrators very carefully. This part is disappearing day-by-day. Students and Academics are the most important integral part of the University system. It is pity that such culture destroyed and distorted by current education market and management. This is a dangerous precedent if we are aiming to achieve a quality out come from Higher Education system (ofcourse this is true for any educational system).
Using the up to date technology that they are used to. Up to date the lectures and train lecturers to provide a better environment at classes with more interesting challenges.
The undergraduate curricula could be improved to provide a more solid background, especially in those foundational fields such as Mathematics and Logic which the students are really lacking. In doing so, students would feel more confident to to success in more challenging units available in their postgraduate courses.
Stop providing "flexibility" that reduces the extent to which students engage with staff and other students.
Decrease the flexible options so a sense of coming together for a common learning purpose is encouraged.
Emphasise the use ofthe library and ensure that students are capable of researching and writing an academic assignment. The standard of English is low and most students soom to have little ability to research and present academic information in an acceptable format.
More contact time with lecturers, less use of sessional staff, more preparation time for lectures (for lecturers) to present relevant material.
Improve or raise academic standards. Three times in the last week I have had different students comment about the low academic standards of this university. These students feel that the material is not sufficiently challenging, and they feel somewhat cheated. This may not be the majority student opinion, but it is not good that a proportional of students feel unchallenged, and that high school had higher expectations.
This is too big a topic to answer in a survey like this.
This is by and large not specific to my university, but for all regional universities. It is noticeable that many students spend more time at work than in the university due to economic reasons. This makes them less exposed to the aspects of the university life which would enrich their personality. The result is a half-baked product with very little relevance to anything. Unless the approach to providing tertiary education is changed, the universities are going to be abandoned by both the community and students.
Reasonable funding apportionment, from Federal and State governments, and from each administrative tier of the university.
Shift some of the focus and pressure that is on 'research' to 'T & L'.
Better provision on flexible learning spaces ie D Block consourse/ undercroft.
Design studio needs to reduce the staff/student ratio to enable better quality work (more satisfied students reaching their potential) and more ineractive dialoge between students and staff: ie instead of 1:25 it should be nearer to 2:25, thereby allowing exchange of ideas in tutorial/seminars and when critiquing design projects.
introduce methods to increase self sufficiency of students, increase opportunities for conceptual thinking, widening world views of students
This is a difficult area. Currently many students have trouble in managing their time for study, work (to provide needed finance) and social activities. One does not hear from those who can manage their time and are happy with the course. One normally hears from (1)those who want the course to be easier and (2) those are unhappy with the course for a range of reasons. Where the criticism is valid then steps are taken to correct the situation.
Truely understand what constitutes a students "life" at present. Additionally, develop an understanding of what constitutes a graduates employability / work related "tool box". This in turn needs to be communicated in an indirect manner to students to develop an empathy with the students themselves. This empathy can be used to create a positive learning environment.
better facilities for student interaction and social learning (being done)
Employ more teaching staff to better engage students. A decade of losing whole echelons of teaching staff from demonstrators, tutors to associate lecturers has short-changed students. The concomittant loss of funds and attrition of resources over this time has exacerbated the problem. Our Faculty is considering winding back or eliminating First year field camps and other external activities due to cost and exhaustion of a limited pool of academic staff [largely professorial]. Our Field camps and practical component is our largest drawcard. We should be increasing this component. Furthermore, we admit students from a wide range of life experience and academic qualifications which creates a large pool of "special needs" students. We need more effective teaching strategies and support staff. International students and students with diabilities have had a problematic experience in a lot of cases. Improving retention rates by reducing academic standards is a form of expedience I find particularly abominable.
they are doing a very good job engaging students in the learning process
Quality of holistic teaching. I understand that quality of teaching is a relatively recent new focus of the university following poor feedback.
more central support for teaching & learning
I have no idea the students seem to be drifting away - they almost never prepare despite encouragement and information, they deman electronic spoon feeding and do not bother to turn up because they can get it off the system.
Recognizing that adaptation to stress is important and necessary.
Not sure. I believe that the students have an excellent curriculum and learning environment.
Communication between teachers and students is severely hampered by slow, unsupported, unreliable, possibly poorly funded information technology.
Have a more clearly defined pathway to graduate programmes and research degrees. Systematic review to reduce the amount of duress imposed by lengthy clinical practicum requirements with broad geographic spread ie reduce travel requirements and thus the prospects of exhausted and disaffected students.
More face-to-face time, less on-line - many students (particularly the mature age ones) find this impersonal and hard to relate to.
I am often informed by students of the difficulties they encounter when attempting ot contact staff on the larger campuses which clearly results in their frustration. I truly believe that common courtesy extended by staff and students is essential - staff availability to students should be transparent - students should know when staff will be available in their offices & staff should be there when they indicate that they will be (or communicate otherwise within the boundaries of common sense). Staff require more resources and support to navigate the IT systems they are required to work within, and use to support teaching & learning - it is embarrassing that some colleagues rely on the students to manage the computer during their lecture / teaching session due to lack of knowledge / experience / confidence. Exploration of web2.0 technologies would also clearly demand an investment in staff skills to support their use in teaching / learning. Inclusion of support services in structured teaching to promote their use (for example have the support services that teach essay writing & study skills attend a tutorial within the first 1-3 weeks of mandatory courses). Process to identify & follow-up 'at risk' students - not just those who are actually failing, but to 'rescue' those at risk before they receive notice to show cause as to why they should be allowed to continue.
For our courses in Health Sciences, provide more "hands on" experience and ensure that the lecturers have had recent "hands on" experience in the Healthcare system.
I would recommend that the lab size of classes be smaller
Provide additional support services for numeracy and literacy. Consult a wider group of students to ascertain their needs and issues Greater technical assistance at the commencement of their program
Would like to see much more investment and emphasis given to blended mixed mode learning opportunities as a means to increasing course flexibility and accessibility. The university needs to recognise that student engagement that optimises learning outcomes is not just contingent on what might take place in a classroom environment. There needs to be a move towards greater imagination and creativity in the way in which we develop our communities of learning in higher educ.
Help them develop thinking patterns and behaviours to enhance learning & participation. Expect and ask for input, both positive and negative, about how the curriculum is presented, and alternative ways of teaching and learning
Increased for better student/staff rations academically and in terms of general administration and students services. More time for in-services for academics and researchers.
Improve physical and electronic teaching related facilities Acknowledge via workload formulae that student engagement in learning reflects at least in part the time that staff are willing to provide and have available to support students.
Increased elective study opportunties (broader educational opportunities) Increased opportunities for international exchange experiences Improved administrative support for students Improved academic support for international studnts and those for who English is not their first language
I know that the dept that I work in go above and beyond usual measures to engage students. This is sometimes to the detriment of the staff. There is only so much that we can give. I can't comment about the university as a whole because I am so busy in my dept that I have very limited understanding to what is going on in the rest of the uni.
Making students more accountable to the rules of applying for special consideration for assessments. Students take this system for a ride and it is a problem for their professional development inside the course. Lower student / teacher ratio for tutorials and labs. More admin support for academics so we can spend more time with the students.
We need to seek more genuine student input, and involve students more in the decision making processes which affect their learning. Also, developing ways to 'showcase' student ideas and outcomes would also support greater student involvement.
LMS not very user friendly; improve online teaching softwatre
More full time and fewer sessional staff. Rooms could be more flexible in set up (rather than all in 'lecture' format) and all rooms should be equipped with appropriate technology.
greater integration of ICT across discipline areas
interactive lectures - very difficult to sit through a number of lectures where it is just giving information - good to have enthusiastic lecturers, who enjoying teaching to impart their knowledge and have students involved in the process
More equitable staff-student ratios - these differ widely across the university, with some schools having large student cohorts and comparatively few full time ongoing staff. Employ more permanent, fulltime staff and fewer casual or sessional staff. Increase learning support (e.g., to develop academic literacy skills) particularly during the first two years of study; increase personnel to provide individual learning support rather than online support - students experiencing literacy problems can't (and don't) access online learning modules. Provide timely access to counselling and support services.
Continue to think critically of ways to improve what we are doing.
Become more familiar with a range of flexible online delivery modes, e.g. LMS, Elluminate, podcasting, and set up collaborative learning tasks for students to undertake in online environments. Focus on thinking and developing understandings through constructing meaning- not delivery information
Lectures are not ideal, computer based learning is worse. More face to face and Smaller tute sizes and lecture groups should be the aim.
More information literacy and research approaches in learning. More efficient technology
improve the academic rigour and standards
Provision of professional development to keep lecturers/tutors up to date with the integration of technology in the teaching and learning process.
More compulsory professional development for staff
Conversion of sessional casual staff to academic position. Provide longer time in Semesters (18 weeks)for deeper level learning as the new 12 week sessions create significant issues for many working SCU students
Some staff could be more engaged and responsive to students and their difficulties and understand the pressures they have in this fast paced world. Some staff are too focused on research and are abrupt with student queries from a teaching perspective. Teaching is still our core business and an important part of our weekly work if we wish to remain viable as a university.
On-line learning with soem face to face tutorials for practical evaluation of self learning
More freedom for academics to do that; less admin intrusion on academic role; more administrative support in identifying and tracking at risk students that need the more active involvement of the relevant academic
An approach re students responsibility for their own learning, attendance and punctuality
Improved technology, lower teaching load per staff member
I would like to see serious effort put into resolving the university study vs paid part-time work dilemma faced by many students.
clearly this initiatibve is focussed on u/g students. I am not involved in this important area of the University's business and am therefore not able to contribute.
more interactions between students and academics
Focus on assessment and learning demands being placed on students.
it is diffcult to engage students in extra-curricular activities as most of them focus solely on getting through their program and then they need to work externally to support themselves
Make more explicit to new recruits that the university has high standards and that our expectations are that all students are prepared to study hard, seriously and smarter. We as a university need to raise standards and make it clear as our educational strategy and godal is to achieve excellence and really good results are expected and required by all home and overseas students. We need to raise the entry level requirements so we get academically better and more independent students who have higher ambitions and want to do well in their degrees and life in general.
Try to ensure the excellence in teaching is incorporated into the staff promotions procedures of the university
Provide more personal and direct contact between academic staff and students by reducing tutorial sizes.
Get them to do a basic generic course on research and essay writing before they commence their undergraduate year.
Restore tutorials and budget for employing tutors.
This is all about funding - more people and resources to provide more and better student support in all aspects - social, economic, and academic skills development.
The students have to work longer hours than ever in part-time jobs to survive, which has been seriously limiting time and energy they are able to devote to their academic work. This is due to major changes to university funding initiated by the previous Howard government, which effectively reduced the study stipend and which also forced many departments to shrink and class sizes to increase.
Greater emphasis on face to face learning
More consistent message from staff on the amount of time needed for private study/week in order to achieve success. More consistent emphasis on the need for students to take a share of the responsibility for their own learning, in teaching them how to do that, and in asking for student feedback on learning that is put in terms of that shared responsibility for learning. i.e. in what ways could we improve the opportunities and our support, in order to make it easier for you to do what you need to do-
Sensible admissions policy Proper support for students who lack academic skills
The key problem is the huge amount of time all students are spending in paid work while 'studying'. It is affecting attendance at lectures and time on class preparation. The Universities should signal to students and their employers, and the Federal govt, that students need to spend more time on study and that standards will not continue to be allowed to fall.
stop all the dialogue being about saving money
I would like to see more attention to providing appropriate and renovated teaching spaces, as the IT in classes rarely works and so the capacity to teach using innovative strategies is limited. The teaching quality and attitudes to students are uneven across academic staff. I frequently hear from students that administrative staff are often unwelcoming and unhelpful, which could be easily addressed by promoting a new attitude of understanding towards students amongst staff.
More staff and more staff hours to dedicate to students. Training admin and reception staff in inter-personal communication.
Realise the need for a sensible academic staff workload model the gives staff the chance to add value to the students' experiences
Smaller numbers in tutorial/seminar groups.
Have far better student admin: we are becoming far too impersonal
More work to make teaching and learning methods, content and tools culturally sensitive. At Utas we still pretend as though all our students are middle class, privately educated, Anglo Saxon Australians. I watch many excellent, committed students be ignored by academics and fellow students simply because their socio-economic and cultural experiences differ from what is perceived to be the "mainstream". We have a growing cohort of low SES and CALD background students yet we've done alomost nothing to update the way we teach and what we teach to include the diversity these students bring to the classroom.
Continue to speak with them and value them as individuals.
I think tutorial class sizes are too large. Tutorials should be an opportunity for smaller group discussions and questions from students who may otherwise be a bit shy. Some tutes end up being a mini-lecture format because of the number of students in each and this minimises opportunity for questions and learning from students who may be shy/struggling already. Timetabling and some other logistic issues need improvement to provide reasonable opportunities for engagement whilst on campus e.g. a gap of 3-5 hours between a lecture and tutorial is unreasonable for many students who are working, juggling other commitments.
At a university level - some aspects of central student administration have not worked as well this year as in the past.
More staff, longer tutes, more contact hours.
Smaller classes Raising bar for acceptance into uni so only people who really want to be there will be there Teach them from first year that they have to work hard to succeed - by third/fourth year they have very lazy attitudes, think uni is easy Focus more on research that they will go into after graduation
more clinical programs, smaller class size, more diversity in lecturers, students
Listen to students what they say Once they say it, act on their advise and address their concerns Provide environment in which they can trust their teaching staff provide them opportunities to get to know other students on campus Be less divisive and more inclusive in offering programs for students
You've heard it all before. Academics are under incredible pressure to publish in quality journals, to bring in grant funding and to adopt new teaching methods etc. Administrative support to academics is scarce. Quality teaching needs the time to be a quality teacher. I don't have that at the moment.
Improve teaching facilities and student amenities - create spaces in which students can come together at both departmental/school level and within the university.
more careers guidance , congruence of teaching experience across subjects and faculties
Respect them as autonous adults. Do not infantialse.
better availability of staff to students and fostering of collegiality between students
helping to form study groups and helping them to organize meeting times and places; providing such places Organizing a functional student common room Cease providing reading electronically, requiring students to spend cash and time in printing Smarten up printed materials to make them more readily usable Get the university and academic staff to understand the principles of page composition and typography for most rapid and efficient comprehension by readers publish hard copy facebooks of students in each programme provide class photographs of students to teachers publish staff photographs on notice boards in all schools, not just some schools one could go on
Understand that each student should be regarded as an individual.
While most lecturers/tutors I am involved with provide good feedback to students on assessment and other learning tasks, this is not a compulsory requirement of the university. I have been told by students that sometimes they don't get the feedback they desire. These students are generally unwilling to go to the lecturer/tutor to directly ask for feedback or advice.
More consistent pratice across all courses and staff PD to promote this. More cultural and student oriented activities on campys, more cafes etc. many services were lost with student union demise. More community based practice aross the board.