UNE’s new Executive Principal, Student Experience (Interim), Professor Shelley Kinash, arrives with a deep background in her field. She told Pulse:

My PhD is in Education Technology from the University of Calgary and I completed it in 2004. My research topic was blind online learners and I converted the research from a dissertation to a book called, Seeing Beyond Blindness.

Prior to transitioning into university leadership, I was a Faculty of Education academic (in Calgary, Canada), teaching/researching and providing service into teacher preparation, inclusive education, community rehabilitation and disability studies and education technology.

From July 2007 until July 2008 I completed what was supposed to be a one-year academic exchange whereby an Australian academic and I swapped lives – teaching one another’s students in the respective units, living in one another’s homes and driving one another’s vehicles. The main reason my husband Stan and I decided to do this was that it would expand our children’s horizons, allowing them to experience another culture and meet new people. Kirsten was 9 at the time and Josh turned 7 on the flight over. About six-months in, we decided we were in love with everything about Australia and we decided to stay.

We became dual citizens as soon as we could. I led university-wide learning and teaching, first at Bond University for 8.5 years and then USQ for 4.5 years. While at Bond, I was fortunate to have three of my national research/practice grant proposals awarded and I was proud to co/lead high-impact work in three areas: postgraduate student experience, graduate employability and closing-the-loop on student evaluation of courses and teaching.

I also travelled to India twice, through supporting agencies such as the Australian High Commission, to build the capacity of Indian colleagues for teaching and scholarship.

Kirsten is now completing a part-time Public Health degree through Griffith University and she is an elite athlete, competing in this year’s Olympics in Tokyo in the sport she has been doing since she was five – artistic (used to by called synchronised) swimming. Josh is completing a Civil Engineering degree through Swinburne University and this year is doing a full-time internship as a Project Manager with Melbourne Water.

My husband Stan and our dog Jasper live in our home in the hinterland (backing onto reserve) on the Gold Coast. We plan to move to Armidale.

Some of the things that matter most to me are:
– The Students. The Students. The Students. The Students are the University and making the student experience high-quality and fit-for-purpose is vital.
– The Curriculum is the glue. The locus of the University for many students extends only so far as their units and their lecturers. We need to work behind the scenes and join-up communications and initiatives for students in ways that make sense and matter in the way they see their experience.
– Our students are diverse and we need to be as bespoke as we can be to give them the experience that will foster their processual and graduate success.
– In order to facilitate an excellent experience for our students, we also need to have an excellent experience as staff. I am committed to work with you to build our capacity to support one another and our students.
– We need to avoid siloes. Universities are big places with complex structures and operations. We need to do everything we can to join-up and work in-concert.
– One of my former direct reports called me The Impact Whisperer and another called me a Mallee Bull. I believe that work worth doing has impact on our students and our graduates and our communities-at-large.
– Contribution – I love innovative new ideas, energy and passion. I want to help you to create and contribute in ways that matter.

I recently co-wrote an article about the student experience:
Australian postgraduate student experiences and anticipated employability: A national study from the students’ perspective
https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/1030/1156