Comment by Professor Shelley Kinash, Executive Principal, Student Experience

The environment of universities is complex. There is teaching, learning and assessment. Faculties and schools and divisions. TEQSA and compliance. Policies, procedures and handbooks. Calendars and timetables and deadlines and remissions. Appeals and grievance.

And yet, the key catalyst is quite simple. The One Thing that matters most to a strong student experience is … care.

A university is strong when all staff care about students, their learning and their success.

What does care look like in the UNE context?

– Care for students’ learning means that the online learning experience is interactive and interesting, and that educators actively moderate discussion forums and answer students’ questions.
– Care for students, academically, means that student assessment is designed as a learning experience and that specific, robust feedback is provided so that students can improve throughout their student journey.
– Care for student success means that academic and professional staff ask students about their career goals and then provide instrumental support to help students achieve these goals as graduates.
– Care for student experience means that we regularly consult students and that we ask them (students in the context of communities) to co-design pedagogical opportunities to continuously grow as a University.
– Care for our communities, means that we strive for excellence in the student learning experience so that our students are prepared, and supported, to contribute and lead our world forward.

Overall, Care at UNE means that we have deeply contemplated what it means to Future-Fit and that we apply this vision throughout every interaction, every decision and every responsibility.