UNE Business School is pleased to introduce some of our graduating class this October. The places a degree from UNE can take you are wide and varied – we caught up with some graduates to find out what a UNE Business School qualification has given them, what their favourite part of study was and where they’re off to next!

Scott graduated in excellent spring weather on Friday 21 October, and made a new friend!

Scott Harrison

Scott graduated with his PhD on Friday 21 October. He returned to Armidale for the ceremony and to celebrate with friends after taking a post-doctoral position in Germany – the Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Siegen. He worked with Associate Professor Rene Villano, Adjunct Professor Grace Lynch and Dr George Chen, building from an interest in education outcomes of students garnered during his time both as an undergrad in the Bachelor of Economics at UNE in 2007, finishing with first class honours in 2010. Scott also worked as a tutor under A/Prof Villano in 2011.

Commencing his PhD in 2012, Scott further developed this interest to link the field of learning analytics and economics in his thesis, titled “Microeconometric Analysis of the Relationships Between Early Alert Systems and Student Retention”. With the implementation of UNE’s AWE (a type of Early Alert System), Scott found a rich data set which allowed the opportunity to develop an understanding of how the initiative was having an effect on retention.

So far, Scott has been publishing his findings from this data in journal articles “Measuring financial implications of an early alert system” and “Likelihood analysis of student enrollment outcomes using learning environment variables: a case study approach” with A/Prof Villano, Prof Lynch and Dr Chen.

At the tale-end of his PhD study, opportunity arose for the post-doctorate Marie Curie Fellowship position with University of Siegen. Scott applied for the position knowing that it was time to take his hard-earned knowledge and expertise out onto the global playing field – and his application was successful!

Scott submitted his PhD on 22 November, 2015 and was stepping onto a plane to move to Germany on 4 December 2015. His decision to grasp this opportunity sees him working all over Europe on research projects, including a current project called EDUWORKS, involving contributions from these amazing primary project partners:

• The University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Corvinno Technology Transfer Center, Hungary
• Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
• University of Salamanca, Spain
• Central European University, Hungary, and
• University of Siegen, Germany

Scott with colleagues from the EDUWORKS project during a visit to Alicante, Spain.

The work Scott is involved with now sees plenty of travel – Amsterdam Business School has been frequently visited due to project coordination and many events occurring within the space. This includes training workshops, and summer and winter schools, which bring all the project partners, PhD and Postdoc fellows together for training, presentations and collaboration. These events have been spaces all over Europe at various venues, with the most recent being in Alicante, Spain.

With such exciting projects and constant European travel and adventures, it would be easy to assume Scott has left Armidale far behind him, but that’s definitely not the case. Scott notes the importance of his support networks in Armidale during his study with the UNE Business School, particularly the rewarding experience of taking on a teaching role under the guidance of Associate Prof Rene Villano. The chance to work with his PhD supervisors so closely, both as a student and as a colleague, stays with Scott as a significant contributor to his PhD success. Scott was also active in extra-curricular activities with UNE and UNE Business School; the two main societies he was part of were The UNE Economics and Business Society (formerly the UNE Economics Society) and Enactus. Scott was part of the ENACTUS team that worked on the Minimbah and Farming Futures Projects which subsequently won the National competition in 2013. From this, they travelled to Mexico to represent Australia at the World Competition.

Scott speaks fondly of the Armidale community as a supportive group of friends who joined him on Friday to celebrate his great achievement, once he’s taken the stage in gown and cap to receive his doctorate.

“UNE is the perfect place for a PhD; close support, encouragement and mentoring, means that upon completion, you are uniquely positioned to take advantage of opportunities anywhere in the world.”

He’s back to Germany at the end of next week, to continue working on his German speaking skills with some language classes, concentrating on keeping his feet warm and dry as Germany’s snowy winter kicks in, and of course making international strides in his chosen field of research. All the best to Scott, and congratulations on your well-earned success!