News

September 21, 2017

LAUNCH: The IRU National Innovation Case Study Collection

BIRMINGHAM LAUNCHES THE IRU NATIONAL INNOVATION CASES STUDY COLLECTION– over 100 Best Practice Innovations for Student and Graduate Success

Minister for Education and Training Senator Simon Birmingham launches the IRU National Innovation Case Study Collection at Flinders University in Adelaide (Thursday 21 September).

The IRU National Innovation Case Study Collection is the first digital repository of its kind. “It showcases the extraordinary ingenuity and hard work ongoing at our universities to equip students and graduates with the skills and abilities to meet the challenges of life in the world of work in our time,’ says IRU Vice Chancellors’ Fellow, Jessica Vanderelie. ‘No longer do we accept a courtesy visit to the careers office post exams pre-graduation, IRU members are working to support student and graduate employability from the moment students step on campus or click to enrol.’

“IRU is excited to lead best practice in this space through the IRU Vice Chancellors Fellowship,’ says Conor King, Executive Director, IRU, who will also attend the launch at Flinders at Tonsley.

‘Associate Professor Vanderlelie has created this open source repository to share good practice across all Australian universities. Thanks to the demand driven system, university is more accessible to more people than ever before. We welcome this. We support education for all those who seek to avail of it. This, along with digital revolution has meant that we are both able to and required to re-design the student experience for success now and into the future. We welcome the Minister’s recognition of the new era of university provision and investment that is necessary to provide for that now and into the future,’ says Mr King.

This publically available resource has been developed to encourage broader collaboration across the sector and provides a powerful means though which to prevent institutions ‘reinventing the wheel’. Within the repository, case studies are presented across 20 high level themes, each providing a detailed summary of the rationale for the innovation, description of the activity and the impact this work has made on students, institutional activities and the community. Contact details for the staff members involved are also provided to encourage people to reach out across institutional boundaries to develop, share and improve practice.

Alongside the launch, Senator Birmingham will also celebrate the achievements of the Australian University Teacher of the Year, Flinders University Associate Professor Karen Burke da Silva. IRU can boast four of the most recent five Higher Education Teachers of the Year:

  • 2016: Associate Professor Karen Burke da Silva
  • 2015: Associate Professor Halim Rane, Griffith University
  • 2014: Dr Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, Griffith University
  • 2012: Dr James Arvanitakis, University of Western Sydney