[Webinar on Demand] State of Higher Education in ANZ 2023

Hello, and welcome to the State of Higher Education in ANZ. We are just waiting for a few more people to log on. So we'll kick things off in just a minute. Just give us thirty more seconds there. Right? I think we will, get started. I would like to start this webinar by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land we meet on.

In Sydney, the gadigal people of the Aurora nation. We pay respect to their elders, both past, present, and emerging. Their ongoing knowledge, resilience, and struggles as the first peoples of this land we now call Australia and thank them for having us on their country. My name is Harrison Kelly, and I am the managing director for instructor across the Asia Pacific. I am joined today by two wonderful panelists, whose resumes are impressive as they are intimidating.

Ratna Sabaratnam, Manager of Learning Technologies and Innovation at ECU, Edith Carroll University, in Western Australia, is an experienced educated education leader with over twenty five years in international education management She also serves as treasurer for the Australian Council of Open and Digital Education and has extensive experience in higher education and civil society organizations. I am also joined by Mr. Garrett Livingston, the associate director of Education Technologies at RMIT, who boast over fifteen years of experience in the education sector with a keen focus on innovative digital technologies to improve student learning. He plays a pivotal role in advancing the edtech landscape at RMIT aligning with the new RMIT education plan. Learning through life and work.

Thank you both Ratner and Garrett for joining us today. We look forward to what we know will be an insightful discussion. So I wanna set the scene a little bit. Instructure worked with Hanover Research to fill the survey in seventeen countries. Asking over six thousand current students, administrators, and faculty from public and private higher education institutes.

From their perspectives, in fact, for their perspectives, on factors impacting student success and engagement. Today, we are here to discuss the result for specifically Australia and New Zealand. And so what does that mean? What is the data there? Well, we have three hundred and fifty nine students, administrators and faculty across a Australian New Zealand response of the survey, seventy three percent of the sample was students, and twenty seven percent were educators and faculty. This is the fourth year that we have conducted this survey. And this year, we saw some new emerging trends, and topics that were impacting education, but I don't think there'll be foreign to many people here.

So through the research, there are really six key trends that will impact education in Australia, New Zealand. Of course, this isn't an exhaustive list, but the ones that kept bubbling to the top, which were most critical to the stakeholders in our education industry. Today, we're gonna spend some time exploring, each of these trends. Now I want you to all know there is a chat function at the bottom of your screen So please add any questions you have, and we're gonna endeavor to answer them, at the end of the webinar. So let's dive into the first trend.

Skills based learning, and it's growing value in the workforce. Data from this study, sheds light on the primary motivations driving students award schools based learning opportunities, a significant sixty one percent of students are motivated by career advancement opportunities that such learning provides. Close behind, fifty nine percent. We have, that being driven by the desire to acquire new skills. In terms of affordability, Fifty five percent of students find the cost aspect of skills based learning appealing.

And finally, forty seven percent value the flexibility these programs offer, which is a crucial factor in today's dynamic educational environment. We can see the data here clearly indicates a shift the educational landscape, where factors like career growth, the acquisition of new skills, cost effectiveness, and flexibility of paramount, all things I'm sure we're very aware of. Garrett, I might pass over to you, for the course the first question here. Considering the report's findings on skills based learning, is R MIT University adapting its curriculum to align with some of these findings? Yeah. Absolutely.

Thanks so much, Harrison. It was really great to read the findings of of this study, and it it it really highlights and actually reinforces as well some of the some of the work that we've been doing here at RMIT, towards addressing or acknowledging these trends. At Rmiti, we've been really watching and adapting over the past few years, to the skills based learning approach, in twenty twenty one, RMIT embarked on a large scale curriculum architecture redesign. Which looks at the structural design of our formal qualifications or non formal learning, including our pathways between qualification and interfaces between the qualifications. What does that mean exactly? Well, there were six driving principles, creating consistent credit based stackable structure and targeted disaggregation, which would allow for a targeted unbundling of for non accredited study, built in multidirectional pathways and recognition of prior experience that facilitates lifelong learning, streamlined adaptive high quality suite of programs, courses, and credentials consistent learning outcomes that embed future focused RMIT capabilities, and the fifth one learning that spans plans to prepare students for complex and fast changing world.

And probably one of the more important ones there out of all of the six principles is the industry partnered learning that's gonna be embedded across all of our programs and offerings here at RMIT University. Initially in twenty twenty two, RMIT, we we launched our new strategy, knowledge of actions, and that had three key directions. First one recognizing an recognizing that emphasis on skills based learning, and it was simply called learning through life and work. Basically, meaning that our signature pedagogy will be active, authentic, and applied, and delivered through a blend of on campus online and work based learning. So in a nutshell, a lot of the the the framework that we're putting in place is really working towards that emphasis on the skills based learning.

Yeah. That's great, Garith. I think, you know, where I'm hearing there, and and one of the critical things particularly with the with the amount of noise and the difficulty to manage so many complex, drivers is that framework. It's so key and critical to constantly come back to that and and and always know that it's not immutable and it can change but is a really core part of how we'd like to think about, you know, a future state and how we get there. Right now, I might I might pass over to you with the report indicating a growing demand for practical skills, how is this trend reflected in student enrollment, in skills focused courses at ECU, EDif County University? Thank you, Harrison.

And it's really good to see, the contacts at RMIT as well, Garrett. Edith Cowen University, Rmit is a dual sector organization. So we have both, higher degree awards in the traditional degree space and also the VET space. So some of the things we've, Garrett has touched on, I will touch on as we go along as well. But I just wanted to give a little bit of context on Edith County University.

We are very young. We are just thirty plus years old. Really getting our, market and the demographic, very unique in Western Australia because our students tend to be students who usually not able to access university. So they need a lot of support. So first in family, lower SES, rural, aboriginal and torres strait islander students.

They are the demographic both in and also reaching across Australia that we we do support. And the the marker of your success is how much you support your students. So in the good university's guide, allow me to give a bit of a pitch for the university. We've achieved five stars over the past seventeen years or so in teaching quality and also remarkably five stars for student support. Now, why do I emphasize this based on our demographic and the level of support we provide our students? This is where our passion, heart, and soul is in really providing that teaching, support for our students.

So while research is important to us as well, how do we connect to our students? How do we ensure they're employable. From from the demographic that they come from, going through our university and going out there to be entrepreneurial and also employable. So skills and knowledge, as we know, very important, but the focus on skill support is extremely important. One of the examples I have of how we've been agile to actually meet this demand is the teacher shortage. So WA, as in a lot of, Australian states, has had a crucial, shortage of teachers, So what we did was very quickly to support this skill space is launch a one year graduate diploma of teaching.

Now this is, this was announced last year. This is going to roll out this year, and it's really to address the pressing, shortage of teachers in primary and secondary schools over here. So the in semester one, our flagship nationally accredited master of teaching primary and secondary courses will have a nested graduate diploma of teaching, which enables students to graduate after one year. And teach in WA with provisional registration. So in in today's world, as you know, so many things are happening.

As always, any point in time, but we've really got to be agile and look at the skill set that is needed right now for the community we serve. And offer it in a very quick and meaningful way. I might just pause there for now. No. That's great.

I I think my takeaway there is entrepreneurial and employable. You know, how how do how do we create custodians of the you know, of the of the worlds in which we inhabit to make them contributing members of society that's meaningful to both in and society. And I think that's a really important one. And and I love hearing about how you are you attacking that in in what is a very tough, landscape? We work with a number of clients across Australia, and New Zealand who don't always have the best access to internet who are low SES, and it's fantastic to see how technology as a whole, enabling some of those pathways and and breaking down some of those barriers. I think what's good about this is as we look at trend two, it sort of leads on quite logically.

Right? We'll shift our focus to the growing significance, of apprenticeships and certificate programs. And these pathways, although they once might have seemed theoretical, certainly not anymore. They offer practical, hands on experience and training and are increasingly favored by students, for their practicality in demonstrating workplace skills and their role in upscaling, upskilling and reskilling. Not not to mention their flexibility. Now, data from Australia or New Zealand shows a clear preference in this direction.

Fifty seven percent of students considering apprenticeships, while twenty three percent are inclined towards certificate programs. I think this these figures highlight a shift towards practical, skills based education. So right now, I might start with you on this one in light of the reports findings on the value of apprenticeships. Can you share how, ECU, ETH County University is expanding these programs? Yeah. We've actually stood up a, what is currently a project team, but we are looking to fund this ongoing on work integrated learning as a dedicated approach for an enterprise wide sil wide solution.

I mean, you will know fields like nursing and midwifery, business and all that would have will integrate it in many aspects. But we really need a consolidated enterprise wide approach. And, you know, there are a lot of government metrics in terms of funding that is also pegged. To successful, employability outcomes post graduation. So our will refers to cost students, course with the students undertaking and being assessed on, making sure as Garrett mentioned, there are authentic activities through engagement industry, looking at community partnerships as formal component, of their degrees.

Now real experiences will allow students to develop and apply the knowledge and practical skills, which is what we touched on earlier, in the classroom directly relevant to the area of study. Now this could be practical placements, or projects with industry partners and also in the classroom. Now it is common university is in the midst of building a campus in the city. It's actually perts first university campus in the Cbd. So, and this is a function of funding from both the state, federal, and, university stakeholders, and that would allow the integration with industry to be a lot stronger.

Because at the end of the day, the pump factor being having a physical presence that's vibrant is going to be spectacular. That people are going to recognize and want to engage. So other than the school of business and some other key, schools that are moving there, we also have the WAA Academy of performing arts that's moving into the city. Now Wapa has a tremendous reputation, not just nationally, but also globally, but they also are the arm of ecu that provides vet causes. So what are vet courses range from certificate four in aboriginal performance to the diploma of acting to the advanced diploma of music.

Having this sort of presence with, I think, the vice chancellor of aiming for about three hundred performances in the city in a year, This is really going to bring the presence of the university and our students as a real, skills based present in the city where people can enjoy and engage with. So apprenticeships and skills based learning will be a natural flow on all these engagements that we are planning in the next few years. Wonderful. Yeah. I love I love the organic approach then.

Thank you for sharing that right now. Garrett, I'll I'll jump over to you. Can you share how RMI University's offerings in apprenticeships and certificate programs are evolving, in response to the trends highlighted in this report. Yeah. Absolutely.

No. It's great to hear some of the work that's going on over there in Edith County as well. There's some direct synergies with the that R MIT is doing too, particularly that focus on work integrated learning and that skills based approach. I think alongside some of our more traditional vocational certificates and apprenticeship models. We're also gonna develop a an integrated system, for demand driven Flex offerings, that address the current landscape of skills shortages and the need for the current workplace to upscale and reskill.

The it's a concept that we're working at the minute, but we're moving quite rapidly with it, under the working title of R MIT open. And it's situated in the broader context of educational shifts and the lines of the university accord sort of signal signaling that move towards shorter form and more flexible learning, aims to make learning as accessible to a wider audience and aims to address those skill shortage promoting that lifelong learning again and paving the way for a more personalized and accessible educational landscape landscape I alluded to previously in the previous question or with her curriculum architecture project, really lends itself to success of this RMIT open project, with the ability to disaggregate and modularize our more traditional programs and courses, and redevelope them in the demand driven skill sets that we can do fairly rapidly to respond to the shifts in the current market. I think, probably as a side note as well, I was at EDGTech last year, and I I jumped jumped into the educational stream, and I always love going into that stream because I feel like the vocational sector does a skills based learning approach really well. Obviously, they're very practical and on. And I caught a a previous colleague, Gail Bray challenging the concept of the the continued emphasis on on certificates courses, right, through to that to diploma level, and beyond into bachelor's degrees as well.

And she's, she challenged the the fact that why why are we still refer referring to certificate one, certificate two diploma? Why are we not focusing more on the skills demand from the industry and tailing our qualifications or our skill sets to to to meet the the demands of our industry. They're they're jumping up and down screens. I thought it was In a traditional sense, felt like quite a controversial question or challenge, but actually this is very much, and the report alludes to that as well, whether the the trends moving very to very much towards that's that workplace skill approach. Yeah. So I feel like the definition of traditional and non traditional will take on, many different evolutions over time, won't it, I mean, just where that ends up if at all there isn't any point for that.

Thank you for that, Garrett. Let's pivot a little bit. I feel like this is probably a hot topic that has been and in the room for quite some time. But it is a critical trend, the imperative for institutions to provide consistent guidelines and training on generative AI for educators and students. As this technology itself reshapes the educational landscape, the absence of clear guidance risks is widening the skills development gap, not bringing it closer together.

And so this study, paints a diverse picture, and we can see it here thirty seven percent of educators report only light guidelines, and forty percent indicates strict guidelines on generative AI usage at their institutions. A notable thirty one percent have no training offered. The variance in policy approach shows the need for more standardized practices and indeed for organizations to be able to help and support universities and other institutions. Interestingly though, educators find generative AI beneficial for personalized learning, fifty three percent there, research and writing, forty three percent, and creating class content, thirty seven percent. On the student front, the use of tools like chativity is predominantly for research and writing seventy five percent of the time, and test prep, sixty six percent.

This demonstrates the technology's diverse applications in enhancing educational experiences on both sides, of the fence. So, Garath, I'll start with you on this one. Given the findings on Genative AI in the study, What initiatives has RMIT University undertaken to promote equitable skills development in this area? Great. Thanks, Harrison. Yeah.

Wow. This is, this is probably one of the the the the few major disruptor disruptors of of our generation, really, in in the education sector, and it's the gift. I keep calling the gift that keeps giving, whether we ask for it or not. It's something that's here and it's here to stay. And I think now once we've gotten gotten over that initial that initial panic phase, and and and as our educators and students have already began to embrace it and really produce some really great great work from it.

It it's something now that we're embracing really effectively. And a really special call out to our principal advisor education practice here, Doctor. Hillary Weeding. She's really been excelling in this space within our MIT, around developing that strategy and the guidance for the use of AI at MIT. Back in the early days, which wasn't even a year ago, really, was when when AI first exploded onto the scene.

Really, in February. There was that initial scramble to go, well, what do we do? How do we address it what guidelines do we put in place? So back in February, we we we just started with the basics essentially and issued some guidelines staff around the use of AI and their assessments, because that was their major focus initially where all students are going to be plagiarizing all of their work. They're going to be using chatty PT to write all of their assessment tasks. So we we we introduced some basic guidance around or when when could students engage with AI when when it comes to completing their assessment tasks, and there was four, four main categories. One, having no restrictions at all in the use of AIT tools restricting or or restricting the way in which students can use the tools to complete an assessment task, or three restrict the types of AI tool students can use, to complete that task or for restrict all.

So AI is off off the table at all to to complete assessment tasks. And this this these guidelines were really mirrored in the guidelines that we give to the students as well. Students were absolutely. We we took the approach at RMIT that they should that they should embrace and and explore and and cautiously dabble in that AI space, so they were absolutely encouraged to use and explore, in order to assist with their learning, but also be cognizant of that academic integrity component as well when engaging with the tools. To support this, we we issued some guidance to both staff and students, an updated or accurate or aspect of our academic integrity modules to address AI and the acceptable use of it.

That was really just scratching the surfaces where we're grappling with the the fast changing landscape, that that the onslaught of AI brought. As we were mature mature approach colleges, were running sessions with their their their teaching and learning tea learning the teaching teams, to promote the universe the strategy towards AI and reinforce what is appropriate use, and then led by our our succulent campus in in Vietnam, a community of practice for staff was established that enabled academics to talk about the use of AI and best best practice in their teaching practice as well within the institution. Respond to queries, troubleshoot potential issues that are bubbling sort of in this live environment. And then that community of pack practice really expanded across into or the Australian context as well. So really quite a vibrant and actively attended group of of, academics and professional staff that were tackling this issue.

Recognizing, as as we all did, the the widespread unofficial use of chat GPT, you know, our academics, our teaching teams are using our learning designers are using it to create learning resources. Our students were using it to enhance their learn learning We we realized that there were obviously some serious security and governance implications of at play here as well. So our ITS division sprung in the action, and insured staff had that curated environment to explore JNI, and we introduced, a chat GPT, like, school, like, tool called Val, and that was really had that enterprise level security, and we really encourage this, the the staff to embrace that instead of, you know, defaulting back to chat GPT where it was really, you know, a data, a data sync where we weren't quite sure around the data governance of what was going on with any information you put into it. Additionally, being chat to enterprise was also made available too, which give us a few more security, constraints to For students, Val, now the reasonable assessed Val launch for staff in October and to introduce that equitable. Component, we're introducing it now for students as well and providing some really solid guide guidelines around the use file on how they should use it to enhance their learning journey.

They also have access. We're in Dolby campus here at RMIT as well. So students and staff have us to the full array of about Adobe products. And with that, they've got, Adobe Firefly, which has been sort of embedded across all of the Adobe suite. Now I predict in Adobe Express to generate images.

And the third one too was, bing chat enterprise was rolled out too for students as well. So just to introduce that little bit of equity there. There's three three official enterprise ported tools available here at RMIT, and they're available or will be within the next month available to both staff and students in that regard. Ongoing training, there's modules developed such a big piece. It's hard to consolidate it down in this sort of snapshots, but I'm there there's there's new AI ed for educators module, a canvas module that was introduced for staff as well.

And student facing pressbooks, libraries developed a pressbooks resource to that that that encourages students to to dabble and explore and seek out the the benefits that AI can offer in in their learning journey journey. I'll probably stop right there because I could talk forever on this this subject, and it's one of those ones if the the it's the gift that keeps giving. Just to circle back. She thank you, Carol. So, I'm sure the the generality of the question I'm about to ask you, could allow you to go on for some time as well, but I'll ask it.

What has been the impact of generative AI on teaching and learning at at ECU compared to the trends that are reported here? I think we are in the same boat as everybody else. So we were waiting for a concerted sector based approach to this because university is a government after all. And, eagerly, a rating takes us guide the guidance around assessment form. And we got two high level principles and five, further sub principles. That were useful, but it clearly underscore the new institutions to really, go on their own merit.

So we are learning from the RMITs of the world. We are learning from the other universities, both learning anxiety and across. Does anyone have an answer? I don't think so. We are trying to formulate it as we go. So I won't repeat the approaches Garrett has already outlined.

So we have training, we have resources, we are we are setting up the sandbox, we do we will be launching in about a couple of, weeks. The official, artificial intelligence framework that way works for ECU. So the AI framework, we've already social this is by the CDC education and also our professor of business ethics. And extensive consolidation has a happened across the university. So we've already socialized round one.

We are gathering feedback in a couple of weeks. I suspect we will have a more final version. And this is we are taking a very value based approach for this. We, I mean, university provision statements, mission statements, and value statements. So based on ECUs published various statements, we are we are using that to guide the ethical principles and how we use it here and also with an associated risk matrix.

And who are the stakeholders and the hierarchy of decision making and the level of impact these decisions will head will also be, published in a living document, I suppose, because again, this has to be formulated as we go. But one thing is very real. You all are answerable to Texa in the middle of the year. So to kick that off, Texa wants to know, right, what have you done? So here are your two principles and five sub principles. What is your university doing to address, assessment and curriculum in the age of AI? So to kick that off, the center for learning and teaching will be coordinating a huge curriculum transformation project.

And starting off with, assessment rethink as well, in addition to all the other guidance we've given to staff, and this will be across several pilot courses across all the, schools and faculties at the university. So making sure there's representation across different disciplines. In terms of the, a code survey that we just, published, the Osulation Council for open and digital education, the snapshot of the sector, what are universities doing? It shows that there are guidelines and policies in place with respect to governance of AI But, again, it highlights that there are a lot of gaps that everyone's trying to address. This conversation should be going on for a while yet, there are a lot of, experimental activities and pilots of tools of concept, but twenty twenty four will be the year to work. Now that we also have a deadline to answer the text.

So from a snapshot of the sector to what you're using, doing in university, it seems to be reflecting where all of us are going and thinking and trying to figure out a way forward here. Wonderful. I I think this is where we'll get a bulk of the questions at the end. Something tells me that I'm not sure why, but, yeah, certainly, I think it's gonna take a cross collaborative effort for everyone to put forward, you know, I appreciate all institutions of different, but a set of philosophies and guidelines and policies around how how we can best manage that and ever evolving and fast fast pace, New World. Let let's let's move on now halfway through the trends.

Let's turn to the fourth key trend here, the pivotal role of technology access and student success and engagement. Despite advancements in this area, we're still grappling with the challenges of closing the accessibility gap for many learners. So again, data from this study sheds light on the issue. It reveals that seventy three percent of respondents frequently use mobile apps to access their their LMS, their learning management system. However, laptops or desktops continue to remain the primary method for about eighty four percent of users.

And this highlights a significant reliance on traditional computing devices, even as mobile technology becomes more pervasive and prevalent and prevalent. Ratna, can you discuss specific strategies ECU is implementing to bridge this gap? This is the tough nut. Isn't it? We wanna be doing something, but we're not doing enough. So what have we been doing? With with, of course, the pandemic, we kicked off, really library laptop notes, WiFi dongle looms. So the hardware support was ramped up, and the good thing is we still have it in place.

In larger numbers than we did prependemic. While we have prioritized an on campus experience, we do understand that some students still require require a level of flexibility, and they are a little bit more used to it now. So we need to be able to support that, that level of learning. And also looking at our demographic, we inevitably have students who are unable to access the level of hardware that they need, due to remote geographies or financial hardship. So these are the, type of students that we really wanna make sure we prioritize support in terms of hardware.

In terms of software, we have put in concentrated effort especially in the recent couple of years to make sure we have enough resources for students to refer to and maximize the accessibility, affordances of our existing technologies. So in addition to making sure they integrate with other supportive tech, so immersive readers work well with Microsoft teams. So we are making sure that message gets out there. We we really push the accessibility checker in Canvas, the in the RCE. It may seem like, well, you should know this, but, no, but you really have to publicize tools that you have at your hand, and that has that is starting to make a great big difference.

We are also consciously looking at new technology that might help, accessible learning. Now accessibility can be physical, can be mental, can be cultural, So what does this look like? So we are also working with, say, organizations in the sector to negotiate with, tech companies, say, like, audit, where the CIO sits, looking at what, enterprise technologies we can negotiate at a better price for the, sector at large, not just your Microsofts and your pool pilots, but also say other accessible tech that we are gonna need to load. And speaking of, copilot, we know big tech. It's easy to, easier to access compared to a lot of other smaller plans. They're also more mature in the accessibility space.

Like I mentioned, emergency, there's and synergies. But we also wanna be careful that, because there's always a price point, but we also wanna be careful that we are not missing out other more personalized affordances from more niche software that will actually support niche needs. So we are right in the middle of all this. We have a, several sub communications in the university and departments in the university, you that we are also collaborating with CenturyLink, the center for learning and teaching, and hopefully get better at addressing this faith than we have in the past. I I appreciate that view, you know, here at instructure, we often caught a bimodal approach, right, the rivers and the rocks where you've got a a steadfast eighty percent of the tech stack, right, which is you which is your core and that level of agility, that that that stream that you need not only to keep up with current trends, but also to highly personalize the learning journey and constantly look for those opportunities that you that, you know, that, subscribe to the same philosophy as the university or other but are really helping you draw down on the innovation, in that space.

So I appreciate you sharing that right now. Gariff, Rmit university specific responses to the technology accessibility challenges highlighted in the report. Or are they? Absolutely. Yeah. So, I can't say too much more, a Ratna, particularly articulated it perfectly.

Pretty much, you know, what are we doing in the accessibility space? It's never never enough. I think that's a space that we constantly need to continue driving forward and innovating in. Much much to what, Ratan is doing over there. Any eighth of the Cowan Calan university. We've developed a whole suite of resources and our multi faceted approach really to engaging with our learning design teams or educators directly, to really put that that the digital accessibility to the forefront to support that.

We've developed and promoted, a digital accessibility framework, setting out standards for all of our digital resources here at RMIT, including the learning resources. We've engaged a specialist, advisory service develop an implementation plan as well just to hold us that that are accountable to and to say that we're doing doing what we we said we would do. We provide professional development to our educators, our learning designers on all things related in that accessibility space and also starting to focus on universal design rather than designing for the exception. We're we're we're designing for everyone. To benefit everyone, employed, digital accessibility lead, and and they actually lead a a RMA actions, including the provision of resources and professional development and other specialist advice advice that they can offer across the university.

A community of practice, which we find is the most effective way within engaging with, some of our the leaders in that space well and really gaining that momentum to to embedded across all of our all of our colleges, all of our colleges and schools. Embedding the standards within policy and systems as well within the LMS environment to in terms of the the access, imp and improving that access to digital technology, we have, we have means tested scholarships, fortnightly payments, additional crisis payments on scholarships, even just for for for students to access laptops, on any devices they required participate in their studies. And of course, as Radna touched on as well, we have, all of the Canvas accessibility tools. We also pay for, black board Ali as well. It just helps support some of the it supports our academics too in highlighting con potential concerns of accessibility as well.

So they're they're fixing up issues before they really occur as they're as they're crafting their learning resources. Could go go on for a while, but as Ratna said, it's never enough. We need to do much more in that space and constantly driving it forward. Can definitely see the par parallels between both institutes there just speaking to the the national and the global challenges that that we all have. Two more to go about about ten minutes left.

This is a this is a bit of a pivot, and that and I do wanna say as a prefacing remark that because seventy three percent response for students. This is student focused, but we cannot forget normal. We ever forget the importance of both of this. Sorry, of mental health and mental wellness, student, well-being on our teachers as well to the side, just so critical. So Let's discuss the importance of, of mental health support in, in institutions and its impact on well-being and success.

We've seen, you know, this aspect of student life is becoming increasingly vital, particularly in the mid stop and post COVID. Yet, there's a notable gap in providing adequate mental, health resources. So the study that that that was done here provides some insightful data on this matter reveals thirty eight percent of students wish their institutions would offer mental health days off indicating a need for more proactive mental health support. Additionally, the twenty nine percent of students, expressed a desire for mental health app suggesting a preference for for digital solutions. On a positive note, fifty two percent of respondents acknowledge that their institutions use the LMS, the learning management system, to provide those mental health resources, including connections to in person or virtual counseling.

Similarly, fifty two percent reported that their campuses promote well-being events indicating efforts to address mental health needs. Garath, how do RMIT University's mental health initiatives and time off policies reflect the preferences and needs identified in this report. You know, it's a great question, Harris, and it's another one that, there's always more we can do in this space too. We say now we do have a contra comprehensive suite of initiatives, and services that are in place to respond to the students who have mental health issues. Both pro protective, which promote the well-being and participation, but also the responsive ones as well, and we provide counseling and other serve sister students, in that capacity.

In a in addition as well to support them when they're in the weeds in the middle of their learning at some of the most stressful points of the the semester. They can have time off due to health issues through extension, the application of extensions. For instance, they can have a equitable learning plan related to their mental health diagnosis And around fifty percent of the three thousand students that are on an equitable learning plan here at RMIT actually have mental health issues as well. So that's a key statistics that we're there that we've we've drilled down into as well. So it's clearly clearly, a recurring theme here as well, particularly come off the back of.

I don't wanna we've almost got through the entire webinar. We'll have mentioned in that c, the COVID word, but It's something that has bubbled up and is really, really front of mind here at RMIT, and we're constantly, you know, trying to tackle it via multiple avenues. I appreciate that protective and responsive with both of the ways you can look at that. I think that's great. Ratna, can you provide sense of the effectiveness of, of some of the strategies that were outlined in the report? Yeah.

I mean, the days of, that's an interesting one. It'll be good to unpack the survey a little bit. We we are committed at ECU. So committed that we actually have an ECU student and staff mental health strategy twenty twenty one to twenty twenty four. And, this was be in long time coming, even before the pandemic, but obviously triggered by it.

So the, we are supporting staff and students to develop and maintain a positive mental health and resilience. Sort of approach to working and studying an ECU. So in this strategy, the five areas of focus are supported and inclusive culture. Prevention awareness and literacy, early intervention and support, crisis management, and also at the strategic level in university decision making. How are we supporting that? For students, we have, So is there such as psychological counseling, health service, crisis support, access and inclusion strategies, and also as a dedicated student success department.

So we we are one of the top public universities in student experience. So addressing mental health, on an ongoing basis is very important for staff and students. So for staff, we also have, as a lot of universities too, employee assistance, programs. We have wellness programs as well. We call it live life longer and all the staff benefits and the courses that come with it.

You know, go out and pot a plant work with nature. Crisis support is available, and, we introduce mental health first aid a two day program that's offered throughout the year, at least about three or four times a year. And this was recently offered, I think, since one and a half years ago or so. So we have a lot of strategies in place. We we hope This is going to be good enough, but there's a lot more work again.

Just like accessibility, a lot more dedicated work in this space to be done. Absolutely. Yeah. It's it's just so critical and like everything is ever evolving. But interested I'll put the note around, you know, mobile phones and applications, and I think to myself, is that because the nature of it, they like that medium? Or is it because there's there's maybe not the sense of, self understanding around how these interactions can work, and that seems like a very safe space.

For students and teachers. And I mean, just to to see how that evolves over time as well. Four minutes left. Let's explore our sixth and final trend. The empowerment of educators through autonomy respect and comprehensive support.

This aspect, as we know, is crucial for fostering positive and productive educational environment. So again, finding from these studies of a valuable insights into how institutions can better support their educators. The study indicated that forty four percent of educators feel more supported when their achievements are acknowledged. Close behind, forty three percent evaluate more opportunities for personal development, highlighting the importance of continuous learning and growth in the teaching profession. Additionally, Forty percent of educators emphasize the significance of having opportunities to provide feedback, suggesting a need for more inclusive and participatory decision making processes.

Again, about two way open communication. Last question for both of you, Ratna, how does the experience of educators at ECU reflect the reports findings on empowerment through autonomy and support? I'll make it brief for the sake of time. We are actually reviewing our academic progression and promotion, pathways. We actually have a contemporary academic careers project. Recognizing the diverse work that staff do.

So empowering them to actually build a more holistic approach to, life and work we constantly remind, ourselves of our ECU values, integrity, respect, rational integrity, personal, excellence and courage and our educational experience plan that was launched in twenty twenty two. Empowers and and commend staff to leverage data and analytics for continuous improvement in their work. So that sort of evidence based approach that staff have control over is going to be quite important in in informing how they work with your students, how they work flexibly, and also providing leadership programs and how they can actually empower themselves in this space. Great, Ansel. Thank you for that, Ratin.

Garath, with an emphasis on educator empowerment, how does RMIT University support and respect its educators in this practice? Yes. Similar similar to Ratna as well, we're RMITR reviewing our, our empowerment of educators, reviewing that policy to to support rewards and recognition and professional development in that space. So it's something that we're we're we're engaging very closely with the colleges and and the schools and the educators themselves are in in in the delivery areas, to help to help form what what the future would look will look like in this space. Of course, we we offer a full suite at the minute to try try and tackle some of the the more pressing issues, and the immediate needs. And it could be, you know, we've recently developed an educator resource hub that sits up centrally here, and it's in collaboration with the college learning and teaching teams to become such a large institution here.

It can often be difficult to to get down in in amongst them here. The real pain pain points in the various delivery areas. So working very closely with the college develop an educator resource hub, and it's supposed to act like that one stop shop for all things learning and teaching where educators can come find out about key initiatives that are happening at RMIT. Often in the day to day operations, in the teaching space, they they they can feel a little bit disconnected as well So finding ways that resonates and and bring bring them closer, and and connect them not just, you know, within their own disciplines, but across the the various colleges and and, delivery areas too. We've launched a new suite of learning Canvas existing educators, can access resources around learning and teaching in the RMIT context and also introduces them to some of the education technologies that are that that form part of our core learning and teaching suite, to really familiarize them with that.

But there's so much more we need to do in that space as well. So hence the review. More formally, we've got you know, academic and professional staff can apply for the the HEA fellowship to higher education academy fellowship. And we're also looking to launch a grad cert in higher education this year, which will be open to all all academic and professional staff too. So that's something we're really looking forward to to to try and recognize some of the more formal pathways and professional development opportunities too.

In terms of rewards and recognition, teaching awards here at RMIT, celebrates that exceptional teaching and strategic contributions of both our academic and professional staff make. And then there's there's obviously at a national level as well, the Australian Australian awards for, university teaching to But again, we need to really formalize and and and identify clear pathways for to empower our academics to to to develop themselves professionally and feel empowered then to to to lead in that space. Absolutely. Look. Thank you both so so much for that.

Instead of moving on to the Q and A now, I wanna respect everyone's time here. What we'll do is we'll collate the questions that we've got, and we'll ensure that and we can give them the right time energy and and responses there. And so, Garrett and Ratner, we we will share those with you in in Duke course as well. Unfortunately, that's all we have time for today. But I wanna thank our panelists deeply for their insightful comments as well as those that have attended online, today.

That was the state of higher education across A and Z for twenty twenty three, and we look forward to contributing year on year to this wonderful study. Thank you, Garrett. Thank you, Ratna, and thank you for all of those that have attended. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Take care.