LH Martin Institute Conference - WebFest

The LH Martin Institute Conference champions innovation and communities of collaborative practice between industry, government and higher education providers and explores current and emerging issues faced by the higher education sector.

In lieu of a face-to-face conference this year, we will host an October WebFest where a series of topical and relevant webinars themed around Crisis, responsibility and opportunity: Educational leadership during major change will be presented every Thursday.

The WebFest topics and presenters are curated by a Steering Committee of leaders and senior managers from the higher education sector. The Committee’s experience in change management and innovation inform their Conference and WebFest leadership.

The LHMI WebFest brings together people from across the tertiary education sector to share ideas, successes, and lessons learned. It provides an opportunity to hear from leading professionals in other sectors facing similar issues, enables collaborative opportunities across the sector, and to build skills and competencies to enable us to contribute successfully to the change agenda of our employers.

2020 Sponsors

Special thanks to our Gold Sponsors:

Past Conferences

Delivered through five webinars, the LH Martin Institute WebFest will explore the main theme of Crisis, responsibility and opportunity: Educational leadership during major change. The following sessions will each expand on this theme in greater detail.

Thursday 1 October, 11 - 12:30pm
The many faces of education: Challenges, opportunities and the future

This panel discussion will explore the future of education in the VET and higher education sectors, particularly in light of the recent and rapid transformation of education offerings and support services in response to COVID-19.

The discussion will focus on strategies to optimise the user experience and service delivery, including for education services that have traditionally been required to be delivered in face-to-face and blended modes.

Speakers:
Amanda Achterberg – Chief Learning Officer, Bendigo Kangan Institute
Professor Glyn Davis AC – Chief Executive Officer, Paul Ramsay Foundation
Megan Lilly – Head, Education and Training, Ai Group

Thursday 8 October, 12 - 1:30pm
Course delivery: Lessons for the future

The COVID-19 crisis exposed a number of rigidities in in the way most education providers design and deliver course offerings. But the crisis also created the circumstances for a rapid and wholesale rethink of how we structure and deliver courses.

This four-person panel will draw on the experience of educators in responding to and transforming their courses to meet the new reality and to meet student needs.  The panel will look at what did and didn’t work, as well as provide insight into the features that are likely to remain and become standard in course design and delivery beyond the current crisis.

Speakers:
Dr Paul Whitelaw – Academic Director, The Hotel School Partnership, Southern Cross University
Associate Professor Thomas Cochrane – Technology Enhanced Learning, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne
Associate Professor Mitchell Parkes – Program Director, Academic Development at Learning and Teaching Transformation (LaTT) at the University of New England
Associate Professor Melanie Williams – Associate Dean (Scholarship), William Angliss Institute

Thursday 15 October, 1 - 2pm
The importance of leadership: New thinking and strategies for an education sector in flux

This webinar will be conducted in the form of an interview and provide insights and explore the latest thinking regarding leadership in a rapidly changing environment from an expert in the field. The webinar will analyse the factors that are likely to impact the sector beyond COVID-19, what the latest literature and research tell us regarding effective leadership, and the strategies that leaders can adopt to ensure they meet, identify and manage challenges and maximise opportunities in a post pandemic world.

Speakers:
Professor Warren Bebbington – Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Professor Kerri-Lee Krause – Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Life), The University of Melbourne

Thursday 22 October, 10 - 11:30am
Supporting scholarship and learning at the organisational and sector level

The theme of this session will be to consider how organisations and the wider education sector can support scholarship and the adoption of evidence-based teaching and research practice at the organisational and sectoral level and across different groups and stakeholders.

Speakers:
Dr Jeanette Baird – Honorary Senior Fellow, LH Martin Institute, The University of Melbourne
Liz Baré – Honorary Fellow, LH Martin Institute, The University of Melbourne
Leah Dowsett – Manager, Strategic Planning, Curtin University
Dr Paul Rowland - Chief Executive Officer, Sydney International School of Technology and Commerce

Thursday 29 October, 3 - 4:30pm
Business not as usual: Education business models for a disrupted sector

Prior to COVID-19, most discussions on disruption focused on the impact of the digital revolution on education delivery business models. However COVID-19 has shown that the potential impacts may come from other quarters. At the very least, COVID-19 has shown us that the impact of digital disruption can be supercharged by factors that have, until recently, not been given as much thought as they probably deserve.

This facilitated roundtable discussion will consider and analyse the factors that are likely to shape future educational business models, and the implications for the business models and what these models might look like to best meet social and student needs.

Speakers:
David Barnett – Managing Director - APAC, Pearson
Megan Aitken – Educational Consultant: Digital Transformation
Dr Stephen Weller – Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Australian Catholic University
Ray Fleming - Asia Pacific Higher Education Strategic Programs Manager, Google Cloud

Sessions are $55* each or all five for $220*.
*all prices include GST

All times are in Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).

2020 Sponsors

Special thanks to our Gold Sponsors:

For any enquiries please contact:

Myron Yovannidis | Program Officer
LH Martin Institute | Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education
T: +61 3 8344 2116 E: myron.yovannidis@unimelb.edu.au

Thursday 1 October, 11 - 12:30pm
The many faces of education: Challenges, opportunities and the future

Amanda Achterberg

Chief Learning Officer, Bendigo Kangan Institute

Amanda is passionate about education and fundamentally believes in it’s worth for students, industry and the community. She is a career educator and strong believer in driving quality student outcomes, by engaging and building educator capabilities in educational design, digital delivery, assessment and facilitation skills. In her current role, she has focused on building a comprehensive and future focused Education Plan, to promote innovative education and support students throughout their learning journey.

Professor Glyn Davis

Chief Executive Officer, Paul Ramsay Foundation

Professor Glyn Davis AC joined the Paul Ramsay Foundation as Chief Executive officer in January 2019. He was previously Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne. Alongside his role at the Foundation, Glyn Davis remains Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University and Visiting Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford.

Professor Davis is a public policy specialist, with experience in government and higher education, who delivered in 2010 the Boyer Lectures on the theme The Republic of Learning.   His most recent book is The Australian Idea of a University.

Megan Lilly

Head – Education and Training, Ai Group

Megan Lilly is the Head of Education & Training for The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) and Managing Director of the Australian Industry Group Training Services (AiGTS). In this role Megan is responsible for the development of all education and training policy as well as the operation of the group training organisations . Ms Lilly is a member of the Australian Industry Skills Committee, board member of National Apprentice Employment Network, Deputy Chair – Worldskills Australia, member of the Australian College of Educators, the Australia Pacific Training Coalition, and the Naval Shipbuilding College – Delivery Advisory Committee. Megan was also on the AQF Review Panel. She has been a member of the Australia India Education Council, including Chairing the Skills Working Group, Australian Qualifications Framework Council, Queensland Ministerial Commission, Victorian Skills Commission and was a member of the National Skills Standards Council, and the National Quality Council.

Thursday 15 October, 1 - 2pm
The importance of leadership: New thinking and strategies for an education sector in flux

Professor Warren Bebbington

Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Former Vice Chancellor and President, University of Adelaide and Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Melbourne, Professor Bebbington is now a Professorial Fellow, L.H.Martin Institute, University of Melbourne; Professor Emeritus in Music, University of Adelaide; and Visiting Professor, National Academy for Education Administration, PR China.

He chairs Melbourne University Press, arts and design college LCI-Melbourne, and the peak autism body in Victoria Amaze Inc. Educated at University of Melbourne then as a Fulbright Scholar in New York, he was awarded an Australian Council of Teaching and Learning Citation for “30 years of outstanding teaching,” in 2007. In 2020, Professor Bebbington received the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to education, particularly to the study of music.

Professor Kerri-Lee Krause

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Life), The University of Melbourne

Professor Kerri-Lee Krause is an experienced university executive who is internationally recognised for her contributions to higher education policy, research and practice. Professor Krause is an Honorary Professorial Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, a lifetime fellow of the international Society for Research in Higher Education and is internationally recognised for research on the contemporary student experience. Her research program spans higher education curriculum renewal, the changing nature of academic work, and factors influencing higher education quality and standards.

Thursday 29 October, 3 - 4:30pm
Business not as usual: Education business models for a disrupted sector

David Barnett

Managing Director - APAC, Pearson

David has worked in the education industry for the past thirty-three years, most of which has been at Pearson. In that time, he has held a variety of executive roles working in Pearson’s businesses in higher education, schools, vocational education and career development, across the region. David was appointed Managing Director of Pearson Australia in 2002 and Pearson Asia Pacific in 2016. He is responsible for helping lead the transformation of Pearson’s business in Asia Pacific from print & analog to digital & services, with a focus on delivering value to the learner.

David is a graduate of Macquarie University, MGSM and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is currently a Director of the Copyright Agency and was formerly Chairman of Robert Menzies College, a university residential college at Macquarie University.

Megan Aitken

Educational Consultant: Digital Transformation

Megan is the Director of Hedgerow Consulting and provides digital transformation advice to universities and vocational training colleges. More recently, she was General Manager, TAFE Digital where she became a critical part of the institute’s three-year modernisation program. TAFE Digital, the online arm of TAFE NSW, is Australia’s largest online vocational trainer, offering 250 courses to over 100,000 students. Prior to this, Megan was Head of the Strategic Projects Unit at the University of New England, Armidale, where she managed the university’s Structural Adjustment Programme which aimed to equip the university for an online future. She has over 20 years’ experience in senior management roles in Asia and Australia in financial services, having worked for organisations such as Westpac, UBS Warburg and JPMorgan. Megan holds a Bachelor of Business and Master of Arts from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Dr Stephen Weller

Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Australian Catholic University

Dr Stephen Weller has more than 30 years’ experience in tertiary education across six universities in three states. He holds a PhD in Organisational Justice from Victoria University; a Master of Business Administration from the University of Technology, Sydney; a Master of Commerce, Employment Relations from the University of Western Sydney; and a Bachelor of Arts, Government and Public Administration from the University of Sydney.

Ray Fleming

Asia Pacific Higher Education Strategic Programs Manager, Google Cloud

Ray is responsible for the strategic programs and partnerships across the Asia Pacific region for
Google Cloud, and has spent his entire career working in education technology at Google,
Microsoft, and other technology companies. From working with tertiary education organisations
at global and national level, Ray brings insights into the rapid pace of change being seen as
digital disruption occurs in every industry. An award-winning writer, Ray’s also been a columnist
for Times Education. With both opportunities and challenges apparent as digital transformation
accelerates higher education, Ray’s experience has led to him being invited as a regular
speaker to tertiary leaders at conferences, leadership retreats and workshops.

In 2020 we are offering interested parties a standard or bespoke sponsorship package that will help meet your targets and form valuable connections within the tertiary education sector. Sponsorship offers unique exposure to academic and professional staff representing multiple faculties, graduate schools and administrative departments across a range of tertiary education institutions.

2019 Sponsors

2018 Sponsors

2017 Sponsors

For any enquiries please contact:

Myron Yovannidis | Program Officer
LH Martin Institute | Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education
T: +61 3 8344 2116 E: myron.yovannidis@unimelb.edu.au