Dean's Report

Meetings in Canada

My recent trip to Canada for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting was an excellent opportunity to connect with many international education experts. Along with attending various sessions I also presented at a panel of Deans on teacher education and school system performance.

The half-day workshops I participated in throughout the three days included the International Network of Educational Institutes (INEI) group with 11 Deans from around the world and a new organisation called the Global Education Deans’ Forum, led by the University of Kansas, who organised a workshop with 30 Deans. The final workshop was with the Deans of Education from Universitas 21, the global network of 27 research-intensive universities which includes the University of Melbourne. It’s always great to be able to tell the University of Melbourne story and to liaise with other Deans around common issues and problems of practice.

A new MGSE Teaching Workload Taskforce has been established to examine the current workload model and its impact on staff and students. The Taskforce members are Associate Dean (Staffing) David Gurr, Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) Larissa McLean Davies, Associate Dean (Research) Jan van Driel and MGSE Executive Director Keryn Negri. The Taskforce will ensure there are opportunities for staff to have direct input into the review and the report and recommendations will be delivered to the MGSE Executive by 30 June. The Terms of Reference for the Taskforce are available now.