The 2018 AAIR Forum Retrospective
Reflecting on the Past | Experiencing the Present | Shaping the Future
Melbourne welcomed the largest number of attendees to an AAIR Forum to-date, with 170 registered delegates this year. Pre-forum special interest group workshops covered Government Reporting, Load Management, and Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing. This coincided with a half-day session for survey managers welcomed by Pam Muth, Executive Director of Education Research and Strategy at the Social Research Centre (SRC) and facilitated by Shane Compton and Lisa Bolton from SRC.
Following a welcome to country that engaged everyone, Tuesday’s keynote presentations signalled the official commencement of the 2018 Forum.
Christine M Keller, Executive Director of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) presented to attendees via satellite from Florida in the US. Christine recognised that student success is the common priority for those of us working in institutional research, and that despite the increase in data and technologies that support our work, the human element can never be replaced. Christine encouraged delegates to participate in AIR professional development opportunities offered both online and via events.
Kerri-Lee Krause, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Professor of Higher Education at La Trobe University, was the second keynote speaker. Professor Krause set a clear tone for the Forum itself, acknowledging the need for multitasking, strong qualitative and quantitative skills, and the criticality of placing institutional research at the centre of strategy and planning.
Professor Krause proposed three ‘big ideas’ for delegates:
- Institutional research in an age of disruption;
- Navigating the second curve (see The Second Curve: Thoughts on Reinventing Society by Charles Handy); and
- Is it time to refresh the IR vision in your institution?
Professor Krause’s book recommendations are reviewed on pages 11–12 of the November 2018 AAIR newsletter.
Delegates participated in parallel sessions over Tuesday and Wednesday presented by speakers from just under 20 different higher education institutions and related organisations, including the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the Holmes Institute, and SRC.
Wednesday’s World Café event (think facilitated knowledge sharing meets speed dating) saw around 80 delegates discuss hot topics related to institutional research ranging from, ‘How to engage students to increase participation in surveys?’ and ‘How can universities justify public investment in teaching and research?’ to ‘What is the future of higher education in a global market?’. Kudos to Tania Blanksby and her team from La Trobe University for organising and facilitating this innovative new event introduced to the AAIR Forum.
Wednesday’s keynote presenter James Fazzino, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at La Trobe University and Chairman of Manufacturing Australia, took a different perspective and reminded us of the importance of culture and values, which are ‘the glue that unites an enterprise’. Sharing his learnings from a former business career, James positioned strategy as the ‘what’ and culture/values as the ‘how’.
At the official close of the Forum two awards were presented that perhaps reflect the tone of the event and about placing students at the centre of institutional research.
The Best Presentation award went to:
- Data driven innovation for student success
Professor Jessica Vanderlelie, La Trobe University
The Best New Presenter/s award went to:
- Insights from student experience survey results: The link between students considering withdrawal from their course and actual attrition
Samaneh Rastegari and Elizabeth Hemsley, La Trobe University
Finally, congratulations to Malcolm Rees from Massey University who received the AAIR Institutional Researcher Award.
The AAIR AGM, held during the Forum, acknowledged the significant contributions and farewelled some Committee members, including Andrea Jeffreys (Secretary), David De Bellis (Treasurer), and Kerry Martin and Louise Hargreaves. New Committee members were welcomed and introduced Lisa Bolton (The Social Research Centre) David Carroll (Monash University), Andrew Bradshaw (Macquarie University) and Leone Nurbasari (The Australian National University).
Finally, without AAIR’s wonderful partners and sponsors there would be no forum. So huge thanks to Platinum sponsor eXplorance, Silver sponsor QILT and the SRC, Bronze sponsor Tableau and Silver partner and university supporter, La Trobe University. Our exhibitors this year included Altis Consulting, eXplorance, QILT and Tableau.
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In lieu of gifts for speakers, the AAIR Committee donated to headspace, a national service addressing mental health and supporting young people 12–25 years of age.
Tracy
Editor, The Institutional Researcher
