Editorial

There were two significant announcements in late May/early June, of which I’ve borrowed the ‘gamechanger’ terminology for this issue of the newsletter: ANU’s New Admissions for 2020 model and Victoria University’s new First Year Model for teaching. This news coincided with the release of the final report from the Australian Higher Education Standards Panel, Improving retention, completion and success in higher education (summary p. 7). With additional funding for bachelor courses linked to performance outcomes from 2020, strategies targeting attrition and student success will become the focus of institutional planning. In this shifting higher education landscape, the recommendations from this report—all agreed on by the current government—will require considered buy-in from various educational stakeholders.

This issue also introduces a periodic update from the Australian Network of University Planners (ANUP), and a brief message from the outgoing Chair, Martin Hanlon (p. 14).

Ahead of the upcoming AAIR SIG Forum in Canberra, we had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Kearns from Altis Consulting. Chris is Altis’s Higher Education Practice Leader and has worked with over 30 universities across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Altis is the Platinum Sponsor for this year’s AAIR SIG Forum, and Chris is a long-time friend of AAIR. We thank Altis and Chris Kearns for their support over the past nine years.