AAIR’s 2018 SIG Forum and Annual Forum

I am temporarily minding the AAIR President’s Chair while Kathie is taking some leave, and I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you some information about our two major events for the year. If you receive this monthly newsletter you will also have received recent invitations to attend the AAIR SIG Forum and the AAIR Annual Forum. If you are wondering which one to attend – come to both! Not possible? Then let me try to help you decide which one is best for you.

2018 AAIR SIG Forum

The AAIR SIG Forum will be held in Canberra from 26 to 27 July with the theme, ‘Politics, planning and performance: Good governance starts how?’. Good governance is an ever-increasing area of interest, and we obviously cannot avoid some sort of political theme given it is being held in the home of the Federal Government. We definitely expect an array of representatives from the Department of Education and Training, and there will of course be a focus on business intelligence and analytics, data warehousing, load management and government reporting. Visit the 2018 SIG Forum website to find out more.

We are very excited to have Professor Bruce Chapman as the keynote, as well as several very interesting concurrent sessions, and a panel discussion. The concurrent sessions and talks always explore topics in a very practical and applied way. The event is being held at Rydges Capital Hill, Canberra, with the dinner being held in the National Press Club of Australia.

Photo by Social Estate on Unsplash

2018 AAIR Annual Forum

This year the AAIR Annual Forum returns to Melbourne from 19 to 21 November with the theme ‘Reflecting on the past, experiencing the present, shaping the future’. The Annual Forum has a greater focus on the application of institutional research and its role in evidenced-based strategic planning and decision making. Presentations at the Forum particularly focus on both conceptual and empirical studies, as well as practical case studies, to showcase the value of institutional research and its role in driving change. As Institutional Researchers we play a critical role in universities and private providers, and the themes this year invite presenters to reflect on and respond to some of the challenges we face in the constantly changing higher education sector. Visit the 2018 AAIR Annual Forum website at to find out more.

The AAIR Annual Forum program includes a full day of pre-Forum workshops devoted to SIGs, so if business intelligence, data warehousing, load management and government reporting are among your areas of interest and you are unable to make it to the AAIR SIG Forum in July, you can still catch up with fellow SIG colleagues here. Survey Managers have indicated their preference to be part of the AAIR Annual Forum, so we have incorporated the Surveys and Evaluation SIG in the pre-Forum workshops, and this will include a session run by the Social Research Centre who manages the QILT suite of surveys.

Photo by Weyne Yew on Unsplash

AAIR’s 2018 SIG Forum and Annual Forum

2018 AAIR SIG Forum

2018 AAIR Annual Forum

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