Over the last twenty years, I have been involved in university research development. After playing a leadership role in building the research profile of the Faculty of Education at Deakin University, I was Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at Deakin in 1991, and Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) then Deputy Vice Chancellor (Operations) at the University of Ballarat in 1996-7. I have assisted many universities in Australia, in Europe, North America and Asia to construct practical strategies for developing research activity, research proposal preparation, research project design and management, improving publication records, and higher degrees by research supervision.
A recent publication (with Don Maconachie), based on work done at the University of Ballarat, is the monograph Strategic Repositioning: Identifying Areas for Future Investment: A Case Study of Rapid Change at the University of Ballarat (Higher Education Division, Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Canberra, May 1998). In August-September 1999, under contract to the University of Western Australia, I prepared Enhancing Diversity in Australian Higher Education: A Discussion Paper (with Simon Marginson, Paige Porter and Fazal Rizvi; Stephen Kemmis Research & Consulting Pty Ltd; http://www.acs.uwa.edu.au/open_discuss/ ). Short articles based on this discussion paper appeared in The Australian Higher Education Supplement in late 1999.
Since 1994, I have worked on a variety of reviews, development projects and other consultancies in over twenty universities in Australia and elsewhere. In the last three years, I have worked with universities including Curtin University of Technology, Griffith University, La Trobe University, Monash University, RMIT University, the University of Ballarat, the University of the Sunshine Coast , The University of Western Australia and Victoria University, (in Australia); the University of Helsinki and the University of Jyvaskyla (in Finland); Sheffield University and the University College of Northampton (in the UK); and the University of Illinois (in the USA).
I have conducted a number of reviews of university research centres – at Curtin University, for example, I was one of two reviewers examining the Research Institute for Cultural Heritage (with Prof. Ann Curthoys, in 2000), the Institute for Research into International Competitiveness (with Prof. Keith Hancock, 2000), and the Australian Telecommunications Research Institute (with Prof. Rob Evans, 2001). I also conducted the independent review of Curtin University’s Office of Research and Development (2001).
I reviewed Postgraduate Diploma of Education program of the Graduate School of Education of the University of Western Australia and was subsequently involved in a two-year project implementing the 99 recommendations of a review of the whole UWA Graduate School, the Postgraduate Coursework Programs of Murdoch University, and the Graduate School of Education of the University of Queensland. I was the consultant facilitator assisting with the joint Murdoch University – University of Western Australia Australian Institute of Education. As mentioned earlier, I also chaired a review of the Aboriginal Centres of the University of Western Australia which recommended the formation of a School of Indigenous Studies at UWA. I have also been involved in reviewing nurse education programs, for example, at La Trobe University in 2000 (with Prof. Beverley Taylor and Ms Philippa de Voil). Partly because of my university and review experience, in 2001 I was commissioned as a consultant to assist the Review of Nurse Education being conducted by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training in 2001-2.