
Teaching Development Grant recipients
News 27 SeptemberCongratulations to the five innovative projects, selected as the recipients of funding through the ACU Teaching Development Grant scheme.
07 June 2023
Share
Within the demanding context of academia, building a relationship with a mentor provides the opportunity to invest in your career trajectory mindfully and deliberately, especially in relation to research.
Mentoring does not adopt the deficit model, that a mentee is lacking and needs direction of a mentor to improve. Instead, mentoring involves building a collaborative space where the mentor is a sounding board for future planning and problem solving, focused on research and career development of the mentee.
In 2022, the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) ran a series of pilot research mentoring programs based on this collaborative model. We sought Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to match participants with a mentor from a different discipline, one academic step higher than themselves. Participants also had to provide mentoring to one or two academics a step below (also in a different discipline).
The 38 FHS early career researchers (ECRs) who self-selected to participate were invited in the EOI process to respond to the two questions outlined below. Each discipline in the FHS was represented by at least one ECR, with most belonging to Nursing (N=7).
How would you describe the research landscape at ACU?
Some ECRs described ACU as undergoing a rapid change in research strategy, with 'traditional' strategies such as focusing on citations and ‘publish or perish’ mentality no longer being the focus. Others described a feeling of change and excitement in research involving new opportunities, external collaborations, and an increasing focus on real-world problem-solving and impact. Many ECRs described using existing Honours and Masters research supervision to drive their research interests. Most ECRs described building a mentoring relationship with an ACU staff member by chance or building on a former supervisor relationship, such as PhD supervision, however for those who had not organically found a research mentor, they felt this was a gap in support.
What advice would you give a more junior research academic at ACU?
Practical advice included:
FHS is currently implementing a roll-out of the program in 2023 based on learnings from the pilot. No workload allocation is linked with participation in the pilot scheme. Each mentee-mentor pair is recommended to meet quarterly for up to an hour and contact the program coordinator to manage challenges as they arise.
The core challenges FHS ECRs identified to be targeted by research mentorship included balancing teaching and research workloads, identifying more senior staff both internally and externally who could provide support and coaching for grant writing, and finding time to devote to quality research.
Dr Madeleine Fraser is part of the ECR Advisory Group and was the FHS Research Mentoring Coordinator in 2022. She is working to handover the roll to Matt Penfold, Faculty Research Manager, in 2023.
We would love to share more ideas and opportunities for mentoring via the ECR Teams forum. In addition, the Research and Enterprise Updates Workplace group is a great place to connect with colleagues and upcoming opportunities.
Congratulations to the five innovative projects, selected as the recipients of funding through the ACU Teaching Development Grant scheme.
Register to attend the webinar this Thursday 28 September at 9.30am. ‘Supporting First Nations Students During the Referendum’ discusses approaches to address the implications of the upcoming referend...
Join the Faculty of Education and Arts on Wednesday 25 October for a panel debate on advancing regional, rural and remote education.
Share your innovative learning and teaching insights and connect with your peers by submitting an abstract for the annual CEI Campus Showcase Series. Abstract submissions close 9 October.
The Staff Bulletin will be published on Thursday next week due to the public holidays taking place in Vic, ACT, NSW and Qld.
Cut off dates for the submission of all timesheets and other supporting documentation for salary payments have been brought forward due to the Labour Day public holiday (NSW, ACT and SA) and Kings Bir...
A message from Executive Dean of Education and Arts Professor Mary Ryan: Raising the bar in innovation and evidenced-based learning.
This training will provide essential guidelines for staff in preparation for undertaking the role of a reader and scribe.
Staff can include an additional question in the Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching (SELT) survey for units that are offered in Semester 2 (202360).
Register now for the online ACEN Research Conversation webinar on careers and employability learning in higher education.
It's Equity @ ACU Week. Join us for events on your campus and don’t miss out on registering for the Equity Symposium.
Join us for events on your campus and register now for the online symposium to explore equity and inclusion within education.
Enrol in the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education before 15 September, to join the eight-week micro-credential starting on 25 September.
Change is challenging and we’re here to support you. A range of resources related to managing change and self-care is now available to support both individuals and leaders.
A message from Interim Provost Professor Meg Stuart: It’s important to be kind to ourselves and to others, and to access more support when needed. I’d like to share some practises with you that I’ve f...
Students now have additional time to express their interest to study the Italian language at our Rome Campus in January 2024 as part of ACU's Summer Teaching Period.
Register for upcoming Turnitin and Academic Misconduct workshops running over the next two weeks. Learn about interpreting originality reports, the AI Detection Tool and reporting allegations of acade...
Join Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Zlatko Skrbis at the upcoming Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Talk at your campus.
Tomorrow, Thursday 14 September, is R U OK? Day, a national day of action to remind everyone to check in regularly and ask friends, family members and colleagues, “Are you OK?” and let them know, “I’m...
Join the Association for Tertiary Education Management (ATEM) at its annual conference in Melbourne this October.
Visit Service Central to access Corporate Services.