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This paper considers the emergence and ongoing development of an embedded, studentnegotiated work placement model of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in the engineering and built environment disciplines at an Australian metropolitan university. The characteristics of the model and a continuous improvement strategy are provided. The model is characterised by large student cohorts independently sourcing and negotiating relevant work placements and completing at least one, mandatory credit-bearing WIL unit. Through ongoing analyses and evaluation of the model more experiential and collaborative learning approaches have been adopted. This has included the creation of blended learning spaces using technology. The paper focuses on the five year journey travelled by the teaching team as they embarked on ways to improve curriculum, pedagogy, administrative processes and assessment - effectively relocating much of their interaction with students online. The insights derived from this rich, single case study should be of interest to others considering alternative ways of responding to increasing student enrolments in WIL and the impact of blended learning in this context.

The perennial issues of student engagement, success and retention in higher education continue to attract attention as the salience of teaching and learning funding and performance measures has increased. This paper addresses the question of the responsibility or place of higher education institutions (HEIs) for initiating, planning, managing and evaluating their student engagement, success and retention programs and strategies. An evaluation of the current situation indicates the need for a sophisticated approach to assessing the ability of HEIs to proactively design programs and practices that enhance student engagement. An approach—the Student Engagement Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM)—is proposed and its development, current status, and relationship with and possible use in benchmarking are discussed.

Australian universities now commonly list creativity amongst the generic attributes that graduates are expected to have achieved or demonstrated upon graduation. While this reflects emerging local and global trends to encourage creativity at every educational level, creativity as a generic capability has special difficulties. These include problems of definition, its perceived value, the gap between espoused beliefs and practice, and tensions between standards and accreditation agendas and the desire to embed creative outcomes in the curriculum. Contextual and disciplinary differences also shape the expression of creative teaching and teaching for creativity. This paper explores these issues, acknowledging the role of information and communications technologies in shaping the technology-enhanced learning spaces where creativity may emerge. Csikszentmihalyi’s model of creativity as a system of interactions is presented as a useful foundation for furthering the discourse in this domain, along with the notion of creative ecologies as spaces for effecting change.

This paper explores alternative spaces for learning amongst postgraduate research (PGR) students in the form of research-related groups such as reading and discussion groups, writing groups, seminar series or social groups. Our research with PGR students and academics explores the pedagogy and role of such groups in student learning and identity formation. In this paper, we discuss our findings related to PGR student needs and the factors prompting the formation of research-related groups. A survey of 36 PGR students revealed that students were reasonably satisfied with the formal components of their research degrees such as supervision and mandatory units of study. Yet general dissatisfaction with other opportunities for intellectual engagement, and feelings of isolation, were also prevalent. We hypothesise that though a majority of students might feel supported to complete their higher research degree, they are not necessarily feeling supported in the transition to becoming scholars or in developing broader scholarly interests and networks. As other academic literature has opined, research-related student groups can fulfil a dual function, assisting students towards completion of their research degree but also socialising students into academia. This paper discusses the role that higher education institutions and faculties might play in supporting research-related groups. In particular, there is a balance to be achieved between facilitating groups and enabling sustainability while ensuring that PGR students maintain autonomy and a reciprocal degree of responsibility in governance of such groups, which are key to developing an academic identity.

Music is one of the cultural industries, part of a group of intangible cultural assets whose sustainability is included in the fourth ‘pillar of sustainability’. For students of music, cultural heritage and sustainability form an important component of professional preparation. However, this graduate disposition is not much researched nor well understood. While there is some recent research describing the use of music for cultural sustainability in contemporary Indigenous contexts, there is very little that describes the importance of music for culture in urbanised communities. The idea of ‘creolisation’ – the development of a new culture from combination of traditional ones – is a useful concept for broadening the understanding of music for cultural sustainability. More practically, cultural heritage and sustainability can be explored pedagogically by looking at musical artefacts and performance practices from different cultures and times, and investigating their translation into contemporary professional music practice. Understanding the role of cultural heritage and sustainability as a graduate disposition will enable a productive pedagogical interplay between music pedagogy and students’ contribution to society in their working life.

In transnational education the place – in both an organisational and a geographic sense – in which educational decisions are made impacts on the academics involved and on student learning. The subject of this paper is learning and accreditation that takes place outside a home university through offshore branch campuses. A case study of two Australian Universities with offshore campuses in Sarawak, Malaysia was undertaken. Policies and procedures were reviewed and an empirical study of the experiences of academics involved was conducted. The study focused on who makes decisions about curriculum content, learning and teaching activities, design and provision of educational resources, and the assessment of student work. Consequences of the organisational relationships for academics involved and for student learning are examined in this paper. On the basis of the study a high degree of local control is recommended, at least for units of study that have operated transnationally several times.