Two-Nation VU Academic Team Receive Carrick Award
A senior lecturer with the Victoria University (VU) Bachelor of Business twinning programme at Sunway University College, Ms Greeja De Silva and her VU counterparts in Australia, Ms Fiona Henderson and Mr. Alan McWilliams, have won a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning awarded by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Australia. This was the first time a VU Sunway lecturer has been in a team that won a Carrick award.
Alan McWilliams, Unit of Study Coordinator of the Faculty of Business and Law and Fiona Henderson, Lecturer, Student Learning Unit at VU College, both in VU, Melbourne, had collaborated with Greeja. The project showed excellence in curriculum redesign to support students’ diverse learning needs both in Australia and offshore in Malaysia and leadership in the development of a teaching team to achieve this. Offshore VU programmes are available in 9 countries worldwide in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand, Vietnam and Bangladesh and of course at Sunway in Malaysia.
“The award was also given in recognition of actual good practice of the processes as well as outcomes. Even though there was a commencement point in 2002, the cycle of plan, do, review and improve has to continue” said Fiona Henderson.
“The difficulties with time zones, imperfect communication technologies, student differences and different teaching methods, notwithstanding, there were improved learning outcomes for students which are culturally and nationally sensitive” added Fiona.
Greeja had facilitated the project on the Kuala Lumpur side by coordinating access to students and provided insider expertise to the teaching and learning conditions here. She has been with the VU programme since she joined Sunway in February 1999. Greeja is the principal lecturer and tutor for the Management and Organisational Behaviour, a first year core subject in the VU business programme at Sunway.
Mrs Lim Tiew Ming, Head of the VU programme at Sunway, said “The Carrick Award was in recognition of the untiring efforts of the team who have consistently worked at enhancing the quality of teaching and learning outcomes” She added “Furthermore, it also reflects the close collaborative ties between the Sunway lecturers and their Melbourne counterparts”.
Professor Elizabeth Harman, Vice-Chancellor and President of VU Australia congratulated all the seven VU academic staff who received the Citation awards. Four others, Dr Colin Hocking, Dr Hao Shi, Ms Jane Madden and Ms Joanne Tyler from VU Australia had received it for excellence in their own respective fields. Professor Harman said “The innovative approaches to effective student learning have been nationally recognised in Australia through the winning of these Citations. I am pleased to see that the Citation winners were also recipients of my Vice Chancellor awards in 2006 indicating that our encouragement of recognition of quality teaching and learning at VU is also recognized at this national level”.
The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education which started in August 2004 is named after Sir John Carrick KCMG who served as the Commonwealth Minister for Education in Australia between 1975 and 1979. The Institute’s mission is to promote and advance learning and teaching in Australian higher education.
The Citation award included a prize money of AUD10,000 which was shared among the team members. The award was presented during a ceremony at Federation Square in Melbourne recently. As Greeja was unable to attend, her award was collected on her behalf by Fiona Henderson and Alan McWilliams.
Leave a Response