Award-winning teaching at UQ

UQ Business School’s Dr Marie Kavanagh will be recognised nationally when the 2006 Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning are announced today.

The awards are made by the Carrick Institute, which was launched in 2004 as the Australian Government’s focus for the enhancement of learning and teaching in Australian higher education.

Dr Kavanagh said the award recognised her work to support new students as they make the transition from school to university.

“We know from the research and our own experience as lecturers that the transition to university is a difficult one for many new undergraduate students,” Dr Kavanagh said.

“The programs we’ve developed aim to engage new students when they arrive on campus but we also work with schools to build links with potential students before they get here.”

“On campus we’ve been running Peer Assisted Study Sessions – PASS for short – since 1999 and Mentoring in Class since 2003."

The PASS program is led by second and third year students who are trained and paid to run the weekly one-hour sessions.

Dr Kavanagh said the Mentoring in Class program identified voluntary mentors who were prepared to spend around four hours per week working with tutors in the first year accounting course.

Other universities in Australia and overseas have expressed interested in developing similar programs. In September, Dr Kavanagh will present a paper on the mentoring program at the British Academy of Management Conference in Belfast, Ireland.

Dr Kavanagh said it was important for the regional campus at Ipswich to engage with local schools to "bridge the gap" between school and university.

“Some of our students might be the first in their family to go to university and are often anxious about how they’ll cope,” she said.

In 2005, nine mentors from UQ Business School at both St Lucia and Ipswich worked with around 300 students across eight secondary schools.

“This year we’ve got 17 mentors, most of whom are studying business or commerce,” Dr Kavanagh said.

“UQ’s Teaching and Educational Development Institute helped me set up a website for the program called Peer Place and the UQ Students in the Free Enterprise team also made a significant contribution in coordinating the program.”

Dr Kavanagh teaches financial and managerial accounting. She researches the areas of accounting education and organisational change management. Her consultancy activities include providing business planning advices to small to medium businesses and working with various organisations to develop financial management and leadership skills.

For more information, contact Cathy Stacey on (07) 3365 6179 or 0434 074 372.