ADCET Webinar: Are inherent requirements a barrier to diversity?
Universities increasingly extol the vision for a diverse student body, reflective of the society in which we live. Yet the current regulatory accrediting processes surrounding course entry and enrolment, frequently referred to as inherent requirements (IRs), potentially unnecessarily blocks diverse individuals from their pursuit of study and professional employment.
In this webinar Dr Joanna Tai and Prof Mollie Dollinger presented the findings of their study on the current state of play of IRs across Australian accredited nursing and midwifery courses, in which they interrogated practices and explored how IRs could become an enabler rather than a barrier, through applying a lens of Assessment for Learning (AfL). Through doing so they highlighted the opportunity to create learning experiences for students, educators, and graduate employers to reflect on the contextual and often rapidly changing role requirements of accredited professions. This re-positions the role of universities not as gatekeepers, but as places for purposeful and important discussions on the future of the professional workforce.
Presenters
Dr Joanna Tai is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University. Her research in assessment focuses on inclusion and diversity, feedback literacies, developing evaluative judgement, and student experiences across the university and workplace. She is currently undertaking funded projects on feedback literacy (Australian Research Council) and inclusive assessment (Australian Collaborative Education Network; Council of Australasian University Leaders in Learning and Teaching).
Joanna is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professions Education, and the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction. She has a background in medicine and health professions education.
Professor Mollie Dollinger is the Director of Innovation and the Scholarship of Learning & Teaching (ISOLT) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University, and an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Research and Assessment in Digital Learning at Deakin University. She is nationally recognised for her scholarship and practice focused on improving equity and inclusion for university students.
Mollie's work often draws upon participatory co-design methods, including students as partners, which embed the lived experiences of students to generate new ideas and solutions. Mollie’s achievements include leading the creation of two university-wide students as partners programs at La Trobe and Deakin University.
(August 2024)
ADCET is hosted by the University of Tasmania