Scholarly Impact Beyond Higher Education

Editorial

Introduction

What motivates us educators to work in the higher education sector?

Personally speaking, I owe my progression into academia to my family who encouraged me to pursue my research higher degree studies.  My research was driven by my strong desire to influence best practices and evidence informed policies in the industry.

Transitioning into the higher education sector, I was able to combine my passion to create impact in the industry with my passion to have a positive impact on students by empowering them for life after college with the skill sets of the future workforce.

In higher education, we have the power to develop courses that can make our students competent, relevant and essential when they step into the workforce.

We design assessments that can challenge them and help them connect with their industry and communities.

At the same time, living in a technology driven era, we do not want our students to fear the thought of artificial intelligence (AI) replacing them, but equip them with knowledge and skills, so they learn how to work with AI to leverage their strengths (See our AIED Framework [1]).

Overall, we want our students to be conscious, empathetic and ethical leaders of the present and the future with positive impacts on our communities.

Quality assurance

The quality and reputation of the higher education sector in Australia is maintained by the Higher Education Standards Framework (HESF) that is administered by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA).

In order to demonstrate performance against standards for student learning outcomes, measurable quality indicators are often highly regarded such as achieving high pass, completion and retention rates, student evaluations, and graduate outcomes including high full-time employment rates.

High educational performance outcomes are important quality indicators, but not without its challenges, especially for higher education providers who are committed to providing accessible education for all.

Since the early 20^th century, student evaluations have been used as a metric to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of teaching and student learning in higher education institutions. These evaluations are instrumental to understanding good practices and how we can make improvements to our course design and delivery to promote student learning.

Nevertheless, if you are an academic from a non-English speaking background and, on top of that, a female with an accent, you may have hit a glass ceiling, and increasing body of literature supports similar anecdotal experiences [2, 3].

The make-up of the workforce in service industries (e.g., hospitality, events and sports) has also been rapidly shifting since the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in more demand for casual or part-time workers.

So, why not talk more about the impact we are having on our students, industry and communities through scholarship beyond traditional quality indicators.

What is impact?

Impact can be defined in simple terms as the good or benefits that we can create in the world through our work or research [4].

Impact in the academia can occur through research or scholarly work that contributes to discipline knowledge or improvements to learning and teaching practice.

Impact can also occur outside the academia when the research or activity is translational and extends beyond our microcosm by raising understanding and awareness in the society, having direct or indirect contributions to the economy, conserving the environment, improving health and wellbeing, and informing policy and decision-making processes in the private or public sector to achieve the desired objectives.

Either inside or outside the academia, impact requires empathy, building trust, engagement and long-term relationships with stakeholders.

Therefore, one key ingredient to creating impact is dissemination of scholarship beyond the traditional channels such as academic peer-reviewed journals and conferences.

In support of our vision to be ‘Australia`s leading industry-focused University College’ we are excited to announce the publication of our Scholarly Impact  section of the ICMS website to create and showcase impactful scholarship that benefits our stakeholders, industry and communities (see our Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Framework [5]).

Scholarly Impact aims to:

1. Disseminate ICMS faculty scholarly and research outputs and outcomes to stakeholders and broader community, nationally and internationally,
2. Communicate our scholarly research findings to participants, government agencies and decision makers for evidence informed strategies and policy development, and
3. Promote engagement and impact of scholarly work with end-users beyond academia for translation of scholarship into benefits for stakeholders, industry and community.

Please follow this page for rigorous and thought-provoking scholarly opinion pieces, research notes and articles written by our experts in Tourism, Hospitality and Events, Business and Management, and Information Technology.

For inquiries about publications on Scholarly Impact, please contact Dr Betul Sekendiz, Associate Dean of Scholarship via [email protected].

Dr Betul Sekendiz, Associate Dean (Scholarship)

References:

[1] International College of Management Sydney. (2024). Artificial intelligence in education (AIED) framework. https://policies.icms.edu.au/artificial-intelligence-in-education-aied-framework/

[2] Sigurdardottir, M. S., Rafnsdottir, G. L., Jónsdóttir, A. H., & Kristofersson, D. M. (2023). Student evaluation of teaching: gender bias in a country at the forefront of gender equality. Higher Education Research & Development, 42(4), 954–967. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2087604

[3] Heffernan, T. (2021). Sexism, racism, prejudice, and bias: a literature review and synthesis of research surrounding student evaluations of courses and teaching. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(1), 144–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1888075

[4] Reed, M.S. (2018). The research impact handbook (2nd ed.). Fast Track Impact.

[5] International College of Management Sydney. (2024). Scholarship and scholarly practice framework. https://policies.icms.edu.au/scholarly-practice-framework/].