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The winners of the Higher Education Awards
Meet the winners of the 2024 Higher Education Awards, across eight categories.
- Industry Engagement
- AFR Lists
La Trobe’s pioneering model to transform healthcare
The winner of the industry engagement award used COVID and a pinch of serendipity to create a world-leading virtual medical emergency model in Melbourne.
- Sylvia Ramsey
- Analysis
- OpenAI
Winning strategy: Setting guardrails for generative AI
Comment provided by the winner of the Teaching & Learning Excellence category, UNSW.
- Jake Renzella and Sasha Vassar
- Analysis
- Analysis
Winning strategy: A virtual lifeline for emergency departments
Comment provided by the winner of the Industry Engagement award, La Trobe University.
- James Boyd
- Analysis
- Analysis
Winning strategy: Remarkable results lifting HSC scores by 50pc
Comment provided by the winner of the Community Engagement category, the University of Newcastle.
- Drew Miller
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- Emerging Leaders
- Workplace
The three words that unite these emerging leaders
Finalists in the emerging leadership category of the Higher Education Awards are focused on research that has “real-world impact”.
- Euan Black
- Commercialisation
- AFR Reports
This special paint could save lives from bushfires
New paint technology developed at UNSW to help fire-proof homes is a joint winner in the Higher Education Awards research commercialisation category.
- Alexandra Cain
- Lifetime Achievement
- Monash University
Meet the economist turned accidental uni vice chancellor
Professor Margaret Gardner, the only vice chancellor to become a state governor, has been awarded this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
- Julie Hare
- Equity And Access
- University of Newcastle
‘They do it tough’: Universities welcome disadvantaged Australians
Bridging courses pave the way to university for students without high-school qualifications, and the Equity winner has been doing it for decades.
- Sian Powell
- Employability
- AFR Reports
Job-ready skills for the fast-changing workplace
The joint winners of the employability category embed career experience in study programs to give graduates an edge in the competitive job market.
- Sian Powell
- Teaching Excellence
- University of New South Wales
The secret to training the next generation of tech whizzes
From curing maths anxiety to using AI to teach a tricky programming language, these Teaching Excellence winners are producing Australia’s future tech workforce.
- Tess Bennett
- Community Engagement
- AFR Reports
A 50pc improvement: Unis turn the tide on disadvantage
The winner of the community engagement category is reversing the fortunes of disadvantaged children in a partnership that has lifted HSC results.
- Agnes King
In face of disruption, unis offer scalable, powerful solutions
Universities are being disrupted, but their contribution to society is profound, as the winners of the Higher Education Awards show.
- Julie Hare
- Analysis
- Analysis
Winning strategy: Matching students with industry partners
Comment provided by the joint winners of the Employability award, Monash and Swinburne.
- Laurence Orlando and Laura-Anne Bull
- Analysis
- Analysis
Winning strategy: Giving students the best chance of success
Comment provided by the winner of the equity and access award, University of Newcastle.
- Anna Bennett
- Opinion
- Opinion
Unis showcase their work in the community
Universities continue to invest in public good and community-oriented initiatives, which is a very hard call in difficult times.
- Sandra Harding
- Analysis
- Analysis
Winning strategy: Love hormone research bears multimillion-dollar deal
Comment provided by the joint winners of the Research Commercialisation award, the University of Sydney and UNSW.
- Michael Kassiou and Guan Heng Yeoh
- Opinion
- Opinion
The judging panel for the 2024 awards
Here are the judges for the 2024 AFR Higher Education Awards.
August 2023
Outgoing ANU boss predicts greater role for private colleges
A 20-year horizon on higher education will be very different from today, says Brian Schmidt, who revealed his role behind Christopher Pyne’s “fixer” moment.
- Julie Hare
Unscripted: Griffith’s assessment plan to combat cheating
Griffith University’s oral assessment program aims to deter plagiarism and rote learning.
- Sian Powell
- Analysis
- AFR Reports
Winning strategy: Rethinking the path to climate adaptation
Comment contributed by the joint winner of the Emerging Leadership category, Griffith University.
- Johanna Nalau
Winning strategy: Uni of Tasmania makes climate change accessible
Comment provided by the winner of the Community Engagement Award, the University of Tasmania.
- Chloe Lucas
- Analysis
- AFR Reports
Winning strategy: Taking the honeypot away from cybercriminals
Comment provided by the joint winner of the Emerging Leadership award, UNSW.
- Dr Katharine Kemp
- Analysis
- AFR Reports
Winning strategy: Following your passion as a vocation
Comment provided by the winner of the Employability Award at Griffith University,
- Diana Tolmie
- Analysis
- AFR Reports
Winning strategy: Bringing AI to the task of medical imaging
Comment provided by the winner of the Research Commercialisation Award, the University of Sydney.
- Patrick Brennan
