NEWS
Professional Development Committee Update Cameron Bestwick APSAA PD Committee Chair; Manager, Student Accommodation, University of Melbourne
I
t is hard to believe half the calendar year is already gone! Time has flown inside the committee as it undoubtedly has for members carrying out day-to-day work in their respective residences. Since the March issue we were able to celebrate a wonderful milestone: we saw the resumption of face-to-face professional development! The first such opportunities were state events held in Queensland and Victoria in May. In Victoria, members recently gathered at Dwell Village Melbourne City to hear from Study Melbourne, within Global Victoria, about international student arrival data as well as its plans for trade promotion in international education. Members also enjoyed discussion groups and valuable networking time. With so many updates for one another it was clear that members were able to enjoy all-time high levels of interaction, networking and value. In the online space, our webinar series has continued to evolve by taking on more interesting and challenging topics (often at the suggestion of members – our thanks for these). Building on the success of our Student Voice panel last year, our most recent webinar was also
10 www.apsaa.org.au
a student panel but focusing on the needs and experiences of First in Family (FiF) students. People often point to higher education as a great ‘equaliser’ in our society, but if FIF students are not supported to succeed, then higher education will unfortunately do the opposite. To have held an insightful panel on this topic was a true pleasure and a marker of the growing maturity of our profession. We would also like to thank the student panellists for their openness. Looking forward, we can expect pastoral care to remain a theme over the short term. Many residents of our communities are in their first year of study and, not only are they (on average) less prepared for university life than generations past, but they are not benefitting from the stabilising presence of older peers as much. The next webinar focus on supporting younger students, and further PD activities will address opportunities to improve the overall climate of inclusion and sexual safety in student residences. And finally of course the annual conference will be held soon, and it will surely resume its former place as our richest source of professional development. On the committee, we
are anticipating that the learning opportunities available at the conference will be the best ever. This might seem like a bold claim, but having witnessed the blistering pace of on-the-job learning by members for the past years, and noting the build-up of backlog member presentations from the previous two deferrals of the conference date, we are confident this will be the case. If you are interested in attending the conference, the best things you could be doing now is making a case to your supervisor to attend, or sharpening your member presentation proposal. With some regret, I will sign off from this PD Committee update for the last time. I have recently concluded my term as a Director on the APSAA board, and I will hand over the Chair of this committee this month, to allow myself to take advantage of a new PD opportunity outside of the sector. I will remain an enthusiastic supporter of APSAA’s outstanding efforts to support and develop our profession; I would like to thank all my colleagues from the past three committees for teaching me so much through their amazing contributions; and I wish the new committee the very best for the future.