From the Dean of Students

It’s always hard to look back over the past two years and pick out highlights from what has been both an incredibly challenging but also incredibly rewarding year. As I know our amazing student leaders will share stories on the exciting social, sporting, cultural and charitable events we enjoyed, I would like to celebrate the opportunities that many of our students have had for personal and professional development within our busy calendar.

Finding ways to improve themselves is a core driver for many of our students and the need to build leadership and people skills beyond the foundations of a standard university degree is becoming more and more important as the professional world becomes increasingly competitive. It’s been wonderful to see our students engage in some great opportunities. We held our first ‘Employable You’ dinner with guest speaker and College Fellow, Richard Dent, OAM, alongside a panel of young alumni speaking about their experiences of finishing up studies and moving in to the professional workforce. We were able to hear from a diverse range of faculty experience and get an insight in to life after university A series of seminars and webinars was held that targeted employability and professional development skills including goal setting, time management, leading with empathy and design thinking. We also welcomed College Fellow, Kim MacMillan, who spoke to our students about unconscious bias. Kim brought decades of experience in executive leadership roles within engineering and generated great discussion within the College. Our senior students participated in a mock-assessment centre aimed at simulating real world recruitment processes used by major employers. The whole day’s exercise allowed students to practice a professional interview, undertake and understand the purpose behind psychometric and personality testing, participate in an observed group negotiation task and also deliver a short presentation. The experience was supported by College Fellows and alumni who added amazing industry context to the feedback that each student was given to improve their performance at future recruitment opportunities. It’s been a long 2020 and 2021, but I am grateful for the student leaders, Residential Tutors and Senior RAs for continuing to step up and support each other. I look forward to watching the future successes of those who are leaving us and continuing to help those who stay to develop as a change champion and future leader.

James Hardiman

Dean of Students

Senior Common Room, Commencement 2021