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Over the past twelve years, at least sixteen learning and teaching academies have been established across Australia and New Zealand. They sit alongside, and often deliberately apart from, traditional institutional learning and teaching centres. What are they for, how are they built, and what difference do they make?
This webinar shares findings from a national study of these academies, drawing on documentary analysis and interviews with academy leaders. We map their objectives, structures, activities and membership models, and we surface a shared ambition: to shift the standing of teaching academics within university hierarchies and to secure a genuine parity of esteem with research focused colleagues.
Participants will leave with a practical starting kit, including barriers, enablers, success metrics and collected advice from those who have done it.
Associate Professor Sherry Bawa is the Deputy Head of School for the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, at Curtin University. Sherry is also the co-Chair of Curtin Academy and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK).
Previously, Sherry was the Discipline Lead, Economics and the Director, Learning and Teaching. She has more than 20 years of teaching experience in higher education across Australia and India. Sherry serves on various committees and boards at Curtin University, including the Academic Board, the LSEC (Learning and Student Experience Committee) (2024-2026), the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance Advisory Board, the Curtin Academy Advisory Board, and the Economics Discipline Industry Board. Her research interests include supporting equity and diversity in higher education, gender issues, STEM and women, labour economics and policy.
Her research is featured in the World Economic Forum, The Conversation and various Australian media sources and is cited in sources including the Australian Universities Accord Final Report. Her recent publications are in Social Indicators Research, Australian Educational Researcher, Economic Record, and Higher Education Research and Development. She has also delivered multiple national and international funded research projects on Higher Education.
She is an award-winning educator who has recently won the University Teaching Excellence Award 2025, Teacher of the Year Faculty Award 2025, Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, Curtin Excellence and Innovation in Teaching (CEIT) Award 2024, and Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning Faculty Award 2023.
Dr Ben Milbourn is an Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at Curtin University’s School of Allied Health. Trained as an occupational therapist in the United Kingdom, he has worked across the UK, New Zealand and Australia in mental health and disability practice. His academic work focuses on the meaning of everyday activity for people experiencing severe mental illness, alongside broader interests in autism, social inclusion, wellbeing, and community-based research.
Dr. Milbourn is Deputy Director of the Curtin Autism Research Group and is widely recognised for collaborative, co-produced research that works directly with autistic individuals to inform programs and practice. He has secured competitive research funding, published internationally, and presented at major conferences. Work includes strengths-based programs for autistic adolescents that have received national and international awards. He is committed to impactful, community-engaged research that promotes inclusion, strengths, and positive mental health outcomes.
Dr. Milbourn is also co-chair of Curtin Academy, an honorary network of distinguished multi-disciplinary academic leaders who lead teaching excellence.
Professor Rachel Sheffield is Professor of Science Education in the School of Education at Curtin University, where she completed a PhD at Edith Cowan University examining teacher professional learning and holds Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. Her research spans STEM and STEAM education, inquiry and design thinking pedagogies, makerspace and project based learning, teacher professional development, and education for sustainability through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with sustained international engagement across Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, and the wider Asia Pacific. She has led and contributed to major externally funded projects including New Colombo Plan mobility programs, Higher Education Partnership grants with Pacific Adventist University, and Australia India Council and Australia Indonesia Institute grants, and she has been recognised through an Australian Executive Endeavour Fellowship, an Office of Learning and Teaching National Citation, the ISTE STEM Award, and induction into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame.
Alongside an extensive record of books, book chapters, and journal publications, including the edited volume Design thinking for sustainability education (Routledge, 2025), she supervises Higher Degree by Research candidates, has served as Chair of the Curtin Academy, and contributes to the profession through editorial, assessment, and community leadership roles nationally and internationally.