Equipping World Ready Graduates: The T-Shaped Student, Work-Integrated Learning, and SoTL as Keys to Success
This exciting TeLEd event will feature Michelle Eady, who is a Professor in the School of Education, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She is one of the leading figures in the SoTL movement and is a Fellow of both the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) and The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL). She holds a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and is a current Fulbright Scholar (2025), the past-president of ISSOTL, and holds an Australian national teaching citation for her work in quality teacher preparation. Her research interests include the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), Work integrated learning (WIL), Indigenous Studies, and current issues in Education.
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Educators, academic leaders, researchers, and administrators, or anyone in higher education (HE) who balances these roles — face a pressing challenge: preparing students to be active, engaged members of society. How often have we heard that our teaching approaches were "ahead of their time"?
Many educators, passionate about student learning, have been pushing for improvements that HE has not been fully ready for, but now urgently needs. Bass and Good (2004) asked 20 years ago whether we could balance subject knowledge with real-world readiness now, in the recent Boyer 2030 Commission (2024) it states, “The equity/excellence imperative (in higher education) demands that we educate for “world readiness.” (p. 11).
In this talk, I argue that the need for this balance in HE, between being a place for deep learning and one for preparing students for the future, has never been more crucial. In a world reshaped by the pandemic, universities must now address not only students’ academic growth but also their development as global citizens.
We are now tasked with supporting students to not only master their disciplines but also gain vital skills like problem-solving, teamwork, personal well-being, and life management. These are cultivated through the thoughtful planning, design, execution, and critical reflection of our work as educators in HE.
A critical factor in this work is that we also take the time to publish our pedagogies and learnings through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) portals. Sharing our important work is vital for others to follow our lead. Let’s explore how those of us who take the less traditional path can make a significant impact on higher education today.
