Tertiary Education Management Conference 2018 wrap-up

The Tertiary Education Management Conference doesn’t have the most scintillating name but this week in Perth (despite the surprisingly cold weather!) has been fantastic. I’ve been reminded of many things I love about working in higher education, I have reflected on myself, my career and my values. I have heard a keynote speaker drop the F-word (several times) for the first time in my conference attending experience and I have given a presentation that I think went down ok!

 A university conference that is focussed on Professional staff working in universities is a great idea. The career of an academic and a professional staff member working in academia are vastly different. Broadly speaking we have shared values and goals (high quality learning and research) but a different individual focus for our careers. I have been managed directly by academic staff throughout most of my career. Reporting directly to a PVC, Dean or Provost is interesting and challenging, I get a lot out of those professional relationships, but what I don’t get is career guidance, support for my career development or targeted feedback – not because they don’t care but because they simply don’t have the same career path. Opportunities to immerse myself in learning related to my career development are fantastic.

So an opportunity to be surrounded by professional staff from universities all across Australia and New Zealand is a really cool opportunity. Here are the three reasons I think the TEM Conference is something to put on the calendar for next year:

Sharing ideas – sounds simple but it doesn’t happen as often as it should. Sometimes we are ok at sharing ideas within our university but rarely do we cross organisational lines. Ultimately, we are all working for the success of Universities across Australian and New Zealand. Higher education is the second biggest export in Australia and the recent report commissioned by the Go8 demonstrated how much 8 of our universities add to the economy, $66.4 billion a year. Sure, we compete for students and government research funding but sharing ideas so that we improve the student experience, the physical spaces, collaborating with industry, the well-being of staff, the diversity and inclusion approach and other key aspects, across all universities, is a great thing to be doing.

 Stepping outside the day to day – In my opinion this is a good thing to do this no matter who you are or what you do. Being able to step back for a day or more to reflect on your own professional practice, on the space you work in, how you do what you do, the challenges and successes you are having - it is an excellent use of time. Space enables you to see things differently and at the very least come back to those challenges with more energy.

For me at this conference I have come away with several new ideas and reminders for myself…but that is another blog post all together.

 A lot of Inspiration – the Tertiary Education Management Conference has given me an opportunity to hear from some incredible speakers each time I have attended. In 2015 I listened to Turia Pitt talk about her journey, her powerful mindset that has enabled her to go through something so painful and challenging and be an inspiration, coach and guide to many people trying to achieve goals. This year my highlights came from Amna Karra-Hassan, who spoke about being an Australian Muslim Lebanese woman in Western Sydney in the post September 11 generation. She started the first female AFL team in Western Sydney and some of the biggest battles she had to fight were against the expectations of her own family. Amna’s message is one that resonates with me – stepping outside of my comfort zone is something I was taught to do as a teenager and that is when the best things have happened. Her message to get comfortable being uncomfortable is something we can all do with being reminded of.

 Dr Tracy Westerman must never have time to sleep because she has achieved so much in her career I don’t know how she has fit it all in. Her optimism in the face of the heartbreaking statistics of deaths in custody and suicide rates is inspiring. Hearing about the work of the Indigenous Psychological Services that has trained over 22,000+ clinicians in unique tools and approaches meaning enabling them to reach many thousands more Aboriginal people at risk, was inspirational. The WA Australian of the year said her message is “there is nothing we can’t achieve as Aboriginal people if we believe in ourselves”. It was a powerful talk from a powerful, positive woman

I leave the conference with ideas, new contacts and more energy for what I do. I am already looking forward to next year.