Professional and Support Staff in Higher Education

This volume, Professional and Support Staff in Higher Education, is focused on the issues and experiences of professional and support staff in higher education. The 29 chapters of this book span a broad range of topic areas, ranging across professional practices and identity, leadership and inclusion in higher education, professional development, and how the current higher education landscape impacts on their work, careers, aspirations and performance. The broad aims of this book are twofold: to contribute to the limited body of knowledge regarding professional and support staff in higher education, and to explore the key issues facing these professionals today through their own contributions.

Professional and support staff are one of the universities’ most valuable assets, as they hold much of the corporate knowledge required to ensure that universities operate efficiently and effectively. The increasing professionalization of university professional staff has impactedon the roles they currently perform, as more professionals now occupy senior executive positions within universities; positions there were previously occupied by senior academics. Similarly, the boundaries between some professional and academic roles have blurred, creating a sub-category; the para-academic staff. Given the contribution professional and support staff make, and the increasing importance of the roles they perform within their institutions and to the society as a whole, it is surprising that their work, impact, careers, and aspirations remain largely unexplored in the literature and research to date. We hope readers find this book useful and insightful, that it enables greater and deeper insight among and between professional staff and their institutions, and that it contributes meaningfully to the growing body of knowledge and scholarship regarding professional and support staff in higher education globally. We also hope that the book assists in raising awareness about the professions that are part of our educational institutions, and the contributions that they make not only to their organisations, but to society as a whole. 

Dr. Carina Bossu
University of Tasmania
Hobart, Australia

Dr. Carina Bossu is a Lecturer in Learning and Teaching at the University of Tasmania. Having graduated from her PhD in 2010, which investigated higher and distance education, in particular policies and staff development practices to support distance educators, Carina’s academic career has been largely devoted to advocating and researching open educational practices (OEP) to enhance learning and teaching in higher and distance education. Prior to UTAS, she was a Research Fellow with Distance Education Hub (DEHub) at the University of New England, Australia. In the past 15 years, Carina has worked in several capacities within higher education in Australia and in Brazil, her home country. In 2013, Routledge Education awarded Carina the New Researcher “One to Watch”, and in 2016 she has been awarded an Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) Fellow for her contribution to research, and learning and teaching in OEP in Australian higher education. Carina’s research interests include professional staff development, higher and distance education, educational change and policy development.

Professor Natalie Brown
University of Tasmania
Hobart, Australia

Professor Natalie Brown is the Director of the Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment, at the University of Tasmania. Prior to this appointment, Natalie held the position of Director of Academic Quality and the Tasmanian Institute of Learning and Teaching at the University of Tasmania. A former teacher of secondary mathematics and science, Natalie’s academic career began with a PhD in Plant Science, and research work in Agricultural Science. She was appointed to the Faculty of Education as a Lecturer in Science Education in 2001 and later became Program Director of the postgraduate Bachelor of Teaching course prior to moving to the central Academic Development Unit in 2008. Throughout this time, Natalie continued to teach in both the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, as well as supervise research higher degree students. Natalie has been the recipient of a number of teaching awards, culminating in a National Teaching Excellence award in 2013. Natalie’s research interests encompass student engagement, professional learning, STEM education, higher education learning, teaching, curriculum and assessment and Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching.