The Higher Education Standards Panel membership

Professor Helen Bartlett (Acting Chair)

Vice-Chancellor and President, University of the Sunshine Coast

Professor Helen Bartlett is an experienced leader and passionate advocate for regional education.

As Vice-Chancellor and President of USC, Professor Bartlett is leading the university during a time of unprecedented growth and expansion across the South-East Queensland corridor – a period that is expected to bring a wealth of opportunities for the university to increase its impact and engagement across the region.

Prior to starting as USC’s third Vice-Chancellor and President in August 2020, Professor Bartlett led a period of transformation at Federation University Australia, enhancing its profile as a multi-campus institution, its innovative approach to regional higher education and focus on responding to the needs of its communities.

During Professor Bartlett’s time as Vice-Chancellor and President of Federation University from 2017 to 2020, she was also Chair of the Regional Universities Network – a role in which she was able to use her experience to successfully advocate for regional universities when it came to issues of funding, research and policy development. Professor Bartlett was also Chair of the Victorian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee in the year prior to her move to Queensland and worked closely with the Victorian Government as universities shaped their response to the COVID-91 pandemic.

She is passionate about the role regional universities play in helping shape communities and enhancing economic, social and environmental outcomes through education, research and community engagement.

On the international stage, Professor Bartlett has held leadership roles in universities across Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Malaysia – where she was President and Chief Executive of Monash University Malaysia from 2013 to 2017.

Professor Bartlett’s diverse experience and expertise are sought after when it comes to higher education policy and development, having contributed to several key advisory bodies such as the Higher Education Standards Panel, the Australian Government Council for International Education, and the National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund Working Group.

Professor Paul Harpur OAM

TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland

Professor Paul Harpur is a nationally and internationally acclaimed legal scholar, higher education thought leader, and director.

He is currently an Associate with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and an International Distinguished Fellow with the Burton Blatt Institute, College of Law, Syracuse University, New York. He has previously held an academic fellowship with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and visiting positions with the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, Institute for Lifecourse and Society, National University of Ireland, Galway and with the Burton Blatt Institute, College of Law, Syracuse University, New York.

Professor Harpur is a thought leader on higher education and inclusion.  He is a former Fulbrighter, having been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Future Scholarship entitled "Universally Designed for Whom? Disability, the Law and Practice of Expanding the "Normal User"".  In 2021 Professor Harpur was awarded a 4-year Future Fellowship, commencing in 2022, with the Australian Research Council. Professor Harpur is using his Future Fellowship to support the higher education sector to become champions of disability inclusion.

Professor Harpur is involved in higher education reforms, serving during 2023 on the Federal Education Minister's Universities Accord Ministerial Reference Group.

Professor Harpur chairs the University of Queensland's Disability Inclusion Group, which supports the university in its implementation of the UQ Disability Action Plan. He also sits on the Academic Board, the University Senate's sub-committee focusing on inclusion, and on the Senate Committee for Equity Diversity and Inclusion.

Professor Harpur has published monographs with Cambridge University Press. His monograph, Discrimination, Copyright and Equality: Opening the E-Book for the Print Disabled’ (2017), analyses the interaction between anti-discrimination and copyright laws, and his Ableism at Work, Disablement and Hierarchies of Impairment (2019) analyses disability inequalities at work in several jurisdictions. Professor Harpur has also led a range of projects, including an International Labour Organization project assessing labour rights in the South Pacific, including a particular focus on the rights of persons with disabilities.

In the 2024 Australia Day Honours, Professor Harpur was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia by the Governor General of Australia (OAM). The citation for his OAM is “for service to people with disability”.

Professor Harpur aims to create a world which is more inclusive for all. He advances his vision through advancing human rights and helping universities become disability champions of change.

Professor Kelsey Hegarty

Academic general practitioner, Chair Family Violence Prevention, University of Melbourne

Professor Kelsey Hegarty’s research includes the evidence base for interventions to prevent violence against women; educational and complex interventions around identification of domestic and family violence in health settings and early intervention with men, women and children exposed to abuse. Interventions are delivered through health care and through the use of new technologies. She has developed a measure of domestic violence the Composite Abuse Scale, validated multidimensional measure of partner abuse. It has been used extensively globally and is available in 10 languages. She has co-edited a book on Intimate partner abuse for health professionals and is on two Cochrane systematic reviews of screening and advocacy interventions for domestic violence. She led the development of Royal Australian College of General Practice White Book on Abuse and Violence and a GP learning module. She has developed an innovative domestic violence curriculum for health practitioners and she regularly teaches domestic violence and mental health issues to undergraduates and postgraduate medical and nursing practitioners.

Providing regular expert advice to the World Health Organisation, Professor Hegarty is also Director of the Postgraduate Primary Care Nursing Course in the Department of General Practice at The University of Melbourne. She works in general practice 1 session per week.

Professor Jacqueline Lo

Director, Indo-Pacific Research Centre, Murdoch University

Professor Jacqueline Lo is Director of the Indo-Pacific Research at Murdoch University. She is also Honorary Professor at the Australian National University. An internationally recognised Humanities scholar and pioneer of Asian Australian Studies, her work on multiculturalism, diaspora and cross-cultural studies has influenced academic and policy sectors in Europe, Asia and the USA.

Professor Lo is a highly experienced academic leader in management, academic governance, and research strategy. She has particular expertise in stakeholder engagement, international partnership development and academic diplomacy.

Professor Lo is the Founding Chair of the Asian Australian Studies Research Network (AASRN), Chair of the Asian Australian Studies series with ANU Press and serves on the ANU Press Social Science Board. She is also Non-Executive Director of the Centre for International Trade and Investment (ACITI). She was awarded the Chevalier Ordre des Palmes Académiques/Knight of the Academic Palms by the French Government in 2014.

Professor Lo was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) of the University of Adelaide (2020-2022) where she led the development of its international strategy. Prior to this, she had a long and successful career at the ANU beginning in 1997 as a lecturer in the English department and culminating in leadership roles including Chair of Academic Board (2016-2019), Associate Dean (International) for ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences and Executive Director of the Centre for European Studies (co-funded by the European Commission). Professor Lo has held research fellowships at the Free University of Berlin, University of Cologne, Konstanz University, NYU and UCLA.

Professor Susan Page

Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Education, Western Sydney University

Professor Susan Page is an Aboriginal Australian academic whose research focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experience of learning and academic work in higher education and student learning in Indigenous Studies.

Professor Page has held several leadership positions including Director of Indigenous Learning and Teaching at Western Sydney University, Associate Dean Indigenous Leadership and Engagement and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges (University of Technology Sydney, UTS), Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies (Macquarie University) and she has led a university-wide Indigenous graduate attribute project. Professor Page has been Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Education at Western Sydney University since September 2023.

Professor Page has collaborated on multiple competitive research grants and has published extensively in Indigenous Higher Education, work which has been recognised by several best paper awards. She has a record of innovation and scholarship in Learning and Teaching and has received a national award for Excellence in Teaching (Neville Bonner Award 2018), as well as two university teaching excellence awards early in her career (University of Sydney). Professor Page co-edited a special edition of the journal Higher Education Research and Development, Ō tātou reo, Na domoda, Kuruwilang birad: Indigenous voices in higher education.

Professor Page has held several national committee roles, including elected Director of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium (2015-2018), appointed member of the Advance HE Australasian Strategic Advisory Board and appointed Indigenous representative for the Universities Australia Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic committee. She was the inaugural (2020-2023) Network of Associate and Deputy Deans Indigenous Special Interest Group leader (Australasian Council of Deans of Arts and Social Sciences and Humanities, DASSH).

Professor Philippa (Pip) Pattison AO

Emeritus Professor, University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne.

A quantitative psychologist by background, Professor Pattison began her academic career at the University of Melbourne and has previously served as president of Melbourne's Academic Board from 2007-2008, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) from 2009-2011 and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) from 2011-2014.

Professor Pattison was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University in Sydney in June 2014. As Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), Professor Pattison led the University's educational strategy, with a major focus on transformation of the undergraduate curriculum, the student experience and new approaches to postgraduate education and microcredentials. She retired from the University of Sydney at the end of 2021.

The primary focus of Professor Pattison's research has been the development and application of mathematical and statistical models for social networks and network processes. Applications have included the transmission of infectious diseases, the evolution of the biotechnology industry in Australia, and community recovery following the 2009 Victorian bushfires.
 
Professor Pattison was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1995
and of the Royal Society of NSW in 2017. She became an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015 for distinguished service to higher education, particularly through contributions to the study of social network modelling, analysis and theory, and to university leadership and administration.

Professor Pattison is currently an Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney.

Associate Professor Jeannie Rea

Head of Community Programs and Chair of the Quality Teaching and Learning Committee of Academic Board, Victoria University

Associate Professor Jeannie Rea is currently Head of Community Programs and Chair of the Quality Teaching and Learning Committee of Academic Board at Victoria University, Melbourne. Her current teaching is principally in community development focussing upon advocacy and action for progressive social change and environmental justice.

In 2023 Associate Professor Rea undertook the development of a Roadmap for TAFE South Australia. The comprehensive report was released in full by the South Australian Government in early August adopting the six Goals. The Roadmap frames the development of the TAFESA Strategic Plan for the next decade.

Associate Professor Rea has been a professional educator and advocate in the postsecondary sector for over four decades. Starting her career in TAFE and the Technical Teachers Union of Victoria, she then worked at Victoria University for almost twenty years teaching and researching in gender studies, labour history, environmental science, public relations and public advocacy. She previously held education leadership roles in governance and management at Victoria University including Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development, and Head of the School of Communication and the Arts.

Associate Professor Rea returned to Victoria University in 2019 after completing two terms as National President of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), the industry union for staff working in Higher Education. She also served on the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) national executive. She has contributed expertise in gender analysis, labour unions and higher education locally and globally.

She is a long-term member of the National Youth Employment Body (NYEB) Advisory Board, and amongst other community roles, chairs the board of the Australian Living Peace Museum.

Throughout her life, Associate Professor Rea has worked for access, equity and quality education for all in Australia and internationally.