Belinda Fischer awarded the Universitas 21 Scholarship for professional staff

Belinda Fischer, a Team Leader in Service Delivery (Course Planning) in Student and Scholarly Services, has been awarded the Universitas 21 Scholarship for professional staff. The Scholarship will enable Ms Fischer to further work on enhancing the Academic Progress process at the University of Melbourne and to explore how peer universities streamline effective Academic Progress processes.

Ms Fischer will visit three Universitas 21 institutions - University of Maryland, McMaster University and the University of Auckland, alongside an exchange partner - the University of Pennsylvania, to learn how they manage Academic Progress and provide support to students to academically succeed.

The goal is to uncover the benefits and challenges of their streamlined approaches, which could inform optimising the process at the University of Melbourne. This aligns with the upcoming policy review and the Student Services Transformation Project aimed at operationalising the University's Advancing Students and Education strategy.

The U21 Scholarship for professional staff recognises outstanding performance, provides development opportunities for the recipient and benefits the University through the advancement of its administrative and management practices. The professional scholarship's key objective is to enable professional staff to develop their expertise, pass on their learnings, and strengthen links with other U21 institutions.