Tas Husain, Faculty Lead, Sessional Staff Engagement works closely with departments in the Macquarie Business School to ensure their sessional staff are supported to deliver teaching excellence.

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Sessional teaching staff – typically employed on a session-by-session basis – are essential to providing a learning experience at Macquarie that is responsive to employer needs and industry advancements. With their abundance of specialist expertise and practical experience, they complement the University’s core academic staff to ensure students are learning from a diverse range of informed perspectives. 

Sessional staff are a vital part of our academy. Having the right development and support structures in place for our sessional staff is vital to supporting their success at Macquarie, says Professor Taryn Jones, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education).

“Teaching excellence is one of the distinctive advantages of a Macquarie education, and great work is being done across all our faculties to support the development of teaching staff, including sessional staff,” she says. “A fantastic example is in the Macquarie Business School, which recently implemented a range of support measures for its sessional staff, reflecting a strong commitment to teaching excellence in the MQBS Education Strategy.”

Earlier this year, the Business School introduced the new service role of Faculty Lead, Sessional Staff Engagement, within the Deputy Dean (Education and Employability) portfolio.  Department of Accounting lecturer Tas Husain assumed this new position in January. Having made the leap from financial trading to teaching herself (How to be a great teacher, This Week October 2018), Ms Husain is perfectly qualified to work in close partnership with the School’s academic departments to ensure that casual and sessional staff are fully equipped to provide exceptional learning experiences for Macquarie students.

Other strategic initiatives are also underway, as Professor Yvonne Breyer, Deputy Dean Education and Employability, explains: “One noteworthy development is the establishment of the Sessional Academic Staff Engagement Subcommittee, which operates under the Faculty Education Committee.

“This committee is dedicated to providing valuable advice, evaluations, reports and recommendations on academic and governance matters concerning sessional academic staff.”

Staff attending a workshop

Macquarie Business School has also introduced a grant scheme to encourage the development of fresh initiatives and frameworks for the engagement and professional development of sessional staff. Under this scheme, sessional and permanent colleagues closely collaborated to develop and facilitate a series of workshops, exploring topics such as effective teaching strategies, approaches to engaging student interactions and new assessment techniques. This initiative has been well received and both sessional and permanent colleagues have appreciated the opportunity to network with their peers from other departments and share their experiences and teaching philosophies during these workshops. Macquarie Business School hopes to further foster such collaborations between their sessional and permanent colleagues in future initiatives.

The School is actively building a community of practice for sessional staff – a central hub for collaboration and knowledge-sharing between educators across all departments, designed to nurture a culture of ongoing improvement and learning. A professional development framework is also in train, ensuring that the School’s future sessional staff will be supported throughout their time at Macquarie.