Governance

The college is obliged to ensure the highest possible quality standards for our students. The Academic Board is the principal academic advisory body for the college and the Academic Board Charter establishes the authority, nature, role, terms of reference, responsibilities and composition of the Academic Board and its Standing Committees.

Think: Colleges Charter of the Academic Board

Member Profiles

Emeritus Professor Adrian Lee - Chairperson

Ph.D. (University of Melbourne), B.Sc. (Hons) (University of Melbourne)

Emeritus Professor Lee is recognised as one of the world’s leading researchers in microbiology having held senior academic positions for over 30 years in Australia, France, Canada and the USA. More recently, Adrian has been dedicated to the development of excellence in teaching and learning within the higher education sector. He was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Quality Improvement) at UNSW for six years (2000-2006) and has been a member of the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (2004-5) and a Senior AUQA Auditor for the past six years. Emeritus Professor Lee will be drawing upon his vast experience to assist driving Think’s vision in providing the new standard in applied education.

Dr Marianne Hulsbosch – Independent Member

Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts and Design Education, Faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney
PhD, Creative Arts (University of Wollongong), MA (Honours) (University of Wollongong), Grad Cert (Merit) Higher Education Studies (University of Sydney), B.Ed (The Netherlands)

Marianne has extensive experience in lecturing in Design, Technology, Textiles and the Visual Arts. Throughout her career she has successfully combined her creative and academic interests, specifically textile design, research in the field of Indonesian textiles, education and administration.

Having completed undergraduate degrees in the Netherlands in education and textile design, Marianne taught in the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand before settling in Australia. She developed and implemented secondary education programs in Design and Technology as well as Visual Arts in the new Bachelor of Education and Master of Teaching degrees and the Master of Contemporary Arts for Educators degree at Sydney College of the Arts.

As well as serving on the International Design and Technology Education Boards in Finland and the Czech Republic, Marianne continues to exhibit in internationally acclaimed exhibitions; this resulted in an advisory role in textiles and fashion design in the award winning 20th Century FOX movie 'Paradise Road' in 1995.

Marianne's doctoral research examined the relationship between dress, adornment and Identity construction.

Dr Sharon Fraser – Independent Member

Senior Lecturer, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, Macquarie University
PhD (University of New England), BSc (University of Sydney), DipEd (University of Tasmania)

Sharon is the Program Director of the (e)Learning and Teaching Development Program at the Centre for Professional Development (CPD), a senior lecturer in the Institute of Higher Education Research and Development (IHERD), Australian Centre for Educational Studies and Academic Coordinator of the Teaching Evaluation for Development Service (TEDS) within CPD at Macquarie University.

She began her academic career as a scientist and after a number of years working in related fields, proceeded into the area of science education research in 1992, a research area which continues to be of interest today. Her more recent research focuses on the nature of innovation and curriculum change in higher education, particularly in relation to professional and organisational development needs. She has a particular interest in curriculum development with regard to the understandings of, implementation and use of innovative education strategies.

Sharon has just completed her thesis for the qualification of Doctor of Science Education through Curtin University (doctorate submitted), researching what it means to be an innovative science teacher in higher education and ways to engage academics in its discourse, practice and dissemination.

She is a published author in the cognate areas of science education, education and herpetology.

Professor Mark Israel – Independent Member

Professor of Law and Criminology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
DPhil (Sociology) Oxon, MA (Law) Cantab, MPhil (Criminology) Cantab, Grad Cert Tertiary Education (Flinders), MEd Studies (Flinders)

Mark came to Flinders University in 1993 where he teaches a range of topics in criminology. He has own several national and international prizes for research and teaching including the Prime Minister's Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year (2004). He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom, an Associate Fellow of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, a ministerial appointee to the South Australia Certificate of Education (SACE) Board, and an Academic Advisor to both the University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong. He is also on the Editorial Boards of several journals including Teaching Sociology, Enhancing Learning in the Social Sciences and the Journal of Academic Ethics.

Further details can be found at: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/law/staff/mark_israel.php

Associate Professor Suzan Burton – Independent Member

Associate Professor Management, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University
PhD Australian Graduate School of Management, MBA Australian Graduate School of Management, BA Unversity of New England, Grad.Dip.App.Sc Cumberland College of Health Science, B.App.Sc Cumberland College of Health Science

Suzan Burton is an Associate Professor of Management at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Australia. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, and has had previous appointments as an adjunct faculty member on MBA programs at the Australian Graduate School of Management and Melbourne Business School. She has undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in health, and an MBA and PhD from the University of NSW.

Dr Burton has extensive consulting experience in the public and private sectors in the design and implementation of marketing strategy, particularly in the area of customer feedback and information systems. Her research interests include customer satisfaction and retention, and customer choice in the area of socially undesirable products. She is the co-author of the top selling marketing textbook in Australia, the co-editor, with Peter Steane, of ‘Surviving your thesis’ and the author of over 50 journal articles and conference papers.

Dr Burton has received teaching awards from Macquarie University (the Macquarie University Award for Teaching Excellence) and from the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy conference (ANZMAC). Her research has been recognised by best paper awards by the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference (twice) and Western Decision Sciences (twice).

Ms Anne Holmes – Academic Staff Representative

Head of College, Billy Blue College of English
BA (French, German, Latin) University of Newcastle, Diploma of Education, University of Newcastle RSA, Dip TEFLA, Cambridge

Anne was educated in Australia, where she taught French, Latin and German before going to England where she founded one of the leading private ELICOS schools. She was invited to join the Recognition Advisory (Accreditation) Committee and the Board of the British Council, and was involved with the development of national education quality standards.

At the same time, Anne became Audit Representative Officer (Accreditation) of FIRST, a group of schools achieving the highest British Council grades.

On behalf of the British Council, she travelled to Beijing and Shanghai as a consultant to the State Education Commission on Quality Control in Language Teaching.

Anne also assisted in founding the Oxford University Examination in English as a Foreign Language, becoming Assistant Chief Examiner.

Mr Matthew Peade – Teaching Staff Representative

Program Director, William Blue College of Hospitality and Tourism
BEd Charles Sturt University, Cert IV TAA, Cert III Commercial Cookery Wollongong TAFE

A qualified experienced chef Matthew has worked in leading restaurants in both Sydney and London. In Sydney Matthew has worked at restaurants such as Restaurant Forty One, Quay, Coast and Manta where he was the head chef for several years. Matthew also travelled to London to join the Conran group where he spent two years at the groups' flagship restaurant Le Pont de la Tour.

With a desire to educate and a keen interest in seeing the next group of hospitality professionals progressing Matthew undertook further studies. He completed his Cert IV TAA along with a Bachelors of Education at Charles Sturt University.

Matthew is in a unique position of having current high quality industry experience, academic experience and qualifications which he is able to combine and deliver vocational training to students which is of the highest quality. Matthew will also undertake a Masters of Education in 2008 at University of New England.

Ms Maddie Doyle – Student Representative

Associate Degree Student, Billy Blue College of Design

Ms Meredith Schaerf – Teaching Staff representative

Program Director Beauty and Spa, Australasian College of Natural Therapies

Dr George Brown – Group Academic Director

Ph.D. (University of Adelaide), M. Ed. Mgmnt. (Flinders University), Grad. Dip. Ed. (University of South Australia), B.Bus. (University of South Australia)

Dr Brown has extensive experience in the private education sector in Australia. He has led academic quality assurance and accreditation projects for higher education and vocational education programs at a number of quality private institutions. Dr Brown’s work has involved the development of a portfolio of new vocational and higher education programs as well as the management of quality assurance processes at offshore campuses, Within the Think: Education Group, Dr Brown manages the group's academic accreditation and quality assurance processes and leads the development of a range of new programs.