About the authors

Robyn Benson is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer (Educational Design) in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University, Australia. She has a background in adult education, distance education and the use of educational technologies in higher education. The focus of her research activities has been on how the learning experiences of students can be improved using practices informed by a range of theoretical perspectives, with particular reference to implications for educational design and academic professional development. She is an Associate Editor of the international peer- reviewed journal, Higher Education Research and Development.

Margaret Heagney, Adjunct Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, Monash University, was National Student Equity Convenor for the Australian Group of Eight Universities and, before that, Coordinator of Student Equity in the Equity and Diversity Centre at Monash University. Her recent research and publications focus on global trends in student equity and widening participation, student retention and equitable selection practices. She is co-editor of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, an international peer- reviewed journal and Australasian Ambassador for the world Congress on Access to Post Secondary Education.

Lesley Hewitt is writing a history of sexual assault service development in Victoria, Australia, for the Victorian Centres Against Sexual Assault (CASA) Forum. She was a lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Monash University for 20 years where her teaching and research interests included human development, ageing, violence against women and social work education.

Glenda Crosling is Professor and Senior Academic Advisor at Sunway University in Malaysia, and Adjunct Associate Professor, Office of Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching, Monash University. She has extensive Australian and international experience in educational quality assurance, improvement and policy development in higher education. She led the institutional audit from which the Monash campus in Malaysia was granted self-accrediting status by the Malaysian Government, and developed the campus course self-accreditation system. Glenda has published widely in scholarly journals and books on quality issues in teaching and learning. Her current research interests include transnational education, student diversity, the assessment of student learning and the development of creative thinking.

Anita Devos is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash University, where she taught in adult and workplace education, and held leadership roles in graduate student administration. Anita continues to research, publish and supervise research students in higher education and related areas. She has published widely on women and mentoring, doctoral education and, more recently, gender, migration and learning. She has a particular interest in the politics of post-secondary education, and the gendered dimensions of education and training reform globally. Anita has served on the editorial boards of leading higher education journals, and has been the recipient of major grants in her area.