Pro Vice-Chancellor Education & Student Experience Portfolio

Welcome to our portfolio

Video message from Professor Rorden Wilkinson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Education & Student Experience

Our portfolio is UNSW Sydney’s education and student experience hub, providing University-wide support and resources to staff and student communities. Our purpose is to provide strategic direction and key services in the pursuit of a world-class student experience and our vision is to be among the very best in Australia and the world.

Our teams collaborate and partner with our UNSW staff and students, as well as through industry leaders, professional bodies and international alliances, to drive our strategic initiatives and priorities focused on exceptional education and student experience.

Our Pillars

We have strategically organised our portfolio into four thematic but interconnected pillars:

Education
Experience
Wellbeing
Educational Innovation

Education

The Education pillar, led by Professor Louise Lutze-Mann, is focused on helping our students achieve the successes they deserve by developing the capacity of our teaching staff to deliver educational excellence, administering and scheduling our curriculum and drawing insights from and engaging with all of our communities.

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Student Success

The Student Success team comprises staff delivering Equitable Learning and Academic Learning support and the strategic English Language Support initiative.

More information can be found below:

Equitable Learning Services

University Preparation Program

UNSW Prep Program

English Language Support initiative

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Academic & Education Focussed Development

The Academic & Education Focussed Development team works to develop the capacity of our teaching staff to deliver educational excellence by providing academic development programs and initiatives and overseeing Education Focussed career pathways to recognise, reward and develop academics who make a vital contribution to the delivery of outstanding outcomes for our students and the broader community.

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Academic Administration and Scheduling

The Academic Administration and Scheduling team administers and schedules the delivery of our curriculum.

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Educational Insights & Engagement

The Educational Insights and Engagement teams are responsible for supporting our data-driven leadership and educational outreach through their delivery and evaluation of student surveys, PVCESE initiatives and central community engagement activities with UNSW Divisions, Faculties, Staff and Students.

Meet the Education pillar Director, Professor Louise Lutze-Mann

Louise Lutze-Mann is the Director of Education within the Portfolio of the PVCESE, where she has oversight of programs that support student success, academic development, curricula support and delivery and educational insights and engagements. Louise is also a Professor in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, where she teaches and conducted research on cancer treatment through drug repurposing. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, and her teaching has been recognized by the receipt of multiple awards, including a National Award for Teaching Excellence.

Experience

The Experience pillar, led by Associate Professor Leanne Piggott, drives the UNSW student experience strategy to ensure every student is able to optimise and personalise their university journey and is supported in achieving their career and life aspirations. Our work is underpinned by the core belief that we exist to serve the needs of our students.

We support students with their transition into and through their university journey; we cultivate students’ personal and professional development to ensure they are well-rounded and wholistically job-ready graduates; and we administer our flagship Co-op program.

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Student Life

The Student Life team supports, engages, and enables our students to succeed. We help connect students to their UNSW community from the point of acceptance, we provide practical support if life becomes challenging, and we take care of compliance needs for our international students.

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Employability

UNSW Employability comprises Work Integrated Learning (WIL), Partner Engagement, Careers, and Co-Curricular (accredited through AHEGS) teams. The mission of UNSW Employability is to enable each student to Discover, Launch, and Grow their graduate futures.

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Co-op

The Co-op team manages our industry-sponsored scholarship program that includes industry placements, professional development and training, mentoring, networking, and financial support. Co-op also offers stand-alone internships for non-Co-op students, and the Co-NNECTIONS program, which supports students from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds to measurably improve successful academic and workforce transition rates.

Meet the Experience pillar Director, Associate Professor Leanne Piggott

Leanne is the Director, Student Experience and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Central at UNSW Sydney. She was previously the Education Director of the Centre for Social Impact at the UNSW Business School. Before joining UNSW, Leanne held a number of senior leadership and management positions at the University of Sydney. Leanne’s decades of higher education experience in program development and teaching include expertise in online learning and WIL. Leanne’s achievements in education and have been recognised locally, nationally, and internationally including an Australian College of Educators’ National Teaching Award. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). Leanne is a graduate of The University of Oxford and The University of Sydney.

Wellbeing

The Wellbeing pillar, led by Neil Morris, supports all facets of student life outside of academic learning, development and career related activities. The teams focus on student health, promoting wellbeing and providing medical and mental health services, enhancing student life and communities through art, music and sport and university accommodation. They also lead engagement with our student societies and our student organisation Arc.

UNSW Health

Health

The Health team comprises of the existing University Health Services and a newly established Psychology & Wellness theme including specialised Wellness Support and Triage teams who joined our registered Clinical Psychologists and Psychologists focussed on delivering a more accessible, tiered and agile mental health service to students. Supporting these teams is the Health Promotions Team tasked with increasing health awareness and providing a supportive environment to thrive personally and professionally.

In 2021, a new UNSW Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy has been launched. To view the strategy and learn more about its implementation click here.

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Culture

Culture comprises elements of the UNSW community that bring people together through creative and cultural endeavours. The Art Unit, Music Performance Unit, and Religious Centre all work with student organisations and programs to make connections across the campus, reaching out into the local community, and forging networks and positive experiences for students, staff, alumni and community partners.

UNSW Sports

Sports

Sport at UNSW encompasses a wide range of physical activity beyond organised competitions and clubs; it includes all forms of exercise, fitness, active recreation and movement. It provides an essential component for students living a healthy life and maintaining positive mental health and wellbeing.

Within the UNSW Sport framework are a number of themes, steered and supported by the 2025 Sports Strategy, with three key objectives 1: Increase participation, drive equity and build campus communities; 2: Support excellence; 3: Strengthen partnerships.

Sport themes include The Elite Athlete Program; Fitness and Aquatic Centre; 40 Community and Student Sport Clubs; Sports fields and facilities on campus and external; Over 30 external sporting partnerships; Alumni engagement; Scholarship programs; and an Active Women Strategy.

Find out more

Accommodation at UNSW

Accommodation

The Accommodation team offers consistent service across UNSW Colleges and Halls, an integral part of the UNSW end-to-end student experience and incubator for long lasting friendships and memories for many UNSW students.

Meet the Wellbeing pillar Director, Neil Morris

Information coming soon.

Educational Innovation

The Educational Innovation pillar, led by Associate Professor Simon McIntyre, drives forward technological innovations that are key to student success in our physical and digital learning environments, and our flagship UNSW Online and short courses programs. Drawing on data insights, AI, and best use of emerging technologies, the teams foster an innovation culture that is helping to reimagine, uncomplicate, and improve the UNSW student experience.

Teaching Spaces

Physical and Digital Learning Environments

The Learning & Digital Environments team delivers on both physical learning spaces and digital learning capabilities, including media and immersive technologies, media and learning management systems and educational technology support.

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Educational Delivery Services

The Educational delivery team supports faculties and division in driving forward educational innovations, building capability and continuously improving the physical and digital learning environments for an enhanced student learning experience.

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Online and short courses

The Online & Short Courses team focusses on the development of fully online postgraduate programs and provides advice on short course and non-award offerings.

Meet the Educational Innovation pillar Director, Associate Professor Simon McIntyre

Simon is the Director, Educational Innovation at UNSW Sydney, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), and a member of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy. He is a multi-award winning educator, passionate about improving the effectiveness, quality and relevance of the student learning experience, and about pedagogically driven use of technology to innovate learning and teaching practices. He takes a design led and data informed approach to the personalisation of learning, appropriate integration and evaluation of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and immersive experiences into a balanced curriculum. Simon is committed to continuing to innovate, uncomplicate, improve, and reimagine the UNSW student experience.

Office

The Office Team, led by Megan Day, provides the essential operational support across all of the teams in our portfolio.

Professor Rorden Wilkinson

is the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education & Student Experience

Professor Wilkinson has a distinguished record of contributions to education, research, and knowledge exchange across the globe. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts.

He has been leading as the PVC Education & Student Experience at UNSW since February 2020 and is the driving force behind our latest strategy enhancement, focused on listening, challenging and supporting. Prior to joining UNSW, Professor Wilkinson was the Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Innovation at the University of Sussex in the UK and had worked for 17 years at the University of Manchester. Having begun his academic career and conducted his doctoral work at the University of Auckland, he has also worked and held visiting positions at Brown University, Wellesley College and the Australian National University.