First Faculty Day for 2025 Focuses on Scholarship and How it Enriches Educational Excellence

ICMS academic staff kicked off the year with an insightful and collaborative Faculty Day on 31 January at our Northern Beaches Campus.

Academic staff including Deans, Program Managers and Lecturers gathered in the Great Hall for a series of sessions that celebrated academic achievements, looked to the future, and aligned everyone on the same vision for 2025.

A strong focus was on the importance of scholarship as part of our commitment to educational excellence, particularly as ICMS works towards achieving University College status.

By ensuring our learning and teaching approach is dynamic, reflective and evolving, ICMS can deliver exceptional student experiences while also actively shaping the future of education and industry engagement.

The importance of scholarship at ICMS

Professor Heidi Le Sueur, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at ICMS, opened Faculty Day by exploring the relationship between educational excellence and scholarship. She shared with attendees that the two are not separate pursuits – but rather deeply interconnected objectives that amplify our impact as a higher education institution.

“When we bring them together, we create a powerful synergy that transforms not only student learning but also our institutional identity and industry influence,” she said.

“Educational excellence ensures that our programs are industry-relevant, engaging and evidence-based, while scholarship fuels the continuous improvement of these programs through critical reflection, research and innovation in teaching practice.

“Scholarship allows us to challenge assumptions, test new pedagogical approaches, and embed the latest industry insights into our teaching. This ensures that what we deliver remains at the cutting edge of both academia and professional practice.”

This perspective is also echoed by the Deans.

Dr Nicole Hay, Associate Dean of Tourism, Hospitality, and Events, emphasised the crucial role academic staff play in achieving the strategic goals.

She highlighted that teaching staff are not only experts in their fields, but also mentors to students and key drivers of innovation.

Dr Hay encouraged the faculty to take an active role in shaping course development by sharing ideas and offering their unique perspectives.

She stated, “How can you contribute? There are countless ways! Share your industry knowledge and best practices, identify emerging trends and technologies, suggest new tools and resources for students, develop innovative assessment methods, and create opportunities for industry engagement. No idea is too small, and every contribution is valued.”

By combining educational excellence and scholarship, ICMS can work to advance teaching excellence, enhance student outcomes, strengthen industry collaboration, and shape the future of higher education.

Introducing our three scholarship clusters

During Faculty Day, Associate Professor Betul Sekendiz, Associate Dean (Scholarship) , introduced three interdisciplinary scholarship and research clusters that will guide ICMS in 2025 and beyond.

Academic staff were then invited to contribute to discussions about how, through these groups, we can help foster a positive scholarship culture and develop rigorous and impactful scholarly outputs and activities.

Members of each cluster will continue to meet regularly throughout the year to achieve impact goals and develop collaborative projects with the guidance of Scholarship Cluster Leads.

The three scholarship and research clusters are:

1. Higher Education, Leadership, Governance and Policy

Led by Dr Jasen Burgess, ICMS’s Chief Quality Officer, this cluster is dedicated to advancing quality educational outcomes through interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations and evidence-based policy development.

2. Engagement and innovation in Learning and Teaching

Dona Paranawithana, an Aspire Institute teacher, is leading this cluster. Members are committed to transforming educational experiences through a holistic approach that emphasises empowerment, leadership, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion.

3. Industry, Sustainability and Transformative Innovation.

This cluster is being led by Dora Kelaiditis who is the High Performance Subject Lead at ISCA. The aim of this cluster is to enhance workforce skills and capabilities while fostering sustainable, inclusive, and equitable innovations.

Read more about our scholarship and research clusters here.

Academic integrity in an AI world

The Faculty Day also served as a platform for sharing best practices and research outcomes.

On 31 January, three lecturers offered their insights into the vital role that academic staff play in upholding academic integrity at ICMS, particularly as artificial intelligence (AI) tools become more advanced and more accessible.

ICMS Senior Lecturer and recent Scholarship Seed Funding recipient, Dr Richard Carter, presented his research project, Exploring the Relationship Between Attitudes, Beliefs, and Adoption of Generative AI Among Academics in Higher Education. The project aims to investigate how faculty attitudes, confidence levels, and current adoption of generative AI influence its use in teaching and learning.

The outcomes of this study will provide valuable insights for establishing benchmarks and identifying areas where faculty require the most support in adopting generative AI, ultimately helping to enhance student learning.

ICMS Lecturer Paul Krust spoke about strengthening academic integrity through effective student engagement.

His session encouraged teaching staff to think about how they can support their students to minimise misconduct cases, followed by actionable steps to strengthen engagement techniques.

Paul’s presentation was complemented by Senior Lecturer Dr Chengeto Chaderopa who shared how teaching staff can use data analytics to enhance academic integrity and processes.

He uncovered what the statistics say about the key reasons behind academic misconduct, and delved into how assessment design and generative AI tools can affect academic integrity.

How ICMS is already embracing scholarship for educational excellence

Overall, the first Faculty Day for 2025 set a positive tone for the year ahead, leaving academic staff inspired to get involved in scholarly activities that further support educational excellence at ICMS.

Some of scholarship projects that ICMS staff are already actively involved in include investigations into:

· The impact that site excursions have on student learning and experience

· The student experience of using AI for learning

· How to better engage Generation Z in the workplace with an industry focus

· Ways to embed resilience into the student experience

· Online safety risks to athlete welfare in a technology-driven era.