Griffith U VC Ian O’Connor is the new chair of the Higher Education Standards Panel, replacing Peter Shergold. The HESP advises government on quality and standards.

Other new HESP members are  Kerri-Lee Krause (La Trobe U) , Don Owers  (Council of Private Higher Education)  Adrienne Nieuwenhuis (UniSouth Australia), Sadie Heckenberg (UniSouthernQueensland) and Kent Anderson (UWA). Phil Honeywood (International Education Association of Australia) and Krystal Evans (BioMelbourne Network) continue as members.

In addition to Professor Shergold, outgoing members are ACU VC Greg Craven, former UWA VC and previous HESP chair Alan Robson and Adelaide lawyer Karen Thomas.

Professor O’Connor is widely considered a safe pair of hands in Canberra, cultivating a media profile less low than subterranean, which allows him to complete projects before anybody notices.  He led the government’s working party advising on product development for the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching, which many VCs do not like, but which was released pretty much before they realised what it would accomplish (CMM September 16 2015).

Education Minister Simon Birmingham’s brief for the new panel includes; overviewing provider category standards, working with the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency, “to improve its regulatory approach and considering the effectiveness of credit transfer policies and standards.”