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    For close to 40 years, the Financial Review has recognised the achievements of our best and brightest across the economy and the community through several awards initiatives.

    Latest

    New research has examined changes in average grades among students with similar ATAR scores over a decade.

    The winners of the Higher Education Awards

    Meet the winners of the 2024 Higher Education Awards, across eight categories.

    La Trobe’s pioneering model to transform healthcare

    The winner of the industry engagement award used COVID and a pinch of serendipity to create a world-leading virtual medical emergency model in Melbourne.

    • Sylvia Ramsey

    Winning strategy: Setting guardrails for generative AI

    Comment provided by the winner of the Teaching & Learning Excellence category, UNSW.

    • Jake Renzella and Sasha Vassar

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    • Fast 100

    Entries open

    The search is on for Australia’s fastest growing companies! Entries close September 17, 2024.

    • Fast Starters

    Entries open

    The search is on for Australia’s fastest growing young companies! Entries close September 17, 2024.

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    Energy Awards

    October 22, 2024

    Yesterday

    This special paint could save lives from bushfires

    New paint technology developed at UNSW to help fire-proof homes is a joint winner in the Higher Education Awards research commercialisation category.

    • Alexandra Cain
    Professor Margaret Gardner has been awarded the 2024 AFR Lifetime Achievement Award.

    Meet the economist turned accidental uni vice chancellor

    Professor Margaret Gardner, the only vice chancellor to become a state governor, has been awarded this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

    • Julie Hare

    ‘They do it tough’: Universities welcome disadvantaged Australians

    Bridging courses pave the way to university for students without high-school qualifications, and the Equity winner has been doing it for decades.

    • Sian Powell
    Swinburne University students on the job - taking part in Work Integrated Learning.  

    Job-ready skills for the fast-changing workplace

    The joint winners of the employability category embed career experience in study programs to give graduates an edge in the competitive job market.

    • Sian Powell

    The secret to training the next generation of tech whizzes

    From curing maths anxiety to using AI to teach a tricky programming language, these Teaching Excellence winners are producing Australia’s future tech workforce.

    • Tess Bennett
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    a world leader in renewable energy Tianyi Ma and has enjoyed breakthroughs in relation to Hydrogen production and CO2 conversion technologies

    The three words that unite these emerging leaders

    Finalists in the emerging leadership category of the Higher Education Awards are focused on research that has “real-world impact”.

    • Euan Black

    A 50pc improvement: Unis turn the tide on disadvantage

    The winner of the community engagement category is reversing the fortunes of disadvantaged children in a partnership that has lifted HSC results.

    • Agnes King
    Higher Education Award winners RMIT’s Professor Tianyi Ma,  former vice chancellor of Monash University and RMIT Margaret Gardner, and Newcastle University’s vice chancellor Alex Zelinsky.

    In face of disruption, unis offer scalable, powerful solutions

    Universities are being disrupted, but their contribution to society is profound, as the winners of the Higher Education Awards show.

    • Julie Hare

    Winning strategy: Matching students with industry partners

    Comment provided by the joint winners of the Employability award, Monash and Swinburne.

    • Laurence Orlando and Laura-Anne Bull

    Winning strategy: Giving students the best chance of success

    Comment provided by the winner of the equity and access award, University of Newcastle.

    • Anna Bennett

    Unis showcase their work in the community

    Universities continue to invest in public good and community-oriented initiatives, which is a very hard call in difficult times.

    • Sandra Harding
    Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Michael Kassiou.

    Winning strategy: Love hormone research bears multimillion-dollar deal

    Comment provided by the joint winners of the Research Commercialisation award, the University of Sydney and UNSW.

    • Michael Kassiou and Guan Heng Yeoh
    University of Newcastle’s Drew Miller: Improving teaching standards and student outcomes.

    Winning strategy: Remarkable results lifting HSC scores by 50pc

    Comment provided by the winner of the Community Engagement category, the University of Newcastle.

    • Drew Miller
     Professor James Boyd La Trobe.

    Winning strategy: A virtual lifeline for emergency departments

    Comment provided by the winner of the Industry Engagement award, La Trobe University.

    • James Boyd
    Professor Jane Den Hollander, Claire Field, Dr Michael Spence, Professor Brian Schmidt, Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake, Emeritus Professor Sandra Harding

    The judging panel for the 2024 awards

    Here are the judges for the 2024 AFR Higher Education Awards.

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    July

    From left: Gurbaj Pawar, Renee Wootton, Sinead Booth, Chad Burke, Kiria McNamara and Todd Lacey.

    Four traits that stand out among the 2024 BOSS Young Executives

    This year’s BOSS Young Executives have a desire to master the task at hand, collaborate and inspire – and they are tech-savvy.

    • Sally Patten
    For Sinead Booth, a commerce degree was the quickest way to get through university and into the workforce.

    This top exec reveals the secret to having it all

    Sinead Booth is one of the 2024 BOSS Young Executives. She first gained business experience helping with the books as a teenager at her father’s refrigeration business.

    • Sally Patten
    From an early age Chad Burke discovered a love of commerce and fast-moving consumer goods

    How this retail executive found his calling in the school playground

    Chad Burke is one of the 2024 BOSS Young Executives. As a teenager, he had a good business selling chocolates and chips to his fellow students.

    • Sally Patten
    Renee Wootton was unsure if she would be able to complete her degree in aerospace engineering.

    This exec wants more than a CEO role. She wants to be an astronaut

    Renee Wootton is one of the 2024 BOSS Young Executives. She works in the fledgling sustainable aviation sector, but her real goal is to go to the International Space Station.

    • Sally Patten
    Tod Lacey says working as a vacuum salesman taught him “how to connect, and how to sell to people of all different backgrounds and types.”

    From selling vacuum cleaners to running Booking.com in Australia at 33

    Tod Lacey is one of the 2024 BOSS Young Executives. His first proper job was selling vacuum cleaners at a department store in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island.

    • Sally Patten