VICE-CHANCELLOR’S LEARNING AND TEACHING STUDENT-NOMINATED AWARD - recognises teachers who have been nominated by their own students as excellent teachers who have made a difference in their learning.

Dr Jennifer Lai – Department of Marketing

Jennifer currently teaches MKTG2002 Marketing Research.

Jennifer looks back on the year that was and why she thinks she made such an impact on her students “Year 2020 is a challenging year especially for students. I made a deliberate effort to project my positivity and enjoyment of the subject and motivated my students by building a genuine student-teacher connection and offering my wholehearted support. Outside class, I established a rigorous support mechanism which offered students extra assistance; be responsive to their emails, utilise the iLearn Discussion Forum, offer extra after-hours consultations via Zoom and be empathetic of students’ situations. My passion for teaching enables me to transform students’ learning experiences and be an even bigger part of their study journey.”

Nandini Kumar – Department of Accounting & Corporate Governance

Nandini currently teaches ACCG3001 Organisational Planning and Control, ACCG8121 Managerial Accounting and ACCG 2000 Management Accounting.

Nandini reflects on why she thinks students nominated her “I strive to win hearts and minds by reaching out to them in a variety of fun and interesting ways. Once engaged, all I do is keep their needs in the forefront and support them in their educational journey. Once fun replaces fear, the student is on a path of continuous self-directed learning and there is no stopping them!”

VICE-CHANCELLOR’S LEARNING AND TEACHING SESSIONAL STAFF AWARD - recognises sessional/casual staff for their commitment to student learning and effective teaching approaches.

Leeanne Mendonca DeMello - Department of Actuarial Studies and Business Analytics, Applied Finance and Economics

Leeanne teaches ACST1001 Finance 1A, AFIN2053 Financial Management, AFIN1002 Finance 1B and ECON110 Macroeconomic Principles.

Leeanne talks about her passion for teaching “Being able to relate to the students, creating a comfortable learning environment and above all being approachable and enthusiastic, have helped me achieve student engagement in my face to face and online delivery. My passion for teaching stems from my satisfaction when students leave each tutorial feeling empowered and confident to return with an ‘I-can-do-it!’ attitude.”

VICE-CHANCELLOR’S AWARD FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARD - recognises staff for their excellence in teaching and support of learning, and the impact they have on motivating and inspiring students to learn.

Associate Professor Erik Lundmark – Department of Management

Erik teaches MGMT8012 Managing Strategically and MGMT3011 Entrepreneurship Project.

Erik talks about how he creates a good learning environment for his students “I look to fuse theory and practice in a way that becomes relatable to students. I try to inspire students by being passionate about what I do and by challenging students with intriguing problems and exercises. I think that it is important to keep in mind that learning is something students do; it can never be done to them.”

Dr Eric Knight (Executive Dean, Macquarie Business School) was proud to see our MQBS academics being recognised in such a prestigious way “These four academics reflects the quality and strength of our teaching staff within MQBS. This year our teaching staff have had to step up and adapt like never before, and these awards recognise those academics that not only had to deliver their teaching in a new way but ensured that they continued to support, engage, inspire and motivate our students to learn.”

The Vice-Chancellor's Learning and Teaching Awards acknowledge and celebrate the contributions made by individual teachers, teams and professional staff who make a difference to our students' learning experience and contribute to their ongoing success.

Professor Leonie Tickle (Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching) said “Congratulations to our four outstanding winners of these highly-competitive awards, and to all staff across the School who have shown such creativity, resilience and commitment to students in how they’ve responded to the challenges of 2020.”