UNIVERSITY NEWS

Professor John Croucher in a class of his own

Macquarie Graduate School of Management’s Professor John Croucher has won the premier university teaching award in Australia – the Prime Minister’s Award for University Teacher of the Year. It is the fifth National Teaching Award for Croucher, who has also received two international awards for his work as a statistician and educator. The award recognises his superior teaching skills, community outreach and research.

A Macquarie graduate himself (and one of Macquarie’s first students), Croucher’s dedication to teaching over the past 35 years in Australia, Singapore, China, the USA and Hong Kong has helped make statistics accessible and relevant to people of all ages and levels of academic achievement. Outside the University, Croucher is actively engaged in national debates within the profession. He has published 24 books and over 120 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings, along with more than 1000 other articles in newspapers and magazines, and has been a regular sports commentator and newspaper columnist.

“My philosophy of teaching is to ensure the learning experience is meaningful, relevant and capable of effective real-world application by linking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in a productive partnership,” he says.

“I am absolutely delighted, humbled and proud [to win the award]. This is a terrific honour. It’s nice to know that people think highly of what you do.”

Reaching out

In 1999, Professor Croucher devised the University’s Gambling, Sport and Medicine course, which remains highly popular with students 15 years later. He was also invited to lecture to the country’s elite athletes and coaches on how statistics may be used to determine optimal strategies at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

More recently, in 2009, Croucher voluntarily established a community outreach program for Indigenous students in Papua New Guinea. where he designed and lectured in a creative pioneer MBA degree. For his achievements, John was made a Visiting Professor and awarded an honorary PhD for his ‘outstanding contribution to the development of humanity’.

Currently, his research helps entrepreneurs, managers and employers to help apply mathematics and statistics to the real world.