No abstract

Dietetics educators are motivated to shape and enhance the future profession. However, they face numerous challenges in their efforts to prepare graduates who are well-equipped for increasingly diverse dietetics practice. Strong leadership, academic collaboration and greater engagement of the broader workforce are required for the benefit of the entire profession.

In an era of increasing scrutiny of the performance of graduates in the workplace, there can be frustrations when decisions about learners with borderline or poor performance in formal assessments are over-turned in appeal processes. This article addresses the approach to reducing the uncertainty about assessment decisions and surviving appeals.

Within higher education literature, assessment and graduate employability are linked and copresented, in that quality student assessment is purported to enhance employability. This research was designed to query the extent to which these same conceptual links are perceived by those actively involved in higher education. Four stakeholder groups from multiple disciplines and eight Australian states and territories (students, alumni, educators and employers) were interviewed about graduate employability (n=127). Interviewers intentionally omitted any mention of assessment to determine whether the various stakeholders would bring-it-up themselves when asked questions such as what is and is not effective for nurturing employability. The results indicated that among the educators, assessment emerged as a dominant theme. While the three other stakeholder groups infrequently used the term assessment, they did discuss related educational concepts and practices in the context of enhanced employability. All stakeholder groups identified a missing link between theory and practice, with educators specifying that link as assessment. Recommendations to improve employability through assessment are the key takeaways from this research.

Sessional staff is increasingly involved in teaching at universities, playing a pivotal role in bridging the gap between theory and practice for students, especially in the health professions, including pharmacy. Although sessional staff numbers have increased substantially in recent years, limited attention has been paid to the quality of teaching and learning provided by this group. This review will discuss the training and support of sessional staff, with a focus on Australian universities, including the reasons for and potential benefits of training, and structure and content of training programs. Although sessional staff views these programs as valuable, there is a lack of in-depth evaluations of the outcomes of the programs for sessional staff, students and the university. Quality assurance of such programs is only guaranteed, however, if these evaluations extend to the impact of this training and support on student learning.