Hi, I’m Calissa and I’m your Education Officer for 2024.
I am in my fourth year, studying a dual degree in Law and Communications with a major in Digital Media. It’s a weird combo, I know – I still don’t know why I chose it but it’s quite interesting.
I am a lover for all things learning, education and expanding on skills, which is why I applied for the Education Officer position. I am passionate about ensuring that every QUT student has equitable access and support to high quality education on campus. I understand that as university students one of the main things we have in common is a need for valuable and effective teaching. And over the next year I am looking forward to being your advocate on all things learning and education.
My main goals for the year are to improve educational resources across QUT for both online and on campus students. A main area for improvement that I am advocating for is increased faculty support for students. As it currently stands, there are some QUT faculties which do not have scheduled open consultation times available on the QUT website. Additionally, I would love to offer more support to peer tutoring groups so students can collaborate outside of the classroom.
I also want to advocate to amend the late policy at QUT from the 48hr extension period. This extension was valuable when it was first implemented, however its current application is giving no benefits to students as teaching staff are moving due dates forward to encompass the extension period. This is not necessarily the fault of teaching staff, as they are unable to mark during the extension period (due to resubmissions) and have marketing guidelines to meet. Additionally, the timeline lacks in comparison to other universities, with the average in Queensland being 7 days with a 5-10% penalty for each day.
My main goal in this position is to make a positive change in education, the reason why we are at QUT. So, if you have any ideas about possible changes or concerns about education, please feel free to reach out to me at education@qutguild.com
