Grants and Fellowships Committee

National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education Grants and Fellowships Committee members

Professor Sally Kift

Chair, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow - Victoria University

Professor Sally Kift has been a Visiting Research and Visiting Professorial Fellow at NCSEHE and previously served on the Centre’s Advisory Committee. She is currently a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at Victoria University and an Adjunct Professor at James Cook University (JCU), QUT and La Trobe University. She is a Non-Executive Director on several Navitas Australian University Partnerships Boards. Since 2019, she has been the Australian Vice-President and Member, Executive Board of the International Federation of National Teaching Fellows (IFNTF). Sally is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law (FAAL), and President of the Australian Learning and Teaching Fellows (ALTF). She has held several university leadership positions, including as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at JCU and Director, First Year Experience at QUT. Sally is a national Teaching Award winner, a national Program Award winner and a national Senior Teaching Fellow on the First Year Experience. In 2010, she was appointed an Australian Discipline Scholar in Law. In 2017, Sally received an Australian University Career Achievement Award for her contribution to Australian higher education. Sally was a member of the Australian Qualifications Framework Review Panel that reported to Government in September 2019. Since 2017, she has been working as an independent higher education consultant.

Dr Cathy Stone

Consultant and Researcher - University of Newcastle

Dr Cathy Stone is an independent consultant and researcher and a Conjoint Associate Professor with the University of Newcastle. Cathy’s professional background is in social work and student support. She has a long-standing interest in and commitment to improving the student experience for increasingly diverse university student cohorts. Her doctoral dissertation was on the experiences of mature-age students entering university via an enabling program, while her more recent research has focussed on ways to improve the online student experience. This was the topic of her research with NCSEHE as an inaugural Equity Fellow in 2016, developing National Guidelines for Improving Student Outcomes in Online Learning which have been widely utilised by Australian universities, particularly since 2020 when COVID-19 led to the mainstreaming of online education delivery. Cathy continues to be an active researcher, focussing mainly on the experiences of mature-age, first-in-family and regional students, including those studying online. She is a past President, life-time member and Fellow of the Australian & New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA), and a past editor of its professional journal. Cathy currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Continuing Higher Education.

Professor Andrew Harvey

Professor of Education - Griffith University

Professor Andrew Harvey is Director of the Pathways in Place program (Logan) and Professor of Education at Griffith University. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and PhD in Politics, both from the University of Melbourne. Andrew has published widely in areas of equity, diversity, and higher education policy, including student equity, admissions, retention, and globalisation. He is lead editor of Student Equity in Australian Higher Education: Twenty-five years of A Fair Chance for All (Springer, 2016). Other research interests include nationalism, identity, and Latin American culture. Andrew's previous roles include Director of Student Equity and Director of the Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research (CHEEDR) at La Trobe University, Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor (Students) at La Trobe, and Deputy Director (Academic) of the Bendigo Campus of La Trobe. He was the recipient of several competitive research grants from NCSEHE between 2013 and 2021.

Professor Maria Raciti

Director - Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre

Professor Maria Raciti (Kalkadoon-Thaniquith/Bwgcolman) is a social marketer who uses marketing tools and techniques to bring about social justice and behaviour change. Professor Raciti is a Director of the Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre, co-leader of the Education and Economies theme in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures and a member of the executive of the Australian Association of Social Marketing. In 2018, Maria was a NCSEHE Equity Research Fellow, undertaking the project, 'Career construction, future work and the perceived risks of going to university for young people from low SES backgrounds'. This led to her being seconded to be part of an Australian Government departmental task force assisting with the 2019 National Regional, Rural and Remote Tertiary Education Strategy. Maria is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), is regularly engaged as an expert advisor and has undertaken several large-scale research projects that have produced meaningful and impactful outcomes.

Ms Sonal Singh

Executive Manager, Student Equity and Access - UTS

Ms Sonal Singh is Executive Manager, Student Equity and Access, at the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion at UTS. She is an equity practitioner with 15 years of experience across the higher education and social sectors and is the Treasurer of EPHEA (Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia). Sonal has led key national research projects focussing refugee-educational outcomes, culturally inclusive research methodologies and digital literacy in Australia. A key focus of Sonal’s research has been on collaborations across universities, resulting in her leading the evaluation of the Bridges to Higher Education program for Macquarie University. She is currently the UTS Lead for the New South Wales Equity Consortium and co-chairs the Learning Creates–Tertiary Pathways project in breaking systematic access barriers to higher education.

Dr Tim Pitman

Higher Education Researcher

Dr Tim Pitman is a researcher of higher education policy with a focus on widening access and participation for groups of students historically under-represented in higher education. This includes people from low-socio economic backgrounds, Indigenous people, people with disability, people from non-English speaking backgrounds and people from regional and remote parts of Australia. Tim is a former Senior Researcher and Equity Fellow with NCSEHE. He has worked in the Australian higher education sector since 1996 and his PhD in Education was completed at The University of Western Australia in 2012.