Barbara van Ernst (Panel Chairperson), Education Consultant
Barbara van Ernst is an Educational Consultant, and was previously Deputy Vice Chancellor (Learning & Teaching) and Pro Vice Chancellor (Community Engagement) at Swinburne University of Technology and prior to that was Head of School, Visual Performing and Media Arts, and Chair, Academic Board, Deakin University. She has had extensive teaching experience in primary and secondary schools in Victoria, and in the tertiary sector, Her areas of teaching include education and the performing arts. She was also Chair of Academic Board at Deakin University. She has supervised a number of PhD candidates to successful completion and has examined a number of theses for other universities, mainly in the areas of the arts, education and creative writing. In particular she has had experience in the PhD model based on creative practice and exegesis. Professor van Ernst has served for three terms as a Councillor for the City of Hawthorn, including two years as Mayor. She has served on a number of boards and committees, including the Victorian Qualifications Authority, the Higher Education Advisory Committee in Victoria and the Programs Committee of Open Universities Australia. She is a quality auditor for the Australian Universities Quality Agency, the Singapore Higher Education Accreditation Council, the New Zealand Universities Audit Unit and the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications. She has recently conducted audits in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Bahrain and for the Australian Catholic University. She has had experience in community organisations such as Rotary International, serving as President of the Lilydale Club for one year, President of Melbourne Chorale and President of Theatreworks. She was also a probation officer for a number of years and is a Justice of the Peace. She has also been a personal mentor to a number of people in leadership. In 1994 she was awarded an AM for services to education.

Robert Carmichael Audit Director, AUQA
Since joining AUQA in 2002, Rob has been Audit Director for seven audits of Self Accrediting Institutions; three audits of Government Accreditation Authorities (GAAs); and four audits of Non Self-Accrediting Institutions, including the pilot audit of the Australian College of Theology in 2006, and the first audit of a TAFE Institute as a Higher Education Provider in 2008. In 2008-09 Rob consulted with the GAAs and the Joint Committee on Higher Education to establish a revised approach to the Cycle 2 audits of the GAAs, to prepare for the establishment of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency in 2011. Prior to joining AUQA, for ten years Rob was the Head of the Office for Quality Education at Swinburne University of Technology. In this capacity he was responsible for the initial development, ongoing operation and continual improvement of the University’s Quality Management System. Prior to this Rob worked in the VET sector as a curriculum development specialist, as a teacher, and as an academic manager, and before that he taught humanities in secondary schools. He is a formally qualified Quality Assessor and a trained quality auditor. In 2004 Rob was also Chairperson of the Joint Steering Group for the AUQF held in Adelaide. He has also trained auditors and reviewers in both Australia and Hong Kong. When not engaged in AUQA business, Rob tries to find the time to enjoy family life (such as going for runs with life-partner Annie and the two whippets); going up-country or hiking; listening to classical music, and reading history and/or perusing the “for-sale” sections of classic motorcycling magazines!

Ian Hawke Director, Office of Higher Education, Department of Education Qld Government
Ian Hawke was appointed Assistant Director-General (International, Non-State and Higher Education) of the Queensland Government Department of Education, Training and the Arts, in March 2006, having served as Director of the Queensland Office of Higher Education since July 2003. In this role, Ian is responsible for the leadership, policy development and management, accreditation and quality assurance of programs, legislation and related services covering Queensland’s non-state and grammar schools, universities and private higher education providers and its regulatory and commercial interests in international education. Over a period of 20 years prior to this, he has worked in senior management roles at the University of Queensland, Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology in areas of strategic planning, higher education policy, academic management and quality assurance. Ian is a Director, Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) Ltd (since 2004) and the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) (since 2005), a subject specialist on the register of the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation (HKCAA), and a member of the Oman Accreditation Council's Register of External Reviewers. Before his appointment as a director of AUQA, Ian served as an auditor in audits of the University of Wollongong and the higher education accreditation functions of the New South Wales government. He is also an international auditor with the Council on Higher Education in South Africa in its audit of the Tshwane University of Technology. Ian has been a consultant to Higher Education South Africa (HESA) and the former Committee of Technikon Principals (CTP) also in South Africa. He holds Bachelor of Arts (Qld) and Master of Administration (Griffith) degrees.

Colleen Liston Consultant
Professor Colleen Liston was Director of International Planning and Quality at Curtin University of Technology until August 2006 and is currently a private consultant on tertiary education quality assurance, accreditation and standards. She has been involved in tertiary education since the late seventies (Health Sciences), and in quality management and international education issues since the late eighties. Her PhD researched “The Structure of Educational Accreditation”. She has presented at international conferences and published widely on health science research and managing quality and standards. Colleen is an Australian Business Excellence Framework Evaluator, an ISO Auditor and an Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) Auditor. She was on the panel which undertook the inaugural AUQA university audit, and was involved in preparing the documentation for AUQA’s audit of Curtin University of Technology. She is a member of the Editorial Board for AUQA’s Occasional Publications. Dr Liston is appointed by the Minister of Education in Western Australia to Chair higher education accreditation panels and as inaugural Chair of the HEAC Chairs' Forum. She serves as a Subject Specialist for the US Distance Education and Training Council Accrediting Commission. Colleen was part of an international panel which undertook a review of the procedures for accreditation of higher education courses for the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, and is on the register of auditors for the Hong Kong, New Zealand, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain quality agencies. She has conducted independent reviews for a number of Australian universities and other organisations, including Universities Australia, in relation to partner offshore programs, internationalisation, academic governance, standards and benchmarking. Dr Liston has been a panel member or chair for several AUQA audits and “practice” audits, as well as assisting providers in preparing progress reports to AUQA. She has presented at AUQA auditors’ training workshops on auditing transnational activities, briefed university staff in Bahrain, and given invited keynote papers on the topic at major international conferences in Australia; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Santiago, Chile; Auckland, New Zealand and Beijing, China.

Phil Meade Consultant
Emeritus Professor Phil Meade was formerly Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand from 1995-2004. In this capacity he had managerial oversight of the four Assistant Vice-Chancellors for the Divisions of Commerce, Health Sciences, Humanities and Sciences and was responsible for the development and implementation of the University’s overall academic policy. He had responsibility for the Higher Education Development Centre, Academic Services, Accommodation Services and Student Services. He led the University of Otago’s responses to two audits by the New Zealand Academic Audit Unit. Before joining Otago, Professor Meade was Pro-Vice Chancellor (Quality Advancement) at Griffith University in Queensland with special responsibilities for the University’s quality initiatives. In 1995 he was appointed Emeritus Professor by Griffith University. Previously he was Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education at Griffith University and a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of New South Wales. Research interests include evaluations of the quality of educational experience of tertiary students incorporating stakeholder surveys of students, graduates and employers. In 2004 Professor Meade wrote “Helping New Heads of Department Prepare for University Leadership”. In 2003 he published a book entitled “Challenges Facing Universities: implications for leaders” and in 1997 published an earlier book entitled "Challenges Facing Universities: Quality, Leadership and the Management of Change". In 1998 he wrote "A Guide to Benchmarking" designed to explain the principles of benchmarking within the context of the university system and to suggest implementation strategies. Emeritus Professor Meade was a member of the Board of the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (2004-2005) and was on the International Advisory Board of the Quality in Higher Education Journal (1993-2005). During 1996-2004 he was a member of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee on University Academic Programmes. In 1997 he was invited by the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee to chair a committee which reviewed the effectiveness of the New Zealand Academic Audit Unit following its first four years of operation. During 2002-6 he participated as a member of the audit panel of two Australian Regional universities and two higher education authorities of a State Department of Education on behalf of the Australian Universities Quality Agency. He has also been invited by several Australian universities to provide consultancy advice on how to develop and enhance quality systems in higher education (for example, he chaired the Trial Audit Committee of the University of Queensland). In 2005-6 Professor Meade undertook a review of the Queensland Studies Authority on behalf of the Queensland Minister for Education and the Arts. His report was submitted to the Minister in February 2006. On behalf of the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission he undertook a literature review which culminated in a report entitled “Literature Review to Support the Design of the New Zealand Learner Opinion Survey” to assist with the development of a national “fit-for-purpose” survey. In 2006 he was appointed by the Queensland Government to be a member of the Council of the University of the Sunshine Coast.