The AUQF Joint Steering Group is pleased to announce that AUQF2007 “Evolution and Renewal in Quality Assurance” will be held in Hobart, Tasmania, from 11 to 13 July 2007.

The target audiences for the Forum are primarily, but not exclusively, senior executives of higher education institutions with responsibility for quality assurance and institutional improvement, academics and managers active in quality assurance and enhancement, and interested government agencies.

The Joint Steering Group encourages participation in AUQF by academics and higher education quality practitioners across the Asia-Pacific region. For AUQF2007, the Joint Steering Group extends a particular welcome to members of the Australasian Association for Institutional Research (AAIR).

Deliberations and presentations at AUQF touch on a wide range of quality assurance and quality enhancement issues. Broad sub-themes for 2007 are:

• Integration of Quality Assurance Systems: Converging Pathways?
• Impact of Quality Audit
• Changing Approaches and Attitudes
• Benchmarking
• International Collaboration in Quality Assurance
• Qualitative Data and Quality Outcomes

AUQF2007 will offer a range of opportunities for learning and discussion of the changing nature and practice of higher education quality assurance. Keynote speakers include:

• Professor Robert Zemsky, Chair of The Learning Alliance in the USA and a member of the US Commission on the Future of Higher Education that reported in 2006 Please link Professor Robert Zemsky to bio and photo attached
• Professor Roger Brown, Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Higher Education Policy, Southampton Solent University and, and formerly Chief Executive of the Higher Education Quality Council.

Dr Andrée Sursock of the European University Association will join a plenary session on international developments, while other plenary sessions will cover topics such as the impact of quality audit. There will be a number of invited workshops.

For further general information or to be added to the AUQF2007 mailing list, contact the JSG Chairperson for 2007, Jeanette Baird, or the AUQF Events & Travel Manager Claire Gresty.

AUQF2007 takes place the week after the 2007 ISSOTL conference in Sydney and follows the 2007 HERDSA Conference in Adelaide.