2026 HoSA Program
Wednesday 26 August 2026
| 9:00 – 10:30 | Offsite Campus Tours - At Queensland University of Technology (QUT) or The University of Queensland (UQ)
-> QUT: Tour Meeting Point: 8.55am at Voco Hotel lobby -> UQ: A return bus transfer will be organised. Estimated departure from Voco Hotel 8.30am |
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| 10:45 - 17:00 | Registration Open | 11:00 – 12:00 |
HoSA Annual General Meeting
Daintree Room
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| 12:00 – 13:00 | Welcome Lunch & Exhibition Open | ||
| 13:00 – 13:05 |
Welcome to Country - Refiti Tovi - Turrbal Community Member
Daintree Room
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| 13:05 – 13:10 |
Welcome to HoSA 2026, Health & Safety and Housekeeping
Daintree Room
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| 13:15 – 13:30 |
Platinum Sponsor Addresses: TechnologyOne | Tribal Group | Workday
Daintree Room
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| 13:30 – 14:15 |
Keynote “What Being Future Ready Really Means: Preparing for the Next Era of Work” Brett Wiskar | Speaker : Writer : Futurist : Innovator : Commentator Daintree Room
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| 14:15 – 15:00 |
Student Panel
Daintree Room
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| 15:00 – 15:30 | Afternoon Tea | ||
| Concurrent Sessions | |||
| Time | Daintree | Ansett | Riverview |
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| 15:30 – 16:10 |
Business-Led Transformation: How Charles Sturt University Is Redesigning Student Administration for a Future-Ready Sector
Rachael Lamb, Charles Sturt University
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Sensory-friendly Graduation Ceremonies
Kaine Leonard and Ross Buchan, Deakin University
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Designing for the Unknown: Building Institutional Capability for Future-Ready Student Administration
Sarah Brown, The University of Sydney
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| 16:15 – 16:45 |
First Time Attendees & New Members - Welcome to HoSA
HoSA Board
Daintree Room
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| 16:30 - 18:30 |
Welcome Reception
Chelsea Lane (Voco Hotel)
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Thursday 27 August 2026
| 8:30 - 17:00 | Registration & Exhibition Open | ||
| 9:00 – 9:05 |
Welcome Day 2 and Housekeeping
Daintree Room
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| 9:05 – 9:20 |
Gold Sponsor Addresses: ReadyTech | JDR Software | TouchNet | Ellucian | TimeEdit
Daintree Room
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| 9:20 – 10:05 |
Keynote “Future Ready: Building People, Not Just Systems - What working with disengaged young people taught me about resilience, adaptability and the future of education.” Brad O’Reilly | Arcadia College Daintree Room
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| 10:05 – 10:45 |
Panel “Navigating the new tertiary landscape from admissions and beyond: managed growth, needs-based funding, and rethinking equity cohorts and support” Australian Conference of Tertiary Admissions Centres (ACTAC) Facilitator: Teresa Tjia (ACTAC) Panel Members: Adam Hennessy (UAC), Lacrina Duran (QTAC), Michael Ciesielski (VTAC) Daintree Room
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| 10:45 – 11:15 | Morning Tea | ||
| Concurrent Sessions | |||
| Time | Daintree | Ansett | Riverview |
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| 11:15 – 11:55 |
Improving student retention and institutional performance through better degree planning practices
Hosted by StudyPlanner
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Future Ready Student Administration Operations – AI in Action
Hosted by Ellucian | Graham Battersby
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Next-Generation Student Support: How AI Solves Today's Campus Challenges
Hosted by TouchNet | William Varney
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| 12:00 – 12:40 |
Designing Future-Ready Student Administration: Building a Digital-First, Networked Support Model at Scale
Hossein Babaei & Michelle Blake & Tricia Finn, The University of Waikato
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Rethinking Special Consideration: From Policy to Practice Through Partnership
Tash Glass, University of Western Australia
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Designing Degree Plans That Actually Work: Mapping the Design Space of Student Planning Tools
Ben Shelton , University of Newcastle
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| 12:40 – 13:40 | Lunch | ||
| 13:40 – 14:20 |
Advancing Service Integration to Strengthen First-Point-of-Contact Resolution
Rachael Brennan & Lucy O'Brien, University of Melbourne
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Incremental Enhancement of the Graduation Experience at UNSW: A Student-Centred, Operationally Resilient Approach
Daniel Crosariol, University of New South Wales
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Evolving Recognition of Prior Learning Through Automation and Design
James Dobrincic & Matt Fowler, Bond University
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| 14:25 – 15:05 |
More Students; More Demands – a FAST response in busy times
Benedict Porter & Tegan Totterdell & Edwina Jones & Jennifer Burn, The University of Sydney
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Becoming Future Ready: Re-engineering Course Completion through Analytics Enabled, Scalable Student Administration
Gavin McLean, La Trobe University
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Student-centred Timetabling: with students, for students, by students
Helen Murnane & Kelly Kettewell, Australian Catholic University
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| 15:05 – 15:35 | Afternoon Tea | ||
| 15:35 – 16:15 |
Bricks don’t make a building — belonging does: Building a future-ready student administration workforce
Georgina Ma, Griffith University
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Implementing a Next Generation Timetable System: Transforming Scheduling at University of Newcastle
Bridene Doherty, University of Newcastle
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Shaping the Future Student Experience Through Smarter Support and Systems
Adrienne McGovern-Faircloth & Noeleen Williamson, Victoria University of Wellington
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| 18:45 – 22:45 |
Gala Dinner
Daintree Room & Chelsea Lane
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Friday 28 August 2026
| 8:30 | Registration & Exhibition Open | ||
| 9:00 – 9:05 |
Welcome Day 3, Housekeeping
Daintree Room
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| 9:05 – 9:25 |
ANZ Credit Management Initiative - Sector Credit Management Solution (CrMS) - Update
Anthony Manahan, HES
Daintree Room
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| Concurrent Sessions | |||
| Time | Daintree | Ansett | Riverview |
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| 9:30 – 10:10 |
Creating a Future-Ready Student Administration Culture
Ewan Evans, Swinburne University of Technology
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Building a Future Ready Framework for Academic Workload and Teaching Allocation Management
Natalie Downing, James O'Brien-Brown & Arzan Patel, The University of Sydney & Murdoch University
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Connecting the Work: Redesigning Roles, Workflows, and Culture for Better Student Support
Nick Gilfillan & Meeka Perkins, University of Melbourne
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| 10:10 – 10:40 | Morning Tea | ||
| 10:40 – 11:20 |
From ex-SAS-perated to SAS-pirational: Building a Future Ready Culture for Complexity and Ambiguity
Kim Murphy, Flinders University
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Proactive, Data-Driven Student Support: Developing Future-Ready Predictive Analytics within the UNE Atrium Platform
Sarita Guy & Johan Boshoff, University of New England
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Uni Exchange Aotearoa: overcoming local differences to deliver future ready domestic exchange opportunities for students
Jo Gibson & Richard Stewart & Adrienne McGovern-Faircloth, University of Otago | Auckland University of Technology | Victoria University of Wellington
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| 11:25 – 11:55 |
Sponsor Prizes
Daintree Room
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| 11:55 – 12:15 |
Awards, HoSA 2027 Announcement Conference Close
Daintree Room
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| 12:15 – 13:15 | Farewell Lunch | ||