As Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Professor Craig McInnis is responsible for initiating and supporting university-wide strategies to develop a teaching and learning environment of the highest quality. He has directed over 14 nationally funded projects over the last ten years and has produced more than 30 publications on higher education policy and practice in that time. His major research interests include the changing student experience, the work roles of the academic profession and quality assurance processes. Dr McInnis is internationally recognised for his work on the first year student experience since the publication of the landmark Australian study, 'First Year on Campus' (McInnis and James 1995) and is currently directing a national study to investigate trends in the first year experience over the last five years.

While most first year students look forward to and enjoy the opportunity for intellectual challenge at university, many get little or no sense of the research and scholarship that underpin the curriculum and the learning process in higher education. The most fundamental way of engaging students in higher education is to connect them to the knowledge discovery process. In this workshop we will explore how first year students across a range of disciplines and institutions can be introduced to the forms of research and scholarship that distinguishes higher education from other learning. We will also map out ways of cultivating their understanding and appreciation of the university as a learning community. The workshop will draw on national and international examples. The focus will be on practical approaches to organising the curriculum and designing forms of assessment aimed at raising student awareness and understanding of the place of research and scholarship in the generation of new knowledge.

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