Collaborative efforts work! Reflections on a two-year relationship between Faculty of Health and International Student Services - Language and Learning Unit

Abstract

This paper is a personal reflection on a two-year collaborative initiative between the International Student Services Language and Learning Unit and the Faculty of Health at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) from the viewpoint of the coordinating Academic Language and Learning (ALL) practitioner. The initiative was underpinned by a number of policy “push factors” including: the First Year in Higher Education Principles of Transition Pedagogy (Kift, Nelson, & Clarke, 2010); the Good Practice Principles (GPP); and AUQA/TEQSA auditing criteria (DEEWR, 2009; Harper, Prentice, & Wilson, 2011; Murray, 2010). It identifies the factors, institutional and personal, which have contributed to a successful collaboration and addresses the tensions the ALL practitioner experienced as she journeyed through the project.