Passport for life

Report: Tim Winkler
Photography: Greg Ford and Melissa Di Ciero

Professor Adam Shoemaker

It was hot. It was sandy. And not a whiteboard to be seen. One of the largest classrooms on Earth lies in the rolling Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area in southwestern New South Wales, the site of a profound educational lesson for Professor Adam Shoemaker.

Elders from three tribes in the Lake Mungo region had gathered to teach Professor Shoemaker and 25 undergraduate students an intensive 10-day course on Indigenous archaeology, working with Aboriginal archaeologists and rangers to dissect and interpret the area's past.

Indigenous teachers in Indigenous country, exploring remnants of Indigenous culture from thousands of years before, exploring the secrets of one of the world's oldest cultures with students from around the world.

After days studying desert landforms and traces of inland seas, the elders took the students to a remarkable location, kept secret because of its fragility, where more than 650 fossilised footprints and tracks had recently become exposed by shifting sands.

"As you come over the hill to this place, the first thing you saw was a mass of small flags, each one marking a footprint from 20,000 years ago," Professor Shoemaker said.

Recalling the experience, the new Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at Monash clearly cherishes this unique window into the past.

"The tracks are as clear as if you had walked down a beach behind a friend and saw the impression in front of you. You can see where four or five hunters had been running after prey, and the prints of the kangaroos they were after. You could even see where a spear had skidded across the ground; the tracks of parents intermixed with children's footprints as the children had followed them around," he said.

The experiential learning of that trip has stuck in Professor Shoemaker's mind - and underpins his vision for the Monash Passport, which provides a new blueprint for education at the University.

"This was real education - every minute of the day. Just imagine what could be if we did more of these types of programs as part of our undergraduate degrees - that's what our passport is all about.

"If we can get this right it will be transformative for students - and for education nationally.

"At Monash, people have always subscribed to the view that education does not end at the classroom door. At Monash, education is how ideas change you, and that experience leads you to have an impact in and on the world."

When Professor Shoemaker considered the findings of a University-wide coursework review late last year, he realised a Monash University degree, distilled to its purest form, equated to a ticket to many personal and professional destinations; a passport to a global experience.

"The Monash Passport, as the name suggests, is inherently and inescapably international. It is a passport to employment, to engagement, to course and unit flexibility," he said.

"Every future Monash student will have a virtual passport - giving them the opportunity to stamp their degree with a range of optional attributes - such as studying abroad, or honours, or participating in a leadership program, or volunteering."

"We have received a lot of feedback from employers and also from students themselves that students who have taken these opportunities will emerge with more to offer the world.

"A Monash graduate will be inherently and proudly internationalist, equipped to work collaboratively and global in perspective - mirroring the emerging traits of the Australian economy and Australian society.

"If employers want staff that are not going to just fit a mould but change a mould, then the Monash graduates will be the ones they will pursue."

Professor Shoemaker was most recently the Dean of Arts at the Australian National University in Canberra. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Queens University in Canada, going on to complete his doctorate at the ANU and has filled several roles in the Queensland tertiary sector. For more than 25 years he has collaborated with Indigenous authors and leaders and has written or edited eight books on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature and culture, several in partnership with Professor Stephen Muecke.

Charged with the opportunity to set a new benchmark for student experience and educational impact in his new role at Monash, Professor Shoemaker has developed the passport concept, leveraging on the University's unique attributes and existing strengths.

"Monash is already rated among the top three universities in the country for student support by student representatives, but by focusing on our strengths, we have the opportunity to provide an education to equip graduates for the century to come."

Central to the passport concept is the exposure of every student to international perspectives and networks.

"With campuses offshore and partners in dozens of countries, Monash has a clear goal to offer an offshore student experience program that is the best not only in Australia, but also in the world - and we have some way to go, but we are headed in the right direction.

"Many people don't realise that we already provide students with grants of up to $4000 to study abroad and we have a dedicated team to facilitate exchanges and monitor student welfare.

"But we want to make sure all Monash students have the opportunity to have an international experience and build international networks, simply by walking onto campus. Awareness of other cultures and the perspectives and opportunities afforded in other countries is vital not just for the job market, but also for the development of students, making them more connected and aware.

"The Monash Passport will increase linguistic and intercultural awareness, as well as promoting a greater level of student exchange."

A key change the passport introduces, which will further enhance the international employability of graduates, is to expand the University's Honours program - providing a superior challenge to the University's best students.

"Monash will become known as the nation's leader in Honours education. Honours is very important - providing leading students with the opportunity to set themselves apart from other graduates and also to gain more intensive research knowledge in their choice of discipline," Professor Shoemaker said.

"If students can take the challenge, we will push them further. If they don't want to pursue Honours, we will make it possible for them to benefit from greater crossdisciplinary collaboration in double degrees.

"If they want to have their minds expanded, they are coming to the right place."

Another passport feature will be to encourage students to do far more voluntary or pro bono work in their area of vocation or speciality. It's an expansion of successful programs such as the busy community legal services that have been staffed by undergraduate law students in suburban Melbourne for the last 35 years.

By teaming up with like-minded organisations in the community and corporate sectors, Professor Shoemaker says the University will be living the motto of going boldly to the world.

"Monash staff are fiercely committed to making a difference to the human condition - expanding the horizons of knowledge, applying new research to deliver improved health and living conditions, and through direct work with volunteers working across three continents. We want to provide even more opportunities for our students to be involved in all these areas through the Monash Passport."

Professor Shoemaker said a distinguishing element of the passport will be access to strong leadership groups, similar to the engineering faculty program (see page 25). They will encourage students to work together on large projects, undertake industry shadowing, experience mentoring from professional firms and attend specialist workshops from visiting academic experts.

Technology will play a major part, by using the latest equipment and new forms of experiential learning to better impart knowledge to students in vastly different ways to the traditional lecture/tutorial model.

"The passport distils the best of Monash from three continents, 10 faculties over 50 years. All the elements of the passport were already there - it's a bit like the sand that blew away to reveal the footprints below at Lake Mungo - it was just a matter of making more linkages, taking the best from across our campus and faculty kaleidoscope and making that excellence central to the Monash experience."

For more information, visit the Monash Passport website.