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The high standard of teaching at The University of Western Australia has again been recognised in the national Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) teaching awards for 2011.

UWA School of Indigenous Studies' Assistant Professor Blaze Kwaymullina received the Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education and the ACE Transition Program, represented by Assistant Professor Lee Partridge, has received an award for Programs that Enhance Learning in the First-Year Experience category.

It is the second time a member of the UWA teaching staff has received the Neville Bonner Award since 2009 when UWA School of Indigenous Studies and UWA Law School's Mr Mel Thomas was recognised for his outstanding achievements to Indigenous education.

Assistant Professor Kwaymullina is a lecturer in Aboriginal History and Indigenous Knowledge at the School of Indigenous Studies. He has been instrumental in developing the School's new major in Indigenous Knowledge History and Heritage for 2012, has co-edited a number of books and collections of Aboriginal writings and is a published children's author.

Assistant Professor Partridge's ACE Transition Program team award is for the development and implementation of the innovative Academic Conduct Essentials (ACE), a compulsory online module that all new UWA students complete in order to understand ethical scholarship and the University's academic conduct policy. The award builds on previous recognition for the ACE initiative, which is also included in the AUQA good practice database.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson congratulated Blaze Kwaymullina and Lee Partridge and her team on their outstanding results.

"I warmly congratulate our Teaching Excellence Award recipients for such recognition in a highly competitive national context.  Their success attests both to individual excellence and to an institutional context which strongly supports teaching activities and programs of high calibre," Professor Robson said.

The ALTC teaching Excellence Awards recognise outstanding individuals and teams who have made a lasting impression on the quality of Australian higher education.

The ALTC Awards , worth $25,000 each, will be presented during a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday 16 August when the nation's premier teaching award, the Prime Minister's Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year will also be presented.

Media references

Sally-Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 7975  /  (+61 4) 20 790 098