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Father and son Roger and Kelly Smith both started work at UWA in 1995.

They are both experts in international management and champions of education and hard work.

This combination saw them both applauded at UWA 's celebration of Teaching and Learning Month when Kelly accepted an award on behalf of his staff at the International Centre and Roger was rewarded for his teaching in the Business School.

"I didn't see Kelly following in my footsteps, but in many ways he has," said Roger, a Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow, whose career, prior to 1995, took him and his family to many parts of Asia, working as a management consultant. "Kelly shares my motivation for improving our own education as well as helping others towards this end. We are both hard workers and handy at both research and administrative work. He has taught English in Japan and in Australia, so I guess his teaching skills are pretty good too!"

At last month's event, Roger received an award for Excellence in Teaching which follows his Citation in 2008 for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Both awards related to his teaching and administration of International Management and Management and Consulting units in the Graduate School of Management and the Business School and offshore in Singapore, Jakarta and Manila.

Kelly has been the Director of the International Centre since 2009 and was Associate Director from 2006. He is quick to point out that the Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning is a team award.

"There is no way I can claim credit for this award," he said. "It is a testament to all the staff who have contributed over the years, including those who have left. My part has been as much a member of the team as a leader and what I believe about leadership now comes as much from being led by the current and past management team and being part of that team.

"I do not believe in micro managing because, for the most part, the people doing the job know how to do it better than I do. However, I do believe in making sure that everyone understands what the expectations are. And the number one expectation for the International Centre is that we are here for those international students who choose to study here and for those Australian students who choose to study abroad."

The citation reads: "For over 25 years the International Centre has provided opportunities for both overseas and Australian students to develop international perspectives and deep cultural competence."

Kelly said the two strongest things he learnt from his father were the importance of education and hard work and that if you put those together you could achieve anything.

"What he also gave me was an appreciation of cultural differences, given that much of his work has been international. From this I gained an appreciation of the importance of facilitating meaningful cultural learning experiences for people and thus a passion for helping students access those opportunities," he said.

Kelly's first job at UWA , in 1995, was teaching in the Centre for English Language Teaching. This came after six years in Japan where he also taught English.

"My time at CELT (and also the time teaching in Japan) gave me a strong appreciation of the necessity to understand students' needs in order to ensure they learn effectively.

"During that time I also undertook an MBA at UWA in which I specialised in international management. At that time my dad was also teaching in the MBA program and I took a few of his classes as he was the international management specialist at the time. I think he was a great teacher but probably a bit harder on me than on others just to make sure there was no perceived conflict of interest!"

He started in the International Centre in 1999 just before finishing his MBA and left in 2001 to work for Study Group. It is a global private education provider and also teaches UWA 's Foundation Program so he remained strongly engaged with UWA and the International Centre, before returning five years later.

Roger is now retired but teaches a few classes occasionally, including some for Chinese LNG managers who take part in the Australian Centre for Natural Gas management courses, a joint venture between UWA and Curtin University.

Published in UWA News , 11June 2012