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A rare national education award last presented in 2000 has been jointly awarded to the UWA Business School's Associate Dean Teaching and Learning Winthrop Professor Phil Hancock and The University of Sydney's Associate Professor Mark Freeman.

The Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ)'s Outstanding Contribution to Accounting and Finance - Education Award recognises the contributions to accounting and finance education made by the duo over the last thirty years.

Dean of the UWA Business School, Winthrop Professor Phil Dolan, congratulated Winthrop Professor Hancock on his achievement.

"This award is a very well-deserved honour and a measure of the esteem in which Winthrop Professor Hancock is held by his colleagues," Winthrop Professor Dolan said.

The AFAANZ award is judged on criteria including: receipt of international or national teaching awards; published research on teaching and learning; leadership in high-level activities; and innovation through the development and use of technologies.

Most recently, Professors Hancock and Freeman co-led the ‘Development and Assessment of Accounting Learning Standards' project. Commissioned by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, the project aimed to define the minimum learning standards expected of accounting graduates.

This work has now been extended through the ‘ Achievement matters: External peer review of accounting learning standards ' project, an initiative backed by the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC). Also led by Professors Hancock and Freeman, the project is establishing a model for assessing whether students' work meets the learning standards. The project has funding from the Office for Learning and Teaching, CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Over many years, Professors Hancock and Freeman have chaired the ABDC Teaching and Learning Network, been heavily involved with CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, pioneered an online software designed to facilitate teamwork in classes, and received numerous teaching awards.

Currently, however, Winthrop Professor Hancock is focussing his energy on the ‘Achievement matters' project.

"The project should assist students in developing and demonstrating important skills-such as knowledge, judgement, critical analysis, teamwork and oral and written communication-which will be valuable to them both in their future careers and their own life journeys," Winthrop Professor Hancock said.

"We are aiming to achieve this through improving the assessment design and teaching methods that are used throughout Australia so that students are able to better develop and demonstrate these critical skills."

Media references

Catherine Vogel (UWA Business School)    (+61 8) 6488 7340
Karen Della Torre (UWA Business School)    (+61 8) 6488 8538