News Archive

I wish to advise that Professor Kate Wright will be completing her term as Dean of the Graduate Research School and will be retiring in March 2019.

Kate has been the Dean at UWA since March 2016.  She was previously Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research Training at Curtin University.  Kate has been responsible for the development of policy and strategy relating to research training at UWA.  She has worked closely with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) to provide effective leadership and management of the Graduate Research School and enhance graduate research training at the University.   She also chairs the Scholarships Committee and the Board of the Graduate Research School.

During her tenure as Dean, she has led research training at an exciting time and responded to the many new initiatives that were foreshadowed in the National Innovation and Science Agenda and the ACOLA Review of Research Training.  In particular, Kate has restructured the Scholarships Committee processes to facilitate the allocation of HDR scholarships, introduced a Supervisor Registrar to promote national excellence in research supervision, introduced the Viva Voce for PhD examinations, coordinated strong faculty support for HDR supervision through the Associate Deans Research and the network of Graduate Research Coordinators, advanced research integrity in the HDR space and significantly contributed to the University’s development of its next Strategic Plan.

I thank Kate and acknowledge her outstanding contribution to UWA over the last 3 years.  I wish her the very best on her retirement and hope you will join me in doing the same.

The recruitment process for a new Dean has commenced, with the advertisement appearing externally and on the UWA jobs site.

Dawn Freshwater
Vice-Chancellor