“When I started in September 1999, CAD was called the University Teaching Development Centre, and I started as a lecturer on the first step. At that time, only twelve percent of professors in New Zealand were women, so becoming Professor myself seemed very unlikely—my career goal was simply to help people become amazing teachers that make learning happen.”
Kathryn completed her BA at Waikato University, her MA at the University of Victoria in Canada, and her PhD at Massey University. She also holds a post-graduate diploma in Higher Education from Otago University. But, despite it being her first-choice University as an undergraduate, she never studied at Victoria University of Wellington.
“There were only a couple of Halls of Residence at Vic back then, and when I didn’t get in to Weir House, I decided it made more sense to study closer to my family home, which was in South Auckland. After 10 years of study at four other universities, I made it here! I love Wellington because you can walk everywhere, and Vic feels like part of the city fabric, more so than in larger cities.”
Kathryn’s PhD was on the structure of PhDs in New Zealand, and as part of this she interviewed the directors of the Centres for Academic Development from all the universities in New Zealand that had English departments. “One of them was Deborah Willis from Vic, and she hired me a few years later—a great example of how in a small country, research opportunities can lead to job opportunities!”
Kathryn’s research then moved from studying the PhD itself to investigating the working lives of academics, including tutors and early career staff. Her focus has always been on the conditions that make learning meaningful for as many people as possible, whether the learners are students or academic staff.
She has seen a significant shift over the years she has been doing this. “When I started out, the focus was more on the teacher, but there has been a really positive shift towards working in partnership with students to understand how academics and students do this together—how learning happens as a collective endeavour. The concept of Akoranga is powerful—learning and teaching are mutually supportive of each other. As one of my former directors says, teaching without learning is just talk.”
Being invited to talk about her research with people around the world has been one of the joys of Kathryn’s academic career, and she has given more than 140 invited talks at universities all over the world. “Sharing about concepts like Akoranga with people outside of Aotearoa New Zealand is great, watching how people respond to how we learn from students and how learning is a partnership, that has been very rewarding.”
Kathryn has taken her research and translated it into effective and important programmes at Vic, including the Victoria Early Career Academic Programme, the staff-student development programme, Ako in Action, and more recently the teaching fellowship scheme, Te Arawai Ako.
In her role with CAD, Kathryn also enjoys supporting staff to build careers that allow space for wellbeing and joy. “My goal has been to work quite hard to make this a more caring place to work. It's a productive place to work, but productivity thrives when people are healthy and happy and nurtured.
“The retention of academic staff matters for students—if academics stay in place only for a few years, there is a lot of work that needs done to build back the relationships that make learning happen. It always comes back to that—how do we make learning happen?”
After her inaugural lecture on 23 July, Kathryn hopes people will walk out with the understanding that connection inspires learning, and learning can transform our world.
“If we are all more open to learning from each other, we’ve got a good show of being able to keep this planet spinning. But we need to connect with each other with care and trust.”
Register now for Professor Kathryn Sutherland’s inaugural lecture, “Trust, care, and the human future of higher education”.