The ACU Perspectives speaker series offers our members a chance to contribute to the discussions on the future directions of higher education, to share their ideas and experiences, and to bring insights from their own region, institution or discipline.

Our next event, titled ‘Is higher education enabling students to fulfil their civic responsibilities as future professionals in a global society?’, is the ninth in the series and will take place in London, UK, at 6.00 pm on Thursday 14 July 2016. A podcast of the talk will be published on our dedicated ACU Perspectives page shortly after for everyone to enjoy. Register here to attend.

Our speaker is Dr Helen Rawson, a Research Fellow at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University, Australia, who is visiting the UK on a month-long ACU Titular Fellowship at Swansea University.

Her research focuses on elderly health care, and its cultural implications. Dr Rawson has a passion for the delivery of safe and quality care for older people in acute, subacute, and residential care settings. Her past research at Deakin University has focused on residential elderly care, and her fellowship at Swansea University will look at cross-national comparisons of best practice care for ethnic elderly populations in a mainstream health system and culturally specific care areas. Her stated aim for this fellowship is to ‘meet international experts to reach consensus about methods to conduct Australian and cross-national research to understand the delivery of culturally sensitive care for older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.’ 

Her presentation will explore the role of higher education in enabling students to fulfil their civic responsibilities as future professionals in a global society, with a focus on nursing education in Australia.

She told us a bit more about her presentation topic ahead of the talk: 'Higher education drives, and is driven by, globalisation. Higher education institutions prepare a highly skilled workforce and also contribute to research and innovation, all aimed at building global future networks. However, as higher education prepares this highly skilled workforce, are students also being prepared to be true global citizens and professionals?

'Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. In 2013, overseas migration represented 60% of Australia’s population growth. Of the 26% of Australians born overseas, 61% are from non-English speaking countries. In addition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples contribute greatly to the cultural diversity of Australia. This multiculturalism has a significant impact on many aspects of Australian society, including the healthcare system.

'Globally it is acknowledged that hospitals are not as safe as they should be, and this has led to the implementation of robust patient safety and quality care programmes. Although significant progress has been made, there is evidence that patients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds continue to be disproportionately at risk.

'In the nursing profession, researchers have emphasised the importance for registered nurses to have sound knowledge of cultural values, beliefs, practices and attitudes if they are to respond effectively to the needs of all patients. However, it has been found that culturally and linguistically diverse patients experience a number of barriers to health care services not experienced by other Australians. To ensure that health professionals understand the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse patients it is important to ensure that appropriate studies on trans-culturalism are included in university nurse education programmes.'

The talk will take place in the Hardy Room of De Morgan House, 57-58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS. Everyone is welcome to attend, but you must book a free ticket as places are limited. 

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