New Chair of Tertiary Teaching Awards Committee

Ako Aotearoa announces new Chair of the Tertiary Teaching Awards Committee

Emeritus Professor Noeline Alcorn has been appointed as the new chair of the panel that selects New Zealand’s top tertiary teachers in the annual national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards.

The Ako Aotearoa board received endorsement for the appointment from the Minister of Education, Hon Anne Tolley, last week. Bryan Gould, Chair of the Ako Aotearoa Board says, “We are delighted that the Minister has endorsed our recommendation of Professor Alcorn for this role. Noeline has an outstanding reputation both as an educational leader and a researcher and has an extraordinary breadth of experience across different parts of New Zealand’s education system.” Professor Alcorn replaces Emeritus Professor Graeme Fraser who retired from the role last year having been chair since the first round of awardees were selected in 2002.

Professor Alcorn was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order in 2005 in recognition of her services to tertiary education. Originally a secondary school teacher, Professor Alcorn was director of the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Auckland before becoming principal and dean of the School of Education at the University of Waikato. During a varied career, she has been a member of the New Zealand Polytechnics Programmes Committee and Chair of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. In 2006, Professor Alcorn chaired the Education Panel for the PBRF Quality Evaluation.

Professor Alcorn says: “Outstanding teachers are the lifeblood of our tertiary system, enthusing, inspiring and challenging students to learn, question, think and create. I see the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards given to our top teachers as crucially important in drawing attention to the worth and importance of tertiary teaching and am honoured to follow Professor Graeme Fraser in the role of Chair of the Committee”.

ENDS

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