1988 …2025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Sue Webb is a Professor (Adjunct) of Education at Monash University. Now retired but still research active, her current research includes the following:

1. Continuing to publish research outputs from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project DP170101885 entitled ‘Vocational institutions, undergraduate degrees: distinction or inequality?’ focusing on a comparative study of higher vocational education in colleges (non-university higher education providers) in Australia. This project aims to identify and understand the equity effects of broadening participation to undergraduate degrees through the recent expansion of higher education in vocational institutions. The outcomes provide relevant knowledge about the effects of this expansion on creating opportuntities for more equity groups to obtain degrees and for the higher education system to better drive national innovation and economic restructuring in ways that give a fairer chance to all equity groups to participate. Professor Webb leads this project with two CIs: Dr Shaun Rawolle (Deakin University) and Dr Steven Hodge (Griffiths University); Research Fellow: Dr Elizabeth Knight (Monash University); and Partner Investigators: Professor Trevor Gale (University of Glasgow, Scotland); and Professor Ann-Marie Bathmaker (University of Birmingham, England)

2.  A longitudinal study of people from a refugee background and their experiences of accessing higher education and employment in Australia. (A Monash University, Faculty of Education funded study with Professor Jane Wilkinson, Dr Karen Dunwoodie, Deakin University; Dr Kristin Reimer, Monash University; Dr Mervi Kaukko Tampere University, Finland).

Previous funded projects include:

1. 'Geographical and regional dimensions of social inclusion: the role of education and training'. This program of work included a project on skilled migration in regional Australia and the role of education and training in the social inclusion of skilled migrants, especially women, as well as, a strand of work on post school participation of young people from low socio-economic status groups in outer metropolitan and regional Victoria and South Australia. Category 1 competitive funding from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Training Research (NCVER) for a project on the ‘Geographical dimensions of social inclusion in education and training in Australia’ (NR11104-21043 2011 -2014)

2. Vocational transitions in further and higher education: the role of vocational qualifications in widening participation in England. This project is examining the effect of a policy initiative in England to widen participation through the establishment of Lifelong Learning Networks comprising partnerships between further and higher education institutions.

Sue Webb is a Professor (Adjunct) of Education at Monash University, Australia and Professor Emeritus at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has researched the policy effects and practices related to access and participation of students from under-represented groups in the field of further and higher education, including the experiences of migrants and refugees. In addition to being a researcher, Sue has held senior leadership positions and responsibilities for developing the field and practice of lifelong learning and widening participation both in England, at the University of Sheffield and more recently at Monash University. Since the move to Australia, she has continued to contribute to the field of lifelong learning and access and participation to tertiary education. This work has led to several publications on gender, migration, educationand deskilling, as well as work on gender and the effects of geography on post-school pathways to higher education and vocational education and training.    

Additionally, she has lectured and provided external advice to a number of universities in the UK, Europe and in New Zealand drawing on her strategic leadership experience and research insights into the concepts of learning identities and careers as a way of understanding risk, choice and agency in decision-making and learner transitions between school, college, university and employment. Known internationally for her research and leadership in the field of adult education and lifelong learning most recently in 2017 she co-edited with M. Milana, S. Webb, J. Holford and R. Waller (Eds.) The International Handbook of Adult and Lifelong Education and Learning Basingstoke, UK. In this regard, her work has contributed to policy development at institutional, national and regional level (the latter specifically in Europe where she has been employed as an expert in relation to European Union research on migration, language learning and ICT. She is also co-editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education.

Her most recent appointment is as one of the 12 Experts from across the world on the International Labour Organisation/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations for Teaching (CEART) for 2021-2026.

 

 

 

Research interests

  • Higher education and lifelong learning - policy analysis and effects on systems, staff and students
  • Access, participation and social inclusion in tertiary education
  • Learning cultures, learning identities and learning careers
  • Learning transitions - school, tertiary education and employment
  • Work-based learning, workforce development and skill utilisation
  • Gender, migration and learning
  • Gender, work and organisations

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

External positions

Professor Emeritus, University of Sheffield

4 Apr 2022 → …

Committee of Experts on the Application for the Recommendations for Teaching - CEART member, International Labour Organization (ILO)

20212026

Research area keywords

  • Higher education and lifelong learning
  • policy analysis and effects on systems, staff and students
  • Access, participation and social inclusion in tertiary education
  • Learning cultures, learning identities and learning careers
  • Learning transitions - school, tertiary education and employment
  • Work-based learning, workforce development and skill utilisation
  • Gender, migration and learning
  • Gender, work and organisations

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or