National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund (NPILF) Roundtable

Professor Ruth Bridgstock ALTF PFHEA is Director of Student Insights and Outcomes at Swinburne University of Technology, where she leads institution-wide transformation through personalisation, data-informed practice, and technology-enabled innovation. She recently guided Swinburne to achieve Moonshot 1 of its Horizon 2025 strategic plan every learner gets a work experience by embedding a fully scaffolded progression of work integrated learning across all undergraduate courses. This work led to the university receiving the 2024 Australian Financial Review Higher Education Award for Employability, and Ruth being recognised with the 2024 ATEM Award for Excellence in Leadership. Ruth is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Australian National Senior Teaching Fellow. Her research has been cited more than 7,000 times, with key publications including Higher Education and the Future of Graduate Employability (Edward Elgar) and Creative Graduate Pathways (Routledge).

With several years of experience in Work Integrated Learning (WIL), Catherine is passionate about supporting students in developing the skills, confidence, and industry connections they need to thrive in their careers.

In her current role as Team Leader within the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology at the University of Adelaide, she oversees the planning and delivery of elective internships that provide students with meaningful, hands-on industry experience.

She collaborates closely with academic staff and industry partners to create high-impact learning opportunities that enhance student employability and build stronger pathways between academic study and professional practice.

Polina is a Work Integrated Learning professional who has worked in internship focused roles since 2017. Her experience spans areas including business, law, arts, health and medical sciences. Since 2022, Polina has coordinated the HDR Research Internship program and is a part of the central Internships Team who have collectively focused on driving continuous growth, creating meaningful student experiences and industry partnerships to successfully achieve yearly NPILF targets across both the HDR Research and Science, Engineering and Technology areas.

Rachel Hennessy is the Manager of the National Priorities and Industry Linkages Fund project at UniSQ, where she leads the award-winning Virtual WIL (V-WIL) model. With over 14 years of experience in higher education, Rachel currently drives strategic V-WIL innovation, sector engagement, and curriculum integration to enhance student employability. Rachel is a WIL Australia QLD Chapter committee member and regularly presents nationally on authentic learning, industry collaboration, and scalable V-WIL frameworks.

Associate Professor Alison Beavis joined UNSW Sydney in December 2019 as Deputy Dean (Education). She is responsible for providing strategic leadership in the learning and teaching portfolio for the Faculty which is home to over 900 staff and 6000 students. Alison’s primary research interest is in the area of analytical chemistry with a focus on the analysis of forensic traces and how this information is interpreted, including a current ARC funded project involving forensic drug intelligence. She has extensive experience in the analysis of explosives and illicit drugs using various analytical techniques and leads the gunshot residue analysis group as Visiting Professor in the Centre for Forensic Science at UTS. Alison is also an experienced science educator, with multiple national teaching citations and sits on the NESA Science Board Curriculum Committee representing the Chairs of Academic Boards. In 2019 she received the UTS Medal for Excellence in Teaching and Research before joining UNSW Sydney in this current role.