Professor Shirley Alexander’s enduring legacy

As she approaches retirement, Professor Alexander can reflect confidently on what has undeniably been a remarkably successful career. 

She is a highly respected academic who rose to the very top of her profession, whose international career included shaping higher education policy, and whose leadership at UTS helped to forge the university’s reputation for being future-focused and industry-led. In recognition of her outstanding service to the tertiary education sector, in particular for innovation in teaching and learning, she was recently made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

“I think the thing I’m most proud of is that UTS has always been incredibly innovative,” says Professor Alexander. “We’ve always been willing to do things a bit differently.”  

Her journey is all the more exceptional for its unconventional trajectory. 

Growing up in a small town of 5,000 people in the NSW Riverina region, she had no inkling of what lay ahead of her.  

“We lived in public housing and nobody in my family had ever been to university,” says Professor Alexander. “Kids like me just didn’t get those kinds of opportunities.” 

After dropping out in year 11, Professor Alexander undertook the HSC as a mature-age student via a rigorous year-long matriculation course at TAFE. 

“It was the hardest year of my life,” she says. “But it was a second chance that got me into university and the rest of my career.” 

It was a second chance that stuck with her, crystallising her belief in the necessity of equal access to quality education, and the need for those in a position of privilege and power to remove barriers to access for the underprivileged. 

Education has been really life-changing for me, says Professor Shirley Alexander. I had amazing opportunities in my life, so I want to make sure other people do too.

The hurdles, however, didn’t stop there. Just weeks after giving birth to her daughter, she was unexpectedly widowed when her husband was killed in an accident. Despite grappling with grief, she was determined to pursue a university degree.  

“But I could only do it part-time because I couldn’t afford the childcare,” she says.  

Education proved to be precisely the stepping stone she needed, eventually launching her into a career in academia, but she has never forgotten how hard she had to fight to get there. 

She joined a freshly amalgamated UTS in 1992 as a lecturer in the Centre for Learning and Teaching and quickly established herself as an academic whose trailblazing research on the use of technology in education fundamentally reshaped the sector. 

In 2005 she was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Education and in 2007, in recognition of her talent for leadership and student advocacy, she was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students). It was here that she developed her signature ‘students-as-partners’ approach. 

“I started reading all the student survey comments because it gave me really good insight into what works and what doesn’t,” Professor Alexander explains. “It’s important that students are always ‘at the table’, rather than ‘on the menu’.”

Every year she sets aside several weekends to read through every single student feedback form, sifting through the commentary to identify the most pertinent issues for each cohort. 

“When I can see patterns and themes emerge, then we turn those back into projects.” 

Her commitment to the student body also revealed itself through her generosity as a donor, determined to improve access to education for underprivileged students – just like she had been. 

In 2012, she established the Shirley Alexander TAFE-UTS Pathways Scholarship to support students from difficult backgrounds with interrupted schooling, whose experiences frequently mirrored her own. 

“I wanted to give back and enable other people in difficult situations to have the same opportunity.” 

She is also an enduring member of the UTS Staff Giving Program, directing her regular contributions to the Student Facing Financial Hardship fund designed to support students in need of critical financial aid to complete their education. 

Students like Belinda , a first-year student who had relocated to Sydney to study at UTS and was battling to meet the costs of living.

“My family has assisted me as much as they can, but I am struggling to cover my expenses,” Belinda wrote in her application. “Rent is by far my biggest expense and any financial assistance towards this would greatly increase my chances of succeeding, enabling me to focus on my studies without having to look for full-time work.”    

Belinda was awarded a housing rental subsidy in the 2021 spring semester and went on to receive two distinctions and two credits for her subjects.

“Professor Alexander is an inspiration to us all, and her commitment to the student experience bears out in every part of her legacy at UTS,” says Celia Hurley, Vice-President, Advancement. 

“Because of donors like Shirley, we are able to invest in our students by providing transformative financial relief. This is one of the most rewarding things we can do because we know it has a multiplier effect – students feel empowered by this support and go on to achieve great success not only for themselves but for their communities, creating real and lasting change in the Australian landscape.” 

Professor Alexander has also made several one-off gifts to the same fund, including a substantial donation made in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I could see just how tough it was for so many students”, she explains. “The scenes of international students queuing around the corner to get free food because they just didn’t have any money was heartbreaking.” 

She also finds time to mentor – especially mid-career female professionals who admire her extraordinary work ethic and versatility, and student leaders seeking out her advice. 

While she is looking forward to retirement at the end of June and spending time with family, she can’t help but keep one eye on the future. 

“One of the things I’m really interested in is how UTS is going to contribute to Australia’s long-term prosperity,” muses Professor Alexander. “We have to increase our productivity if we are going to continue our middle-class lives. We need to harness automation, and I see UTS having enormous opportunities to contribute to that.”