Professor Beena Giridharan appointed Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor of Curtin Sarawak

Miri – 9 August 2016 – Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Beena Giridharan as its new Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor.

As a long serving academic staff at Curtin Sarawak, and with a proven and well regarded track record as Dean of Teaching and Learning over the past five years, Professor Beena brings a wealth of institutional knowledge, strong intra-institutional networks and an ambitious farsighted educational vision to her role.

Professor Beena began her academic career at Curtin Sarawak, the largest international campus of Curtin University, in 2000 and moved on to holding senior academic positions there since 2006. She was a visiting professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia, United States from 2007 to 2008.

She graduated with a BSc and M.A from the University of Calicut in India before pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Postgraduate Research in Education at Curtin University, WA. She attained a doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics and Education in 2011 from Curtin University, Western Australia.

Professor Beena has been a Fellow of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) since 2006, and serves as a mentor to aspiring HERDSA Fellows. She is also a panel assessor for HERDSA fellowship portfolios. In 2006, she won the Carrick National Australian Award for University Teaching and the Curtin Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award.

As a member of Australia’s Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded ‘Learning without Borders’ project, Professor Beena has investigated leadership roles in Trans-National Education (TNE) and internationalisation of curriculum.

She is an associate editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education, USA, and reviewer for a number of international journals in higher education.

Her publications include a book on Vocabulary Acquisition Patterns in Adult Tertiary (ESL) Learners (2013); an international handbook on Transnational Education: Leadership in transnational education and internationalisation of curriculum; several book chapters, as well as numerous publications in journals and refereed conferences. In addition, she is often invited as keynote speaker and plenary speaker at a number of higher education conferences both regionally and internationally.

Professor Beena’s research and academic interests cover vocabulary acquisition in ESL; educational administration and leadership; higher education practices; transnational education; work-integrated learning; and ethno-linguistic studies in indigenous communities.

In congratulating Professor Beena on her appointment, Curtin University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry said that in her new position, Professor Beena will provide academic, financial, strategic and administrative leadership to Curtin Sarawak, with a particular focus on academic operational efficiency.

Curtin Sarawak’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, President and Chief Executive Professor Jim Mienczakowski wished Professor Beena every success in helping the university achieve its institutional goals and keeping it consistently moving forwards and upwards.

For more information on Curtin Sarawak, visit its website (www.curtin.edu.my), its Facebook page (Curtin University Sarawak Malaysia), Twitter profile (curtinsarawak), YouTube channel (CurtinUniSarawak) or Instagram (curtinsarawak).