Professor Jennifer Howell

Professor Jennifer Howell is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) at UWA and is deeply committed to working across the University to deliver the internationalisation strategy and to support schools, centres and institutes with their global engagement activities. She has over 21 years’ experience in the higher education sector, most of which has been deeply connected to delivering value in global organisations, through improving the student experience, innovation in new products both locally and globally, and stewarding international partnerships both within learning and teaching and through active research collaborations. She joined UWA in 2022, previously she was Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor (Learning & Teaching) at Curtin University. Prior to this role, she was Dean, Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Humanities.

She has an outstanding record of strategic leadership across the education portfolio, developing and delivering strategic innovations such as; learning platforms, micro credentials, enabling pathways and redevelopment of offshore campuses. She has led numerous partnerships with global institutions and has a particular focus on seeing these through to the operational stage as she believes transformation needs to be embedded and operationalised if it is to be effective. She has also led several significant change projects at the faculty and across-institution levels.

She has been an active member of several school and advisory boards (such as; Lesmurdie Senior High School; Guildford Grammar School; Navitas Selection Panel; Navitas Curtin University Campus Design Working Group) and been a representative in various state and national committees (Australian Council of Deans in Education (ACDE); the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCASA); the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS); the Australian Technology Network (ATN); Universities Australia DVCA Group; TEQSA; Teacher Registration Board: WA and QLD).

Professor Howell completed her PhD at Queensland University of Technology and is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her academic discipline is online learning and educational technologies through which she was created Professor in 2018. However, she began her academic career in the Humanities, in the areas of literature and history. Her current research focus is the use of digital badging to support learning journeys and the creation of online learning experiences which mimic f2f via the use of virtual and augmented learning tools. She has a long track record of research collaborations in Australia, the USA, UK, SE Asia and India and has been a Chief Investigator or team member of externally funded research totalling $1.6M.