Susan Webb

Sue Webb is a Professor of Education at Monash University. Her current research includes the following:

1.'Vocational institutions, undergraduate degrees:distinction or inequality' which aims to identify the effects of broadening participation to undergraduate degrees through the recent expansion of higher education in vocational institutions.(funded by the Australian Research Council)

Previous research has included:

2. '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; and another project on the post-school participation in education and training of young people from low socio-economic status backgrounds in regional Victoria and South Australia. The research was funded by the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVER);

3. 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 (funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England).

Prior to moving to Australia in late 2010, Sue Webb was Professor of Continuing Education and Director of the Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of Sheffield, UK. She is known internationally for her research and leadership in the field of adult education and lifelong learning where she has published, lectured and provided external advice to a number of universities in the UK and in New Zealand. Specifically, she has researched the policy effects and practices related to widening access and participation of disadvantaged students in the field of lifelong learning and further and higher education in the UK and Australia. Her theoretical contribution has been to develop 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. Through this her work has contributed to policy development at institutional, and national and European level where she has been employed as an expert in relation to European Union research on migration, language learning and ICT.

Professor Webb's research has been widely published in the academic arena and in various books and resources aimed at practitioners, as well as researchers. Currently, she is co-editor of the journal International Journal of Lifelong Education. Through her role as journal editor and her membership of Learned Societies she regularly acts as peer reviewer for scientific committees, such as the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE) and the Standing Conference for University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (SCUTREA), for various adult and lifelong learning and gender focused education journals, as well as, for funders such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK). She is also an editorial board member for the journals Studies in the Education of Adults and Teaching in Higher Education.