The latest from our academics on The Conversation

Have a read of some of our academics' latest contributions at The Conversation, an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector. The Conversation aims to provide a fact-based and editorially-independent forum, free of commercial or political bias.

• Dr Matt Harvey
• Dr Leonie Lockstone-Binney
• Dr Brianna Newland
• Associate Professor Anne-Marie Hede

To have a look at contributions from VU academics across the university, click on the 'Vu @ The Conversation' tab at the top of this page.

Transport Law unit an Australian first

L-R: Ron Bartsch, Dr Michael Spisto, Mr Charles Giacco

Earlier this month, BLO2502 Transport Law students were treated to a talk by Mr Ron Bartsch, aviation lawyer, UNSW academic, former head of safety operations at Qantas, and former B717 captain, addressed the Transport Law students (and other VLS/VU students and staff) on the topic of the history of Australian civil aviation regulation. Ron strongly supports this unit of study, saying "Victoria University must be commended for their initiative in identifying and promoting the importance of aviation law as a distinct and important area of law."

BLO2502 Transport Law is a unique law elective unit of study at Victoria Law School (VLS) which provides a specific focus on Aviation Law and Maritime Law in Australia. It is the only unit of study of its kind at any university in Australia.

Transport Law also involves a close industry connection, with participation from leading aviation and maritime industry representatives also involved in the delivery of Transport Law.

In addition to law students at VLS, Transport Law is also available as an elective unit of study to all Faculty of Business and Law students, as well as students from other institutions desirous of undertaking specialised studies in maritime or aviation law.

Any queries about Transport Law can be directed to the unit coordinator, Dr Michael Spisto, or to assistant lecturer, Mr Charles Giacco.

Faculty Researchers Look Into Sustainability

Researchers discussing sustainability research

Researchers from across the Faculty whose primary research area is sustainability met on Friday August 3 to talk about their work, share ideas, and to consider what makes our sustainability research 'distinctive'. Convenor Dr Colin Higgins (School of Management and Information Systems) said it was staggering how much good quality work was going on, the sophisticated nature of both qualititative theorising and statistical analysis, and also how much crossover there was in terms of climate change, water, reporting and evaluation, and evaluation of public policy.

Associate Dean (Research and Research Training) Professor Anne-Marie Hede has been keen to make sustainability a part of the Faculty's research strengths for some time. She said it was important the Faculty looked to leverage the university's distinctive specialisations and the Collaborative Reserch Network in a way that strengthened our prospects for the next ERA round.

Several of the researchers identified opportunities for collaboration and made plans to meet together again. Dr Higgins said 'Decision-Making' appeared to be something that cut across all of our work - and was a valuable way to start working towards some kind of distinctive profile. The group will meet again later in the year.

Hospitality Career Development Seminar report

18 Hospitality students attended the annual Hospitality Career Development Seminar, organised by Work Integrated Learning Co-ordinator Tania Piacente. This year the event was hosted by Crown Hotels.

L-R: Liselle Boykun, Paula Ntalianis, Jessica Dijanestic, Keaton Male,
Tania Piacente, Austin Norman

The first presentation was conducted by Paula Ntalianis, Training Manager, Crown Hotels & Retail. Our two current Co-op students at Crown, Jessica Dijanesic and Keaton Male, also conducted a presentation to students highlighting the benefits of undertaking Co-op at Crown, and explained the rotational nature of the program offered to successful candidates. Students work in various departments across the three Hotels – Crown Towers, Metropol and Promenade in areas such as Housekeeping, Bell, Reception, Reservations, Spa, and Crystal Club.

The second hour of the event was a tour of Crown Metropol. Students were able to tour the property and see the Crown Training College, guest rooms, Day Spa, pool and Club 28.

Mary Moran, a Tourism and Hospitality student, said of the event: "It was such an amazing opportunity to see part of the Crown complex and also what they have to offer both their guests, and individuals who would like to be involved in their organisation. It was definitely a very pleasurable and inspiring experience which really solidified where I want to be for my Co-op year as well as career-wise."

Ashleigh Peebles, a Hospitality student, also gave great feedback on the event. "It really highlighted what I can see in my future career and in the hotel and hospitality industry. The tour of Crown has opened my eyes to the opportunities in the hotel industry, and I endeavour to pursue a long career in the industry. Thank you again for a wonderful experience!"

Presentations news

Faculty of Business and Law Deputy Dean Professor Pauline Stanton and Associate Professor Elisabeth Wilson-Evered attended the prestigious Academy of Management Annual Meeting held between August 3 and 7 in in Boston, Massachusetts.  Pauline presented a paper titled ‘High Performance Work Systems and Social Identification’, which came out of a large study in the health sector and involved co authors from La Trobe University. A more developed version of this paper is now under review for the International Journal of Human Resource Management.

Professor Pauline Stanton also presented with PhD student Gitika Sablok at the Reassessing Employment Involvement and Participation Symposium, organised by the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing at Griffith University on August 15. Their paper is based on work from Gitika’s PhD thesis and is now under review for a special edition of the Journal of Industrial Relations.

AFISS hosts interview workshops

Earlier this month Accounting Finance and Investment Student Society (AFISS) ran the first instalment of their Workshop Series. The workshop, hosted by Ernst & Young's HR team, provided students with the opportunity to learn first-hand how to prepare a structured approach to job applications, allowing them to best highlight their demonstrated skills in alignment with requirements of the position.

AFISS workshop participants

Topics included:

• how to make your application stand out
• application don’ts
• what employers look for in interviews; and
• wow to answer interview questions with the S.T.A.R (Situation, Task, Action, Result) technique

Although the workshop was administered by Ernst & Young, the techniques described easily translate to the application process of other large financial employers. The session also gave students the opportunity to network with, and ask questions of the E&Y HR team after the presentation.

AFISS will be hosting more workshops in the same vein this semester, some of which will be held within the corporate offices of their sponsors. The next workshop in the series (AMP Horizons presents Rapport Building Workshop) will be run on the 4th of September.

Moot news

Following the success of the inaugural Hon. Michael Kirby Contract Law Moot Competition, the Victoria Law School is looking forward to this year's competition in October. We have so far received registrations from the Queensland University of Technology, University of Newcastle and the University of Western Sydney, and Victoria Law School will likely register multiple teams.

In other mooting news, the VU mooting team comprising of Melissa Radosavac and Robert Forrester advanced to the semi finals in the 13th International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot Competition, held from 6-10 July at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. Robert won the best speaker in the finals award. The team was coached by Vivi Tan and  Associate Professor Bruno Zeller.

A/Professor Bruno Zeller sits on the bench for the ADR Moot final

Associate Professor Bruno Zeller, visiting professor at City University Hong Kong, wrote a moot problem for a mediation/arbitration for the The International ADR Mooting Competition. Held from 29 July – 4 August 2012, the International ADR Mooting Competition is an international mediation and arbitration competition open to all universities. It is conducted by City University of Hong Kong in association with the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and Columbia University (New York).

The International ADR Mooting Competition is an international mediation and arbitration competition that is open to all universities. It is conducted by City University of Hong Kong in association with the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and Columbia University (New York).  Associate Professor  Bruno Zeller judged several moots, and sat on the bench for the final.


AFISS workshop participants

2012 Students In Free Enterprise National Conference and Competition

VU SIFE team with CaAtherine Meredith (far left), Deputy Dean Pauline Stanton (second from right) and  George Comodromos (far right)

Between 11-13th July 2012, the SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) National Conference and Competition was held at the Grand Hyatt in Collins Street, Melbourne. SIFE VU (Students in Free Enterprise at Victoria University) represented Victoria University and competed against 24 universities around the nation and proudly presented our five major projects that we have been working tirelessly on during the past twelve months.


Not only did the Nationals Competition provide attendees with the opportunity to see what projects other university teams had implemented, it also provided an amazing opportunity for students expand their networks with a panel of industry professional judges and students from other universities.

Although the team was unable to make it to finals, they nonetheless represented Victoria University in a positive light and made their presence known within the competition.

The team presenting team that participated in the competition comprised of Deepa Chand, Wei Ying Zee, Madhusha Wijayarathne, Baixue Ma and Sara Abbay and were supported by our Faculty Advisors, CaAtherine Meredith and George Comodromos and the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law Pauline Stanton and VU Alumni Tim Baxter.

Post Nationals, the team once again looks forward to continuing with our hard work and progressing with our projects.

Meet our People: Scott Murray

Scott in action at LSAP 

Scott Murray, the Faculty’s Student Recruitment Officer, started at Victoria University in December 2010. Originally from Western Australia, Scott completed an arts/law degree 2008 and worked full time at a law firm from November of that year until October 2010, when he moved to Melbourne to work at VU.

Scott has enhanced and expanded the Faculty’s Schools Engagement Program to a new level, building on the success of the IPAB and ABW competitions, creating from scratch the LSAP competition, and successfully engaging more and more students from a diverse range of schools across Melbourne. As a result, the Faculty enjoys a vastly enhanced profile amongst secondary school students and teachers throughout Victoria, with secondary school students lobbying their teachers to be involved with our program of competitions and events in the future!

Run for its second consecutive year from the City Flinders campus, ABW 2012 saw five teams competing in various challenges - some business simulation exercises, and others needing a more diverse set of skills - all requiring students to work effectively together, despite starting the competition as complete strangers. Students created creative trade displays and TV ads, and worked hard to build their sporting goods manufacturing businesses into great successes.

The iPAB Awards Night, held at City Flinders campus in August, saw VU alumni Jason Cunningham and Natalie Davies present prizes to students who’d created some fantastic business plans – including restaurants, retail stores, puppy day care and an innovative solution to shopping centre car park gridlock.

Scott also responds enthusiastically to invitations from schools to present law and business oriented workshops to students. These visits (to schools such as The Peninsula School, Mount Eliza, Marian College, Sunshine West and Genazzano FCJ College, Kew) have allowed Scott to promote our courses whilst engaging students in discussions about study options for careers in business and law. Given his own background and experience, Scott is also able to shed light on the day-to-day problems and challenges of working in the law.

Participants getting into the spirit of the inaugural LSAP competition

Perhaps Scott’s most significant contribution to the Faculty’s schools engagement program was the creation of LSAP – the Legal Studies and Australian Politics competition. Over 4 Saturdays in July and August, Victoria Law School hosted over 100 Year 10 and 11 students from well over 30 schools in Melbourne (and 1 in Bendigo!). Scott created this brand new competition, which tested students’ abilities in debating, mock trial, filmmaking, as well as encouraging them to develop their teamwork, leadership and communication skills. Participants in the 12 teams (each assigned a swag of coloured team T-shirts on their first day) competed in a wide range of different activities, and were mentored by VLS students. The Hon. Frank Vincent AO QC presented medals and trophies on the final day. With so many students participating and giving great feedback, Scott hopes the competition can run again in 2013.