Deakin University Postgraduate Research (DUPR) 2026 scholarship applicationsare now closed
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Scholarships are available annually for projects that align with CRADLE’s research themes and our current programs of research.
If you’re a domestic or international student specifically interested in the areas of assessment and/or digital learning, you can apply for a scholarship through the Faculty of Arts and Education to undertake your research with CRADLE. The successful applicant will work on a project that considers assessment and/or digital learning in higher education, and will contribute evidence to inform assessment research, policy, and practice. We welcome applications that align to CRADLE’s research themes, and encourage applicants to consult our list of prospective topics.
Who can apply for the scholarship?
Scholarship applications are open to domestic and international students. To be competitive for a scholarship you should already have an H1, first class, or 80%+ grade in your previous studies, especially in the research thesis component, or equivalent demonstrated high quality research experience. The scholarship will be awarded on a full-time basis based at CRADLE’s Melbourne CBD location, Deakin Downtown.
How does the application process work?
If you are interested in studying with CRADLE, you must apply via ResearchPoint. This requires the development of an original research proposal, which should be aligned with CRADLE’s research themes. Prior to submitting your expression of interest you should contact the relevant supervisor directly with a draft of your proposal and to discuss your eligibility and competitiveness for a scholarship
CRADLE’s research program seeks to establish what works to improve learning in higher and professional education. Our current programs of research include:
The digital world and its impact on learning and teaching
Feedback and feedback practices
Learning in, and for, the workplace
Evaluative judgement
Academic security and academic integrity
Inclusion and belonging in a digital world
Representation in and beyond assessment
Throughout this research we use cross-cutting approaches, including innovative methodological and theoretical approaches and knowledge transition.
Potential Research Topics
As part of the application process, prospective students must develop an original research proposal. Below is an overview of current CRADLE areas of focus, potential supervisors, and recent CRADLE publication(s) on those topics to illustrate the potential scope of work. We would expect a prospective candidate to develop their proposal taking one of these topics as a starting point, then share it with prospective supervisors prior to the application submission.
Effective feedback for learning – including feedback literacy
Potential supervisors: David Boud, Phillip Dawson, Juuso Nieminen, Joanna Tai
Feedback can have a positive impact on learning, but what makes for effective feedback? Beyond participating in well-designed feedback processes, students may need to develop particular strategies in how they approach feedback so that it has an impact on their learning, now and into the future. A project could focus on feedback literacy interventions, or feedback designs, including digitally mediated feedback and peer feedback.
Dawson, P., Yan, Z., Lipnevich, A., Tai, J., Boud, D., & Mahoney, P. (2024). Measuring what learners do in feedback: the feedback literacy behaviour scale. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 49(3), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2023.2240983
The implications of generative Artificial Intelligence for assessment and feedback in higher education
Potential supervisors: Phillip Dawson, Margaret Bearman
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) has disrupted previous ways of thinking about the purposes and designs of assessment and feedback in higher education. There is a need for the close study of what educators and students do in response to this. Students interested in this project could consider joining a larger team investigating how genAI interacts with assessment and could take a focus on educators or students.
Academic integrity and assessment security in online assessment
Potential supervisor: Phillip Dawson
As assessment has rapidly shifted online, and artificial intelligence has increased in its capabilities, many educators have expressed concerns about cheating. A range of assessment designs and technologies have been deployed in response. This project involves an investigation of the effectiveness of those approaches at addressing cheating (if it really is cheating), as well as their potential harms and benefits.
Dawson, P., Nicola-Richmond, K., & Partridge, H. (2024). Beyond open book versus closed book: a taxonomy of restrictions in online examinations, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 49(2), 262–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2023.2209298
Developing evaluative judgement
Potential supervisors: David Boud, Margaret Bearman, Joanna Tai
The capability to judge the quality of work of self and others is an important part of becoming a capable professional practitioner and should be intentionally developed during university studies rather than being left up to chance. How can learners be better supported to develop the ability to make judgements about their own learning? How can it be fostered in different contexts? How does it develop over time? This project might take a particular disciplinary or contextual focus to address these questions.
Tai, J., Ajjawi, R., Boud, D., Dawson, P., & Panadero, E. (2018). Developing evaluative judgement: enabling students to make decisions about the quality of work. Higher Education, 76, 467–481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0220-3
Fischer, J., Bearman, M., Boud, D., & Tai, J. (2024). How does assessment drive learning? A focus on students’ development of evaluative judgement, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education,49(2), 233–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2023.2206986
The role of the social world in feedback and assessment (e.g. culture, relationships, emotions, and power)
Potential supervisors: Margaret Bearman, Juuso Nieminen
Beyond the cognitive, there are significant emotional, social, and material influences on the way that feedback and assessment unfolds in the world, and shapes who learners might become. How might this change what learners, teachers or institutions do? This project offers the opportunity to research assessment or feedback as a cultural, social or sociomaterial practice.
Bearman, M., Ajjawi, R., Castanelli, D., et al. (2023). Meaning making about performance: A comparison of two specialty feedback cultures. Medical Education, 57(11), 1010–1019. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15118
New knowledge practices in a time of artificial intelligence
Potential supervisor: Margaret Bearman
Workplaces are increasingly mediated by big data, analytics and artificial intelligence. This has implications for universities and for learning-on-the-job. How do we navigate a world with new kinds of knowledge practices? This project could investigate learning practices across the continuum of higher and professional education.
Bearman, M., Ajjawi, R. (2023). Learning to work with the black box: Pedagogy for a world with artificial intelligence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 54, 1160–1173. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13337
The longer-term effects of assessment and feedback: student identities, being and becoming
Potential supervisor: Juuso Nieminen
Assessment and feedback are commonly portrayed as influential factors for student learning, but they also have longer-term effects beyond immediate learning outcomes. Assessment also influences students’ developing professional identities over time. How could we better understand how student identities are influenced by assessment? How could we design assessment that better considers the long-term processes of professional identity development? This project could explore these questions empirically, particularly through longitudinal approaches.
Nieminen, J. H. (2024). How does assessment shape student identities? An integrative review. Studies in Higher Education, 50(2), 287–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2334844
Alternative representations of achievement
Potential supervisors: Juuso Nieminen, David Boud
The use of traditional course/unit grades in higher education has been criticised in scholarly work at least for a century. Grades have been claimed to drive student learning; they have been called inaccurate and ineffective; and they have been connected to neoliberal and performative values. More recently, there has been criticism that they don’t portray the achievement of learning outcomes and that they are inappropriately aggregated into Grade Point Averages. So far, the criticism of grading has not led to change in the representation of student achievement on a wide scale. This project could consider the empirical effects of alternative forms of reporting outcomes of learning, or new theoretical approaches for thinking about portrayal of performance.
Ajjawi, R., & Boud, D. (2023). Changing representations of student achievement: The need for innovation. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 61(3), 597–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2192513
Stipend of $35,550 per annum tax exempt (2025 rate).
Top-up stipend of $5,000 per annum tax exempt for a CRADLE candidate.
Relocation allowance of $500-1500 (for single to family) for students moving from interstate or overseas.
International candidates only: Tuition fees offset for the duration of 4 years. Single Overseas Student Health Cover policy for the duration of the student visa.
Eligibility Criteria
Be either a domestic or international candidate (Domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship).
Meet Deakin’s research degree entry pathways scholarship requirements, including holding an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master’s degree with a substantial research component.
Be enrolling to study full time.
How to Apply
If you are interested in studying with CRADLE, you must apply via ResearchPoint when applications are open.
This requires the development of an original research proposal, which should be aligned with CRADLE’s research themes.
Prior to submitting your expression of interest you should contact the relevant supervisor directly with a draft of your proposal and to discuss your eligibility and competitiveness for a scholarship.
Subscribe to our blog to find out when applications are open again
Project: Understanding casualised, fixed-term and education-focused academics’ experiences of teaching and learning in online / hybrid space: A higher education equity imperative
Dr Darci Taylor
Thesis title:Enablers and Constraints to Student Becoming in Higher Education
Darci aimed to elevate student voices of becoming and identify constraints and enablers to becoming to generate insights into what a university for becoming could look like.
Darci suggests that students’ narratives of becoming are embodied and emotive, and that students conceptualise becoming as fluid, ongoing and relational: becoming happens with, and is influenced by, significant others.
Darci’s research was supervised by Deakin Distinguished Professor David Boud and Professor Phill Dawson. Darci graduated in September 2025.
Dr Jess Lees was appointed Honorary Fellow in January 2026. Dr Lees is Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, and holds a PhD from CRADLE and the University of Copenhagen.
For her PhD Dr Lees investigated how clinical educators navigate the integration of digital technologies while teaching the embodied, touch-based practices of physical examination.
Dr Lees’ research continues to focus on health professions education and she holds a Senior Research Fellowship within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
Thesis title: Exploring How Digital Technology Features in the Teaching of Physical Examination Practice for Health Professional Students
Jess investigated how clinical educators navigate the integration of digital technologies while teaching the embodied, touch-based practices of physical examination. Jess completed her PhD in partnership with the University of Copenhagen.
Thesis title: Evaluative judgement in undergraduate physics: A Practice Architectures perspective
Juan received a CRADLE strategic scholarship in August 2018 and since then has successfully completed research in the area of evaluative judgement. Juan argued that evaluative judgement needs to be understood in terms of what students do and not solely in terms of formative assessment design.
Sarah’s thesis investigates how recent innovations in open, online education can act as social justice for socio-economically disadvantaged learners. Recommendations are made on how to design open education programs to overcome histories of disadvantage for many learners who are traditionally under-represented in or excluded from higher education.
Thesis title: Digitization of Pathology: Exploring the implications of digital technologies in routine work, research, and medical education
Olsi’s thesis explores the shift to digital pathology in the medical specialty of pathology.
Olsi suggests that implementing and using digital pathology in primary diagnosis or the virtual microscope in pathology education is not unproblematic but requires attention to tensions and uncertainties across research, routine work, and education.
Lasse examined feedback processes in online higher education using digital ethnography, revealing three types of feedback encounters: elicited, formal, and incidental. Outcomes indicate that productive feedback encounters challenge students’ assumptions and occur when they are open to such challenges. This research contributes to understanding feedback as a contextual process, offering insights applicable to both online and campus education.
Thesis title: Datafying Diagnosis: Data Work in General Practice
Christoffer investigated how, in the current data surge, data interacts with diagnostic work in general practice, and to reflect on how to better prepare general practitioners to work in data-intensive environments.
Thesis title: How can assessment for learning meaningfully contribute to programmatic assessment?
Damian’s thesis explored supervisors’ and trainees’ difficulties in implementing ‘assessment for learning’ in postgraduate anaesthesia specialty training.
Damian suggests emphasising the coaching role and encouraging supervisor trustworthiness provide possible foci for interventions to enhance the contribution of assessment for learning to programmatic assessment.
The thesis explored how assessment activities in the first-year academic writing context can be designed more effectively to set up situations for students to develop their own writing evaluation skills. Abbas graduated in 2022.
Rebecca’s research investigated student engagement in assignment outsourcing using an international survey released in 22 languages. Rebecca graduated in 2023.
Thesis title: Professional Capabilities and Inclusive Virtual Simulation in Health Professional Education
Amanda explored how virtual simulations can help future health professionals build the professional capabilities they need, especially in ways that support inclusion and diversity.
Professor Yan Zi was appointed Honorary Professor in December 2020. He is a Professor, Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Executive Co-Director of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at The Education University of Hong Kong.
Professor Yan Zi’s research focuses on two related areas: (i) educational assessment in the school and higher education contexts, with an emphasis on student self-assessment; and (ii) Rasch measurement, particularly its application in educational and psychological research. His research aims to advance the understanding of assessment processes and how to optimise them to enhance students’ learning effectiveness and lifelong development.
Dr Jiming Zhou was appointed Honorary Fellow in November 2019. She is an Associate Professor at Fudan University, China, and holds a PhD in education from the University of Hong Kong.
During her year-long stay at CRADLE, Dr Zhou delivered a seminar on Chinese international students’ first year experiences in Australian universities.
Dr Zhou’s current research interests include assessment and learning, educational innovation, and students’ school-university transition.
Professor Naomi Winstone was appointed Honorary Professor in February 2020. She is Director of Surrey Institute of Education and Director of the Surrey Assessment and Learning Lab at the University of Surrey.
Professor Winstone is a cognitive psychologist specialising in learning behaviour and engagement with education research. Her research focuses on the processing and implementation of feedback, educational transitions, and educational identities.
Wendy Sutherland-Smith was made an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor in late 2023. Associate Professor Sutherland-Smith was working in academic integrity at Deakin’s Faculty of Health.
Associate Professor Sutherland-Smith is interested in higher education policy; constructing academic identities; assessment practices and innovation; cyberethics and intellectual property and plagiarism, cheating and issues of academic integrity.
Dr Edd Pitt was appointed Honorary Associate Professor in 2022. He is the Programme Director for the Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education and Reader in Higher Education and Academic Practice at the University of Kent, UK.
Dr Pitt’s principle research field is assessment and feedback, with a particular focus on students’ emotional processing during feedback situations. His research outcomes include peer-reviewed journal articles, international conference papers, book chapters, and a book. Dr Pitt has participated in two CRADLE international symposia.
An outstanding researcher, Ernesto Panadero was CRADLE’s first Honorary Professor, appointed in January 2016. Ernesto is the Ikerbasque Research Professor at Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao, Spain, and Director of CARPE at Dublin City University.
Ernesto has an excellent publication record, including well-regarded English and Spanish journals, book chapters, and international conference papers. He is also the convenor of the Special Interest Group 1 of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), which is the major international research association for assessment.
Ernesto’s research interests include understanding how to employ educational psychology methods and theories to better understand the effects of educational assessment.
Emeritus Professor Beverley Oliver was appointed Honorary Fellow in 2019. She is a higher education consultant and was formerly Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin University.
Dr Lasse Jensen was made an Honorary Fellow in late 2023. Dr Jensen is an education researcher and graduated cotutelle from CRADLE and the University of Copenhagen in 2023. Dr Jensen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen.
Dr Jensen is primarily working on the NNF programme Partnership for the Education of Health Professionals (PEP). PEP is a collaborative educational research and capacity development project bringing together nursing and medical colleges in India, Kenya, and Denmark. Dr Jensen’s research focuses on digital education; higher education, feedback; and health professions education in low-income settings.
Dr Karen Gravett was appointed an Honorary Associate Professor in 2023. Dr Gravett is an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of the PGCLTHE and AFHEA pathway at the University of Surrey.
Dr Sarah Eaton was appointed Honorary Associate Professor in January 2023. She is a Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary.
Dr Eaton has received research awards of excellence for her scholarship on academic integrity from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE) in 2020 and the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) in 2022. Dr Eaton has written and presented extensively on academic integrity and ethics in higher education and is regularly invited as a media guest to talk about academic misconduct.
Professor Mollie Dollinger was appointed Honorary Fellow in early 2024. She is the Director of Assessment 2030 at Curtin University.
Professor Dollinger’s research focuses on improving equity and inclusion for university students, often drawing upon participatory design and co-design approaches. Her current projects with CRADLE span topics such as inclusive assessment, contract cheating, and student belongingness.
Professor Sue Bennett was appointed a CRADLE Honorary Professor in June 2018. She is the Executive Dean, Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
An internationally recognised researcher, Professor Bennett investigates how people engage with technology in their everyday lives and in educational settings. Professor Bennett’s current research interests include: learning design for supporting teachers’ educational design practices; sociological perspectives on educational technology, investigating young people’s creative practices with technology; and functional brain imaging and multimedia based problem solving.
Dr Rebecca Awdry was appointed an Honorary Fellow in early 2023. Dr Awdry is a senior education consultant and graduated from CRADLE in 2022.
Dr Awdry has researched and written extensively on academic integrity, student outsourcing and contract cheating, and how this aligns with thinking about assessment and contextual elements of the student experience. As part of her research, Dr Awdry led and managed an international project on essay mills and outsourcing. She has extensive experience in reviewing university quality, policy, integrity and student experience processes, to embed more effective and improved systems for the university.
Professor Rola Ajjawi was appointed Honorary Professor in mid-2024. She is Professor of Medical Education at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Surgery and the Centre for Health Education Scholarship. She was previously a Professor at CRADLE.
Professor Ajjawi’s research seeks to create learning environments that support health professional trainees to succeed. She is particularly interested in the messiness of practice and workplace learning, examining how supervision can be embedded into clinical practices, how feedback processes unfold, and how to create equitable assessment in the workplace.
Project: Doctoral learning, supervision and assessment in the GenAI context – Changing digital conditions of/for learning
Juuso Nieminen
Juuso Nieminen is a Senior Research Fellow with CRADLE and has been collaborating with CRADLE since his PhD candidature in 2018 at the University of Helsinki.
Juuso focuses on the social, cultural, and political dimensions of educational assessment. This includes student agency, assessment design and student identity formation. Juuso’s work also covers inclusion, diversity, and belonging in higher education. He is particularly interested in examining how assessment takes shape, and shapes people, in a social world.
Deakin Business School, Faculty of Business and Law
Project: Evidencing learning outcomes a multi level multidimensional course alignment model
Paige Mahoney
Paige Mahoney is a Research Fellow at CRADLE. She holds a first-class honours degree in Professional and Creative Writing and History.
Paige has worked on a range of research projects examining pedagogical and professional issues in higher education, including sessional academic staff, assessment feedback, inclusive pedagogies, and academic identity. Her own research explores the complex intersections between history and fiction, gender and memory, and regional and national identities.
Project: Masks on or off? Are workplace-based assessments a tool for professional identity development or a setting for identity dissonance, for neurodivergent medical students?
Pro Vice-Chancellor Sessional Academic Experience and Professor in Psychology.
Project: Applying formative practices to summative assessment: A case study of a large class in the pursuit of sustainable assessment
Thomas Corbin
Dr Thomas Corbin is a Lecturer with CRADLE. Prior to joining us Tom taught critical thinking at Macquarie University, where he was a lecturer in the Philosophy Department.
His main research focus is on Education and Assessment Design at the intersection of Generative Artificial Intelligence and Work. Tom’s background in philosophy and critical thinking shapes how he approaches complex questions about AI’s role in education – focusing on both practical challenges and deeper implications for teaching and learning. In his spare time, he conducts research on Australian species of Cicada.
Nicole Crawford
Nicole Crawford is a Senior Research Fellow, currently working on several research projects at CRADLE. She was an Equity Fellow at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) and an educator in pre-degree programs at the University of Tasmania.
Nicole’s research interests include equity and inclusion in higher education, student and staff mental wellbeing, and enabling education.
Laura Hughes
Dr Laura Hughes is an Associate Research Fellow and has a background in biomedical sciences, psychology and addictions.
Jack Walton is a Lecturer within CRADLE. He holds a Bachelor of Music, and his PhD developed a theorisation of assessment in university music education.
His main research interests include assessment, judgement, and creative practice. Jack is fascinated by how people come to know quality, how they express themselves in situations where quality matters, and how education helps (and sometimes totally hinders) these ways of knowing and creating.
The question that interests Jack most right now is this: How can assessment practices value divergence in students’ expressions of achievement?
Kevin Dullaghan
Kevin Dullaghan is an Associate Research Fellow with CRADLE. Kevin assists the team with their research and manages the CRADLE Blog, website, and newsletter.
Kevin is interested in all areas of higher education research, particularly conducting surveys and interviews, identifying trends, and managing data. He first started with CRADLE looking into the murky world of contract cheating.
School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health
Project: Co-designing effective feedback: working with students and academics as collaborators to purposefully design feedback from clinical assessment
School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health
Project: How international students enrolled in a Masters program in the School of Health and Social Development engage with Deakin’s mode of delivery, assessment, and feedback
School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health
Project: Online self-reflection
Jaclyn Broadbent
Professor Jaclyn Broadbent is Pro-Vice Chancellor, Academic Experience, a Professor of Psychology and a member of CRADLE. Jaclyn’s background is multidisciplinary, with PhDs in Psychology (2011) and Education (2021).
Jaclyn’s leadership has been acknowledged through prestigious awards for innovative teaching practices, including Deakin Teacher of the Year (twice), an AAUT Teaching Excellence Award, and a Citation.
Jaclyn’s research focuses on online self-regulated learning as well as the development, evaluation, and translation of effective online teaching strategies to ensure student success.
Helen Walker
Dr Helen Walker is CRADLE’s Research Manager. Helen is responsible for the coordination of all internal and external research practices including compliance, governance, funding and contracts, reporting impact, and data management.
Rola Ajjawi
Professor Rola Ajjawi has a Bachelor’s Honours Degree in Physiotherapy and worked as a physiotherapist and clinical educator before moving into academia full-time.
Rola conducts research into work-integrated learning, assessment and feedback, evaluative judgement, professional identity formation, and student engagement, failure and persistence. Rola is one of the top Australian researchers in these fields.
Rola is Deputy Editor of the journal Medical Education and on the editorial board of Teaching in Higher Education.
Joanna’s research interests include student perspectives on learning and assessment from university to the workplace, peer-assisted learning, feedback, assessment literacy, developing capacity for evaluative judgement and research synthesis.
Margaret Bearman
Professor Margaret Bearman is CRADLE’s Professor of Research. Margaret holds a first class honours degree in computer science and a PhD in medical education.
Margaret’s interests are broad ranging and include assessment in university education, feedback in healthcare contexts, simulation and learning in a digital world.
Recognition for her work includes Program Innovation awards from the Australian Office of Learning and Teaching and Simulation Australasia.
Phill is most known for his research on feedback, cheating and artificial intelligence in assessment. His work is highly cited, and he ranks 6th internationally in the field of higher education research over the past five years (ScholarGPS).
In his feedback research, Phill is currently leading an ARC project into supporting students to make the most of feedback through developing their feedback literacy. This longitudinal study uses behaviour change techniques from the health and social sciences to help students develop and use feedback capabilities not just at university, but also in their graduate working lives.
In his cheating and artificial intelligence research, Phill is currently collaborating with Deakin colleagues on a major project on how to design assessment that is valid and appropriate for a time of artificial intelligence. This project builds on work Phill co-led that was funded by TEQSA.
Professor Boud is also Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. He is Australia’s most internationally renowned educational researcher in higher education. He is a global leader in the fields of higher education, workplace learning, and assessment and feedback.
His work is used both by researchers and scholars committed to the development of teaching and learning and he has changed the foundations of assessment practice through pioneering research and development.
