Tuesday 15 September 2026
The Pā, University of Waikato, Hamilton
Agenda for the day
Today is hosted by the University of Waikato, Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. Our thanks to the University for welcoming us, for the pōwhiri, and to the Waikato team that has made all of it possible.
Please gather on the concrete outside the waharoa gateway from 9:45. We will be welcomed into the Wharenui together, so nobody goes in ahead of the pōwhiri.
The Wharenui.
Te Kōpūroa. Please collect your name tag at the registration desk just inside the doors. This is the only registration window, so do come and find us.
The student view on assessment in 2026
A conversation with students about what assessment is actually like from where they sit, closing with one change each of them would make.
Meighan Hay Moderator
Advocacy Lead, Waikato Students’ Union
Matthew Lee
Undergraduate Education Vice-President, Auckland University Students’ Association
Matthew represents undergraduate students in academic decision-making at the University of Auckland, sitting on Senate and Education Committee and feeding student views into policy, curriculum and teaching practice. He works with faculty and school associations and the wider Student Council to bring student concerns to university leadership, and sits on AUSA’s senior leadership team.
Seamus Lohrey
President, Waikato Students’ Union
Seamus Lohrey is President of Te Awa Kōtui Waikato Students’ Union. He is completing a Bachelor of Laws with Honours at the University of Waikato and holds a Diploma in Te Tohu Paetahi, the University’s full-immersion te reo Māori programme. He has previously served as Vice-President and as a Director of the Union, and as a member of the Hamilton City Youth Council.
Ayla Brook
General Representative, Distance / Pāmamao, Te Tira Ahu Pae
Ayla Brook represents distance students at Massey University, where she is studying a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the East Coast of Northland. She has been a distance student for four years and has spent three years on student committees, and she came to the role after fifteen years working in marketing. Her focus is on health and wellbeing opportunities for distance students, and on advocating for them when things do not go to plan.
Reframing how we approach assessment
Professor Kathryn Sutherland
Centre for Academic Development, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
Dr Kathryn Sutherland is Professor of Higher Education in the Centre for Academic Development at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Her research and practice has three main areas of focus: academic working lives, holistic academic development, and working in partnership with students to improve teaching and learning. Through her research and practice, Kathryn aims to make universities more joyous and caring places to work and learn.
Trust is crucial in the assessment process, but we don’t often talk about how trust is built in university contexts. In this session, Kathryn will share international research on how university teachers and students conceive of trust, how they build trust, and why it matters for assessment and learning.
Cadmus and Waikato on where assessment is heading
Generative AI has moved the sector’s attention from detecting misconduct to assuring learning, and the practical consequences of that shift are still being worked out. Institutions are introducing oral and interactive assessment at scale, revising assessment policy, and returning to long-standing questions about assessment volume, often at the same time and with reduced staffing. Each of these carries a cost, and the evidence base for what works remains uneven.
Professor Jennifer Milam
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, University of Waikato
Professor Milam was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic in 2024, and has held senior national and international appointments across the tertiary sector in Australia and the United States. She is passionate about equity and sustainability outcomes for staff, students and the communities universities serve.
Herk Kailis
Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Cadmus
Herk is the Founder and Co-CEO of Cadmus. The Cadmus vision came out of an Entrepreneurial Fellowship at the University of Melbourne in 2016, sparked by his own experiences in higher education, and a mission to reimagine assessment as a guided experience rather than a stressful hurdle. Under his leadership Cadmus has become a trusted platform across leading institutions in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US, helping students in more than 50 countries.
Te Kōpūroa. Everything is labelled for allergens and dietary requirements.
Policy, assurance and strategy across the sector
A panel on what secure assessment means now, how institutions are moving from detection to assurance, and what it takes to bring staff and students with you.
Associate Professor Kirsten Petrie Chair
Assistant Vice-Chancellor Academic Excellence, University of Waikato
Kirsten Petrie took up the role of Assistant Vice-Chancellor Academic Excellence at Waikato at the start of 2026, alongside her position as an Associate Professor in Te Kura Toi Tangata School of Education. She began her career teaching health and physical education in secondary schools and has been at Waikato since 2003, where she has worked as an initial teacher educator and held academic leadership roles including Foundation Dean of Te Huataki Waiora School of Health. Her research covers curriculum and policy development, teacher professional learning, and the work of leaders operating from the middle of institutions, with a steady focus on equity and on what students actually experience.
Stephanie Reid
Associate Director, Learning and Teaching Design, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
Stephanie Reid leads Ranga Auaha Ako, the University of Auckland’s central learning and teaching design team. The team partners with faculties on curriculum and course design, assessment strategy and academic integrity, inclusive and accessible learning, kaupapa Māori pedagogies and learning technologies, and it runs TeachWell Digital, Auckland’s central hub for teaching practice. Her team publishes and supports the University’s guidance on the two-lane approach to assessment, which sorts assessment by conditions and purpose and is required across the University by 2027.
Jean Jacoby
Director of Education Futures, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University
Jean Jacoby is Director of Education Futures at Massey, a role she holds within the University’s Centre for Education Transformation. She has led Massey’s digital education work for several years, first as digital innovation director under the Digital Plus programme, where the focus was curriculum design for digitally enriched courses, support for staff developing their teaching, and work with new and emerging technologies. She went on to direct the Centre for Education Transformation, where her remit has covered Massey’s distance and online provision and the part flexible study plays in widening access for students who have been under-represented at university.
Professor Mick Grimley
Amo Ako Anamata, Dean Future Learning and Development, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury
Mick Grimley is Dean of Future Learning and Development at Canterbury, where he leads Tuihono UC, the University’s fully online offering of degrees, short courses and industry programmes. He has described its purpose plainly, saying it was designed for people who otherwise would not be able to study on campus, including working professionals, parents with family commitments and learners a long way from Christchurch. His own background is in educational psychology and technology in learning, with published research on multimedia learning and game-based teaching, and he returned to Canterbury after leadership roles at Torrens University Australia and Swinburne University of Technology.
Josh Burrell
Head of Product and Capability, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology
Josh Burrell is Head of Product and Capability within Academic Delivery and Development at Toi Ohomai, which returned to standing as an independent regional institute on 1 January 2026 as Te Pūkenga wound down. He previously led kaiako success and innovation at Toi Ohomai, work focused on building teaching staff capability across the institute’s campuses in the Bay of Plenty and South Waikato. He has spoken publicly about what generative AI means for tertiary teaching, and holds a Master of Technological Futures.
Practical examples from across the motu
From detecting similarity to assuring learning: Reorienting academic integrity in the age of AI
Professor Jason Stephens
Academic Head, School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
As generative AI renders “similarity” scores functionally meaningless, clinging to detection-based integrity frameworks is not just ineffective, it’s a distraction from the questions that matter. In this presentation, I argue that it’s time to reorient our attention and our resources toward learning assurance: evidence that students can think and write, apply and analyse, create and critically evaluate. A new direction is needed. The only question is whether we have the courage to pursue it.
Reducing academic integrity cases through programme-level assessment redesign
Hye Ji (Erica) Lee and Regan O’Malley
Associate Directors, Learning and Teaching, Te Ara Whakawhiti Massey University College
This case study presents a programme-level assessment redesign in response to generative AI at Te Ara Whakawhiti, Massey University College, the pathway college of Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. The College prepares international students for degree-level study while supporting both disciplinary learning and academic language development. Implemented in mid-2025, the redesign involved three key shifts: ensuring a secure proportion of invigilated assessment, placing greater emphasis on evidence of the learning process rather than the final product, and embedding interactive oral assessments to support verification of learning.
The session will discuss the rationale for these changes, how they were incorporated into programme-level assessment redesign, and what happened as a result. It will explore the role of research portfolios, interactive oral assessments, digital evidence of learning and Cadmus in supporting assurance of learning. Reflections will focus on the significant reduction in academic integrity cases, impacts on staff workload and emotional labour, and the rebuilding of trust and confidence between staff and students in the assessment process, as well as the opportunities and limitations of applying similar approaches in other higher education contexts.
Making thinking visible: Assignment redesign
Megan Clune
Professional Teaching Fellow, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
In response to the challenges and opportunities presented by generative AI, a master’s level assignment for Master of Education students was reworked in Cadmus to foreground process as well as product. The resulting framework scaffolded students through key stages of the assignment while making their progress and evolving thinking more transparent to teaching staff, in addition to significantly reducing academic integrity concerns.
Empowering students through supported and transparent assessments
Bronwyn Alton and Clare Crawshaw
Principal Academic Staff Members, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology
To help students succeed, we need to make assessments clear, fair and well supported. This session shares practical, real-world lessons on what actually works to improve student performance, and what does not. We will share our easy-to-use student management tips, and a clear guide on how to effectively onboard students so they know exactly what is expected from day one.
We will also share the results and honest insights from a recent group assessment trial, looking at how to balance student independence with the right amount of tutor guidance.
Taking it back to your own institution
Fifteen minutes at your table on what you would change first, then a short share-back. Your table is your group, so no need to move.
The Wharenui.
We’re grateful to the institutions and individuals who have helped shape Cadmus, and who continue to lead the way in teaching and learning innovation.
