About

Professor Jaclyn Broadbent is Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic Experience at Deakin University, where she provides university-wide leadership across academic workforce strategy, teaching quality, academic governance, and institutional quality assurance. Her work focuses on strengthening the academic experience for both students and staff through large-scale, sustainable reforms that align workforce design, academic standards, and educational quality.

In her current role, Jaclyn leads major institutional initiatives, including Deakin’s Academic Workforce Program, decasualisation strategy, and reforms to academic roles, workloads, promotion, and career pathways. This includes the establishment and progression of education-focused academic roles, redesign of promotion frameworks, strengthening of sessional academic compliance, and the development of policies and systems that support high-quality teaching and academic work at scale. Her approach is grounded in extensive collaboration with faculties, professional divisions, and senior leadership, translating strategy into workable institutional practice.

Previously, as Pro Vice-Chancellor Sessional Academic Experience, Jaclyn led improvements to the employment lifecycle of nearly 2,500 sessional academic staff, strengthening recruitment, retention, professional development, and compliance. This role provided a foundation in large-scale program leadership, workforce reform, and institutional change management, directly informing her current portfolio.

Jaclyn has also held senior faculty leadership roles, including Deputy Head of School in Psychology, where she managed workloads for 160 staff, led workforce planning, and supported strategic decision-making at school level. Earlier, during nearly six years as Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning), she directed major courses, managed large teaching teams, and led curriculum and teaching innovations that improved student outcomes. These roles underpin her deep operational understanding of academic work and governance.

An internationally recognised researcher, Jaclyn holds PhDs in Psychology and Education. Her research focuses on self-regulated learning, online and blended education, assessment, and effective teaching in higher education. She is ranked among the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University and Elsevier, has published over 60 journal articles and book chapters, and has more than 10,800 citations, with an h-index of 36 (Google Scholar). Her recent work bridges learning science, educational technology, and academic workforce design.

Jaclyn has extensive experience in academic governance and quality assurance. She previously served on Deakin’s University Course Standards Committee, contributing to the oversight of academic standards and compliance with the Higher Education Standards Framework across the University. She is also Deputy Chair of the Academic Board and an independent member of College Council at ISN Psychology, where she oversees academic quality, course approvals, policy development, research integrity, and accreditation alignment, and reports to Council on behalf of the Academic Board.

Her leadership and teaching excellence have been recognised through multiple awards, including Deakin Teacher of the Year (twice), an Australian Award for University Teaching Teaching Excellence Award, and an AAUT Citation.