Jeanette Baird is Vice President Quality Assurance at Divine Word University in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Professor of Higher Education. Prior to joining DWU in 2016, she was Adviser to the PNG Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST) from 2012 to 2015. Her work with DHERST was primarily on quality assurance and included supporting quality audits of all PNG universities and the development of new higher education legislation. She was a member of the DHERST Technical Working Group that in 2016 reviewed and made recommendation for revisions to the PNG National Qualifications Framework.

In 2011 and 2012, Jeanette was the inaugural Executive Director, Regulation and Review, at the Australian Tertiary Standards and Quality Agency (TEQSA). Before that she was at the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), where she was audit director and subsequently executive director in the transition from AUQA to TEQSA. During 2011, she also provided advice to the Australian Government on legislation and standards for the new Agency. Prior to 2005, Jeanette held management and academic positions in several Australian universities and management positions in the Australian Government public service. She is a Senior Fellow of the LH Martin Institute in tertiary management and leadership at the University of Melbourne and continues to teach and assist the Institute’s online learning programs.

Jeanette has been the chair or panel member for many external quality audits of universities and higher education institutions in countries that include Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Mauritius. She has advised internationally on higher education quality assurance and standards in a range of countries in Asia and the Pacific. While at AUQA, she was a member of the team that assisted in establishing an external quality agency for higher education in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In 2015, she was a member of the APQR panel that conducted the review of the Fiji Higher Education Commission.

Jeanette’s research interests include higher education systems in developing countries, university governance and metagovernance, academic identities, and quality standards.

Contact Details:
Prof. Jeanette Baird
Vice-President, Quality Assurance and Professor of Higher Education, Divine Word University,
Papua New Guinea
E-mail: jeanettebaird44@gmail.com,  j.baird@dwu.ac.pg