Gan Yongtao, is a professor with a PhD in Comparative Education from Zhejiang University. She has visiting experiences at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, University of Maryland, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Currently, she serves as Director of Shantou University’s Chinese Language Education Research Center, Vice President of the Eastern Guangdong County High-Quality Development Research Institute, and Program Director of Education Postgraduate Program. Her research focuses on comparative education and ethnic education. She has published over 140 academic papers and 5 monographs, presided over multiple national social science fund projects, and holds key positions in academic associations. She is also a reviewer for over 20 SSCI/CSSCI journals.

Swapna Teckwani is an instructor with the Department of Physiology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. With over a decade of experience in STEM education, she specializes in integrating educational technology to enhance teaching and learning for medical and life science students. Her pedagogical approach centers on inquiry-based learning, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Swapna actively collaborates with researchers in medical science and health professions education, advancing innovative pedagogical practices. Her research interests span experiential and interdisciplinary learning; generative AI in teaching and learning; soft skills development and assessment through qualitative research; and mental wellness and resilience building for holistic student well-being. She is particularly committed to designing learning experiences that integrate formal curricula with authentic contexts to cultivate both academic competence and character development.

Associate Professor Saw Hoon Lim is an teaching-focussed academic in the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at The University of Melbourne. Saw Hoon is passionate about interdisciplinary teaching and learning and values the opportunity to explore and highlight the inter-connectedness across various themes and topics. She strongly believes in the collective wisdom of students and is a strong proponent of co-creation, breaking both hierarchical and disciplinary boundaries to achieve a meaningful and engaging learning experience for all. Associate Professor Rosa McCarty is a teaching focussed academic and is currently the Co-Director of Learning and Teaching in the Department of Biochemistry & Pharmacology, and Co-Director of the Master of Biomedical Science at The University of Melbourne. Her area of research expertise is tissue stem cell biology, having investigated the role of adult stromal cells in lung homeostasis, and bone marrow stromal cells for cartilage regeneration. Rosa has co-ordinated and taught into a diverse range of undergraduate and graduate subjects in stem cell biology, cell therapies, pharmacology, and interdisciplinary biomedical science. She is the lead co-ordinator of Frontiers in Biomedicine, a Bachelor of Biomedicine capstone subject, which was the winner of the 2020 MDHS Award for Learning and Teaching Achievement. As a passionate educator, Rosa’s educational practice is focussed on developing research and transferable skills through ‘purpose and product’, fostering scientific and medical advocacy, and seeing the ‘big picture’.

Dr Jia Jia Lek is an education focussed, senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne. She is passionate in teaching and her experience include teaching Opticianry and Optometry across Diploma, Bachelor, and Postgraduate levels. She’s actively involved in educational research for which she has received research grants and presented at local and international conferences. Her educational scholarship interests include student well-being, innovative teaching and learning methods including feedback, digital health technology and cultural safety.

Qin An is a PhD candidate at the Higher Education Development Center, University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand). Previously, she served as a senior lecturer at Chengdu Institute Sichuan International Studies University (CISISU, Sichuan, China). Her main research interests focus on enhancing teachers’ pedagogical and technological competencies and fostering students’ technology-integrated learning skills, including the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, Knowledge, Awareness, and Behavior Competence (KAB) framework, Information Security Awareness (ISA), AI ethics, students' use of Generative AI, and self-regulated learning. To date, she has published over 7 academic papers, including some in prestigious journals, such as the International Journal of Information Security. She currently serves as one of the associate editors for the Journal of Educational Technology and Innovation (JETI) and a peer reviewer for 2+ international journals, like Education and information technologies (EAIT).

Shasha Tang is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong. Her research centers on graduate employment and career decision-making in higher education, with a particular focus on the growing preference for stable public-sector employment among university graduates in China’s tier-one cities. Against the backdrop of labour market uncertainty and graduate unemployment, her work examines how institutional influences, gender, family background, and regional contexts shape students’ career choices, especially their increasing enthusiasm for civil service examinations. She is particularly interested in graduates with interdisciplinary academic backgrounds and advanced degrees, exploring how their educational trajectories interact with public-sector recruitment systems. Drawing on her professional experience in higher education, her research engages with discussions concerning the relationship between higher education and civil service recruitment.

Isabel Huet is a Full Professor in Education at the Portuguese Open university and an Honorary Doctoral Supervisor at the University of Liverpool (UK). Her research expertise covers multiple areas of higher education, with a focus on the professional development of academics, pedagogy, distance education and doctoral supervision. Over the years, she has explored the complexities of academic practice, particularly how academics engage in professional learning within institutional settings and how they foster authentic learning and research experiences for students in both face-to-face and distance education. More recently, her research has focused on professional learning and micro-credentials. Methodologically, she combines a phenomenological orientation with a pragmatic approach. She has coordinated several EU-funded projects and, in 2019, was awarded a British Academy research fellowship for a study on the professional development of postgraduate supervisors in the Brazilian Amazon region. She is a member of two research centres in Portugal: the Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers (CIDTFF) and the Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning (LE@D). ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6215-0448

Diogo Casanova is Vice-Rector for Innovation, Quality and Digital Transformation at Universidade Aberta (Portugal) and holds a PhD in Multimedia in Education. He developed a significant part of his academic career in the UK, working as a researcher and later as a faculty member. Between 2018 and 2020, he served as an Associate Professor of Education (Online Learning and Quality), leading two institution-wide projects supporting the transition from campus-based provision to distance and blended learning models. His research focuses on quality assurance and assessment in distance education and learning spaces design. He publishes in peer-reviewed journals, serves as a reviewer for leading international educational technology journals, and has extensive experience supervising and examining academic work in online learning design, learning analytics, and new media. His work has received international recognition, including award nominations. He is a member of the National Council for Pedagogical innovation, within the Artificial Intelligence interest group.

I am dedicated to advancing oral health through research, teaching, and evidence-based practice. I served as an Assistant Professor in Dental Public Health at Marks Medical College, Dhaka, from 2016 to 2022, including two years as Acting Head, where I taught, examined, supervised students, conducted research, and organized academic programs. Earlier, as a Lecturer (2011–2016), I contributed to curriculum development, mentored students, and led community oral health initiatives. I am also a reviewer for the PLOS One journal. I hold an MPH in public health and a BDS degree and am currently a PhD Fellow in Preventive and Social Medicine at Bangladesh Medical University, expected to complete in 2027.

Dr Mitra Javanmard completed her PhD in Midwifery at the Clinical Health Sciences Unit, University of South Australia, in 2020 and is now a Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at Edith Cowan University. With more than 32 years of midwifery experience and 11 years in academia, she brings deep clinical insight and scholarly expertise to her teaching and research. Her practice and educational philosophy are grounded in respect for human dignity, compassionate care for childbearing families, and the promotion of safe, culturally competent midwifery. Mitra is strongly committed to evidence based practice, applying sound reasoning, clear analysis, and creative thinking to enhance safety, quality care, and risk management. Her research spans qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, contributing meaningful insights to midwifery knowledge and practice. Passionate about lifelong learning, she integrates primary health care principles into her teaching and research, supporting the next generation of midwives to deliver safe and effective care.

Dr. Lulu Liu is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Higher Education, Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), China. She received her PhD in Education from the School of Education at Tsinghua University. Her research interests center on graduate education, with a particular focus on doctoral students’ academic development, resilience, socialization, and cross-border research training in research-intensive universities. Methodologically, her work is grounded in qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, with attention to how institutional structures, governance arrangements, and policy environments shape students’ learning experiences and developmental trajectories. Her research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Higher Education Research & Development and China Higher Education Research. Through her work, she seeks to contribute to international debates on graduate education, higher education governance, and research capacity development in changing global contexts.

Dr Stephen Tan is a management and marketing lecturer whose work turns disruption into scalable capability for future-ready organisations. He leads the Murdoch University Mentoring Programme, architecting governance, analytics, and frameworks that enable learning, research and professional development to scale in alignment with workforce and industry needs. Grounded in industry practice, Stephen’s research examines how technology disruption reshapes work design, leadership and employee outcomes, designing evidence-based interventions that enhance employee experience, learning, adoption, and engagement. He serves as Deputy Chair of the Board of Studies and the Learning & Teaching Innovation Committee, Academic Chair for postgraduate HRM courses, and Chair of HR Curriculum Advisory Committee, collaborating with industry partners to advance course learning outcomes mapping and accreditation-readiness. Stephen’s portfolio integrates rigorous evidence with practical delivery: mentoring-as-a-service ecosystem, ethics-aware AI capability-building, assessment integrity, and industry-partnered engagement that translates into measurable capability. His commitment is to sustainable workforce futures in technology-enabled workplaces.