Thomas Roche

Biography

Professor Thomas Roche is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality) and Dean of SCU College at Southern Cross University. He specialises in designing and managing quality university programs, with extensive experience supporting diverse student cohorts. He leads strategic education quality initiatives, including the Southern Cross Model, and has developed key frameworks for academic integrity and teaching scholarship. As Dean of SCU College, he oversees pathway programs that support entry for novice, international, and equity group students, ensuring they receive a transformative learning experience.

Professor Roche's work contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals

Research

Professor Roche's primary research interests are in Higher Education (HE) Teaching and Learning (e.g. HE curriculum design, immersive block models, HE pathways, non-traditional students in HE); Applied Linguistics (focusing largely on Additional Language Development (L2), English for Academic Purposes (EAP), University Direct Entry pathway programs, and Academic Literacies - including digital literacy).

Thomas recently co-lead the University's roll-out of the Southern Cross Model, a whole-of-institution transformation delivering better learning outcomes for students through immersive block learning.

In 2018-2019, he co-led the UECA National External Peer-Review initiative, the External Referencing of the ELICOS Standards and International Education (ERESIS) Project. The project's focus on developing benchmarking practices of institutional processes, curricula and assessment items against the 2018 ELICOS standards with 20 Australian University English Centres and 60 assessors using the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

He has also published on Middle Eastern cultural studies with a focus on the language of dress in the Sultanate of Oman.

Teaching

Professor Roche has extensive experience teaching and managing higher education pathway programs for international and domestic students in Australia, and degree programs in Oman in partnership with The University of Queensland. He also conducts curriculum reviews, benchmarking, and quality assessments for universities in Australia and overseas.

Other

• Member of the Australian Government’s TEQSA Register of Experts
• University English Centres Australia (UECA) national committee member
• Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) - College of Reviewers member
• Student Success Journal. Inaugural Editorial Board member