Rate My Professor Susan Webb

Susan Webb is an Adjunct Professor (Research) in the School of Education, Culture & Society within the Faculty of Education at Monash University. She holds a BA (Hons), PGDip, PGCE, MA, and PhD. Previously, she occupied senior leadership roles in lifelong learning and widening participation at the University of Sheffield in the UK, where she was appointed Professor Emeritus in 2022. Webb relocated to Australia in late 2010 to join Monash University, shifting to a part-time research-only professorship in 2016 and fully retiring in May 2020 while continuing her research activities. She has supervised 23 PhD completions across her career.

Her research specializations include higher education and lifelong learning policy analysis and its effects on systems, staff, and students; access, participation, and social inclusion in tertiary education; learning cultures, identities, and careers; learning transitions from school to tertiary education and employment; work-based learning, workforce development, and skill utilisation; and the intersections of gender, migration, and learning informed by feminist theories and social justice. Key projects she has led encompass the ARC Discovery Project DP170101885 (2017–2020) on vocational institutions and undergraduate degrees, a longitudinal study of refugees’ access to higher education and employment in Australia, and an NCVER-funded investigation into geographical dimensions of social inclusion in education and training (2011–2014). Webb co-edits the International Journal of Lifelong Education and serves as a member of the International Labour Organization’s Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (2021–2026). Prominent publications feature the edited book Equity and Access to High Skills through Higher Vocational Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), The Palgrave International Handbook on Adult and Lifelong Education and Learning (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), and articles such as “Recognition and precarious mobilities: The experiences of university students from a refugee background in Australia” (International Review of Education, 2021) and “Aligning skills and lifelong learning for human-centred sustainable development” (International Journal of Lifelong Education, 2022). Her contributions have shaped discourse on equity in vocational and higher education globally.