User:LuckyCat/sandboxBelindaProbert

Belinda Probert (1949-) is a leading educator and social scientist who has advised non-government organisations and state and national governments in Australia. Her academic research and writing has been in the areas of employment policy, gender equity, and work and welfare reform, including households and the domestic division of labour. She has held extensive senior leadership roles in a range of universities as well as with the Australian Research Council, where she was a member and Deputy Chair of the Research Training and Careers Committee (1993-1998), and member of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences Expert Advisory Committee.

In 2000 Probert was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Other key appointments have been Chair of the Best Value in Local Government Commission Victoria, member of the Work Family and Community Life Advisory Committee of the Office of Women’s Policy in the Department of Premier and Cabinet of the Victorian State Government, and Commissioner of the Australian Council of Social Services Future of Work Commission. Probert was a foundation member of the Carrick Institute/Australian Learning and Teaching Council (2004-2009).

Early life
Born in Brentwood, Essex, England, Probert gained her B.Sc (Economics) in 1971 at University College, London. After two years working as a research assistant at the Northern Ireland Research Institute, Belfast, Ireland, Probert gained a Social Science Research Council scholarship to carry out postgraduate studies at Lancaster University and was awarded a PhD in Politics in 1976. She settled in Australia in 1976 to take up a lectureship in Social and Political Theory at Murdoch University in Western Australia.

Career Path
In 1980 Probert moved interstate to take up a Research Fellowship in the School of Social Sciences at Flinders University, South Australia. The next year she moved to Monash University, Melbourne where she held the positions of Lecturer (1981-1984) and Senior Lecturer (1984-1990) in Sociology.

She then gained a Senior Research Fellowship at the Centre for International Research on Communication and Information Technologies (CIRCIT), in Melbourne (1990-1993). From 1993 to 2004 Probert was employed at RMIT University, Melbourne taking up positions at RMIT as Professor and Head of the Department of Social Science (1993-1996). as well as Executive Editor of the journal Labour and Industry, and subsequently, she was appointed Director of the Centre for Applied Social Research (1997-2000), Head of the School of Social Science and Planning (1998-2001), Dean of the Faculty of the Constructed Environment (2001-2002), and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Design and Social Context) (2003-2004).

In 2004 she moved back to Western Australia, this time to the University of Western Australia to take up the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) (2004-2006). Towards the end of her term the university became embroiled in controversy when the software system crashed. The Chancellor suddenly resigned the following year and factions formed around the role of the Vice-Chancellor. Probert publicly supported the Vice-Chancellor, an outsider with no background as a working academic and the first female head of a university in Victoria.

In 2005 she represented the Department of Education and Training on the Curriculum Council of Western Australia. It was also in this year that a major research paper, "‘I Just Couldn’t Fit It In’: Gender and Unequal Outcomes in Academic Careers" was published in the journal Gender, Work and Organization.

At the beginning of 2006 she moved to Victoria to take up a five-year appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne.(2006-2007). She began her task of guiding the Faculty through a difficult and controversial restructure of the university to a two-tier US-style teaching model that involved significant cuts and strident staff reaction. She resigned after only sixteen months, citing personal reasons rather than work pressure. She wanted time to care for her elderly mother in France and to be with her daughter in London.

She returned to the State of Victoria in Australia the following year to take up the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor at La Trobe University (2008-2012), When a restructure occurred at La Trobe University in 2011 with the departure of the Vice-Chancellor, she retired from active university service to focus on policy and research work, retaining an Adjunct Professor role in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce at the university.

Probert was a Director of the Methodist Ladies College, Melbourne (2010-2013) during which time the Board controversially dismissed the Principal for having received significant overpayments.

Since then Probert has been seconded to the Office for Learning and Teaching in the Department of Education (2013-2015), and has acted as a consultant and media commentator in educational services.

Major Published Works

 * Beyond Orange and Green: The Political Economy of the Northern Ireland Crisis, Belinda Probert. Zed Press, London and Academy Press, Dublin. 1978
 * Women, Academic Appointments and Australian Universities, Belinda Probert. Federation of Australian University Staff Associations, 1984.
 * Working Life: Arguments about Work in Australian Society, Belinda Probert. McPhee Gribble,1989.
 * Clerical Work and Award Restructuring: Questions about Skill, Training and Pay Equity, Belinda Probert. Policy Research Paper, CIRCIT (Centre for International Research on Communication and Information Technologies), 1991.
 * Report to the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme: Young Workers in Technologically Advanced Industries, Belinda Probert and White, Sue. National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, Centre for Education, University of Tasmania, 1991.
 * Remote Office Work and Regional Development: the Australian Securities Commission in the La Trobe Valley, Belinda Probert and Andrew Hack. Policy research paper CIRCIT, 1991.
 * Pink Collar Blues: Work, Gender & Technology, Belinda Probert and Bruce W Wilson (eds). Melbourne University Press, 1993.
 * Part-time Work and Managerial Strategy: Flexibility in the New Industrial Relations Framework, Belinda Probert, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. 1995.
 * The Work Generation: Work and Identity in the Nineties, Belinda Probert with Fiona Macdonald, Brotherhood of St Laurence. 1996.
 * Pay Equity in Australian Higher Education, Belinda Probert, Peter Ewer and Kim Whiting.. National Tertiary Education Union, 1998.
 * Building the Foundations of our Future : a National Research Project Exploring the Context of Women Teachers' Work in the Late 1990s, Belinda Probert et al., Australian Education Union. 1999.
 * Young Women: Poles of Experience in Work and Parenting, Belinda Probert and Fiona Macdonald, Conference Proceedings, Brotherhood of St Laurence. 1999
 * ‘Gender Equity in Academic Employment at University College ADFA’, Belinda Probert. Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University. 1999
 * Pressure From All Sides: Life and Work in the Finance Sector, Belinda Probert, Peter Ewer and Kim Whiting. Finance Sector Union, 2000.
 * Work in the New Economy: Problems, Programs and Policy¸ Jenny Lee, Belinda Probert and Rob Watts (eds), Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University, Melbourne. 2000.
 * Balancing Work and   Family Responsibilities: Policy Implementation Options, Iain Campbell, Sara Charlesworth and Belinda Probert. Office of Women’s Policy, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victorian State Government. 2002.
 * ‘Gender Equity in Academic Employment at UNSW’, Belinda Probert, Peter Ewer and Kim Leong. Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University. 2002.
 * Restructuring Work: Family, Identity and Social Change, Belinda Probert. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
 * "‘I Just Couldn’t Fit It In’: Gender and Unequal Outcomes in Academic Careers", Belinda Probert. Gender, Work and Organization, vol. 12, issue 1, 2005, pp. 50-72.
 * Double Shift : Working Mothers and Social Change in Australia, Patricia Grimshaw, John Murphy and Belinda Probert (eds)., Melbourne Publishing Group. 2005
 * Teaching-Focused Academic Appointments in Australian Universities: Recognition, Specialisation or Stratification?, Belinda Probert. Office for Learning and Teaching, Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. 2013
 * Why Scholarship Matters in Higher Education, Belinda Probert. Office for Learning and Teaching Discussion Paper Series, Australian Government Department of Education, 2014.
 * Becoming a university teacher: the role of the PhD, Belinda Probert. Office for Learning and Teaching, Department of Education
 * The Quality of Australia’s Higher Education System: How it Might be Defined, Approved and Assured, Belinda Probert. Office for Learning and Teaching, Department of Education. 2015.