Bond University’s Dr Christian Moro has been named the joint winner of a top leadership prize at the AFR Higher Education Awards, for his work with medical curriculums.
Dr Moro was announced as joint winner of the Emerging Leader award at a gala dinner in Brisbane this week, alongside Professor Emma Kowal from Deakin University.
A national award-winning educator and science lead of Bond University’s medical program, Dr Moro developed a suite of innovative and dynamic educational resources to help student learning. These resources have been shared around the globe.
Dr Moro said he was thrilled not only for his own success, but for the recognition of Bond.
“I was very excited. I was up against professors so it was a little bit daunting being amongst that group. I was incredibly grateful and didn’t expect it,” he said.
“I’m so glad to see the industry acknowledging the good things that Bond is doing, and universities in general. We were a big part of it (the awards) with three nominations this year and it was an absolute honour to receive it (the prize) and be among those great people.”
Dr Moro said the work he had been recognised for was focussed on making health education more accessible.
“In the past a lot of health education, anatomy and physiology has been quite dry and has been focussed upon the rote learning from textbooks.
“I’m trying to get students and staff more excited about teaching about the human body because it’s such a fascinating and dynamic area.”
Nick Zwar, Bond University’s Executive Dean of Health Sciences and Medicine, said the accolade was a fitting reward for Dr Moro’s leadership.
“It is an outstanding example of Bond University’s focus on the student learning experience and makes use of technology to enhance rather than replace in-person student/teacher interaction.”
Last night’s success is not the first this year for Dr Moro.
In February, he received the Teaching Excellence Award (Early Career Category) at the 2018 Australian Awards for University Teaching.
Bond University had two other nominees at last night’s awards.
The university’s Kirakira program was a finalist for the International Education award. The Kirakira program is a multi-disciplinary international initiative providing students with work-integrated learning experiences in Kirakira, Solomon Islands.
Bond was also a finalist in the Facilities Innovation category, after the university embarked on an in-house program to convert traditional physiology and anatomy laboratories into digital learning spaces to encourage and enable participatory, self-directed, and flexible learning.
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