John O’Neill: Today we are at Melbourne’s Victoria University, an institution undergoing a remarkable transformation. Much of that is being driven by Naomi Dempsey, who is focused on reimagining the student experience. Naomi is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Students and is driving much of this change. Naomi, welcome to Customers Matter.
Naomi Dempsey: Thanks, John.
John O’Neill: First of all, many of your students are the first in their family to study at a university. I think that is something the University has traditionally been very proud of. How does that affect the way Victoria University operates?
Naomi Dempsey: VU is very conscious of first-in-family students. We have programs and strategies centered on this context, particularly in the West of Melbourne. It is vital for us to consider their journey from the point they are interested in a course, through inquiry and application, and how we support them during that process. We may not know they are first-in-family at that point, but we ensure they have a successful and enjoyable onboarding experience during enrollment.
Understanding that journey as both a customer and a student is important. We are aware of the challenges they face in their early weeks and months of study through our work in journey mapping. We understand that for first-in-family students, their families are part of the journey as well. Consequently, we intentionally run family information days as part of our orientation. We carve out a weekend in the schedule and invite students and their families—children, siblings, and friends—onto campus. It has a carnival feel where we can orientate families to university life, as many have usually never stepped foot on a campus.
John O’Neill: That is amazing. I had not really thought about it, but it must be a celebration for the entire family to have a child go to tertiary education for the first time in their lineage.
Naomi Dempsey: That’s right.
John O’Neill: Yes.
Naomi Dempsey: For students to be successful in higher education or TAFE, it is important that the wider family understands what the experience will be like. They need to understand the academic and teaching aspects, as well as the administration and support systems. These can be quite large to navigate, especially if you do not have stories or experiences handed down from your family. We ensure families sit in on briefings and orientations so they understand everything from where to go for counseling to how to pay fees and what supports are available.
John O’Neill: Emotionally, the role VU plays might be quite different from the role a Group of Eight university might play for its cohort. Do you see this opportunity to introduce tertiary education to whole families as effecting a different culture? Is it a different style of institution because of this role, compared to a traditional “sandstone” elite university?
Naomi Dempsey: Possibly. Those universities also have first-in-family students, but likely not to the level that VU does. Many of our students face additional background challenges, including cultural challenges regarding study preparedness and English language skills—all the things you need help with when starting academics.
John O’Neill: In other words, you have a significant population of migrant children. I assume the Polytechnic is also part of that picture? How does that sit together?
Naomi Dempsey: The Polytechnic is a vital part of VU—it is now the VU Polytechnic. It is important for how we pathway people. It gives people a fantastic vocational education while providing access to university if they choose that path. We pathway many of our courses directly into the university side of VU.
John O’Neill: Within the university sector in Australia, there is a bit of a “buzz” around VU. You have had to take radical steps to turn the institution around. Can you tell us about the challenges the University was facing and what you have done to meet them?
Naomi Dempsey: VU faced challenges on many fronts, particularly regarding a declining student load due to market changes and the funding landscape in both the university and TAFE sectors. This put pressure on the business to reimagine itself and find innovative, transformative ways of doing things. VU has been an exciting place to be because of the opportunity to be part of something unique and a first of its kind in Australia.
Specifically, we changed our teaching model. We no longer teach first and second-year higher education units in parallel; we now teach them in sequential blocks of four weeks. These are deep, immersive units of learning. We have changed the rhythm of the semester mode in the university sector. We have just completed the first year of this model and are about to move into the second year. We have a few more years of course and unit design development to complete the full undergraduate experience before considering other cohorts.
John O’Neill: To tease out this “Block Learning,” as it’s called: what is the experience for a student now compared to previously? Why has this been so important to the changes you are making?
Naomi Dempsey: When we looked at retention challenges in undergraduate studies, we found that in a traditional twelve-week semester cycle, students learn four units in parallel. They might not receive constructive feedback via assessment until weeks eight to ten, and they receive it for four units at once. Timetabling and managing life, study, and work had to be juggled around those four units. Students were traditionally on campus longer to manage those demands.
We have staggered those blocks one at a time. Now, students are required to be on campus three times per week for around three hours. They engage in other series of learning with peers and teachers through different channels, but there are only nine hours of face-to-face contact per week in the current model for first year. This has given people flexibility around work arrangements, caring responsibilities, and other life matters.
John O’Neill: In many respects, it sounds like you have made it more efficient and accessible.
Naomi Dempsey: I hope it is more efficient. It is still early days; we have only delivered the first year. There are many learnings and refinements going into the second year. We are about to see what happens as those first-year students progress into the second year using that same mode of study. Some students are in mixed modes due to their specific units, so we are learning from that. However, early indicators show our retention, pass, and participation rates are all up. This tells us it is the right model for us.
John O’Neill: Is VU the first university in Australia to introduce this model, and is it done anywhere else in the world?
Naomi Dempsey: We are the first in Australia to implement what we call the VU Block Model in higher education. It is done overseas, and we spent a lot of time talking to those institutions about how to contextualize it for our cohort and organization. The way we do it is slightly different from the overseas models, but it is exciting to roll it out through our undergraduate and potentially into postgraduate programs.
John O’Neill: You have transformed the onboarding and learning experiences by getting to know the students and empathizing with them. These are big shifts. What else is happening in the university world in response to these challenges?
Naomi Dempsey: We have spent years understanding the customer and student journey across different cohorts. Through journey mapping, we’ve learned that this work is not “set and forget”; it must continue because student demographics and expectations constantly change.
We are getting better at understanding the first-year journey because we focused our efforts there last year. This goes beyond teaching and learning outcomes to understanding the student as a whole. Our journey mapping showed we needed several enablers, so we invested resources into issues students identified as priorities.
These included our CRM performance and connectedness across the organization—from marketing to sales, service, and engagement. We also invested in digital platforms. Now, offshore students can enroll via mobile phone before they arrive; previously, they had to wait until they got here. We have directed effort into knowing who a person is from the minute they first inquire about a TAFE or university course. Additionally, we’ve focused on the capability of our staff, who have had to learn new skills based on the changing environment.
John O’Neill: So there has been a transformation of the digital experience as well?
Naomi Dempsey: Absolutely.
John O’Neill: What about the physical experience of being on campus? How have you adjusted that?
Naomi Dempsey: Our campuses were built for the previous model of higher education—large lectures and similar setups. Because the Block Model uses a small class model, we had to make our spaces fit for purpose. This involved remodeling existing spaces to accommodate class sizes of twenty to thirty students. With eight campuses in Melbourne, this has been a significant challenge.
From a student-centered design perspective, we’ve considered how students move through our services and touchpoints to reduce duplication. We’ve started building co-located spaces where students partnered with us in the design. We also consider how the physical aligns with the digital. This is important because students are on campus less often due to the teaching model. Therefore, the digital experience must be as replicated and simplified as the physical experience.
John O’Neill: Regarding your own background, I know you spent time in sports administration. I imagine a rounded education is both intellectual and physical. Could you share your professional pathway to this role?
Naomi Dempsey: I had a non-linear pathway. I am a proud Alumna of Victoria University. I took a very indirect route over many years. I worked in vocational education for a long time, from teaching to apprenticeship and RTO management. That led me to the sport and community recreation sector.
That time was important because I learned about facilities and venues, which are handy in an institutional environment like VU. I also learned about people, customers, and membership environments. I have applied those learnings about membership communities to how we should treat students. When I started, there was a very different culture regarding students. VU has transformed through the efforts of like-minded people who understand the experience we should be delivering.
John O’Neill: In lay terms, what was the student experience like then versus now?
Naomi Dempsey: We started a rigorous transformation agenda about five years ago. We had to completely reimagine ourselves, which meant centralizing the university and changing service delivery and digital offerings. When I joined, the focus was on what the institution felt was best for the student, when it was best, and how it was best.
Our work now focuses on student-centered design, considering the value they receive and what they will say about us when they leave. We call it a “Student First” approach. We try to view things through many lenses, not just one, because our cohort is diverse—not just across the dual sectors, but within different disciplines and campuses. There are different “tribes” everywhere you go.
John O’Neill: Could you paint that picture? How many students are we talking about, and what is the feel of that diversity?
Naomi Dempsey: We are a culturally diverse university with eight campuses in Melbourne, a Sydney operation for international students, and offshore operations. VU has around 40,000 students on and offshore. In 2018, we launched VU Online, focused on a select group of qualifications. That is a new, emerging cohort that will grow. We constantly remind staff to think about students who are not physically in front of them, but learning in an online space.
John O’Neill: You mentioned your postgraduate study at VU. Did that shape your thinking regarding the student experience?
Naomi Dempsey: It shaped it in two ways. At the time I was doing my Masters in Education, I wasn’t working at VU. It reinforced that education is where my passion lies and where I can make a difference.
At that time, VU had challenges regarding how it serviced students. That was a big driver for me because I was still a student here. When we started customer journey mapping, it was important to me because it wasn’t just my opinion; it was a large group of students across different cohorts stating what the experience was. That set the course for our transformation toward customer-oriented design. We consider the person as a whole—what they need to be successful and have a rich experience that goes beyond academics into the networks and careers they build.
John O’Neill: Is sport an important feature of this University’s overall experience?
Naomi Dempsey: Absolutely. VU recently launched a sports strategy ranging from grassroots to elite. This is important for our academic programs and our connection to the community in the West of Melbourne. There is a strong link there regarding the health and wellbeing of our stakeholders.
John O’Neill: Your current role as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students) is relatively new. What are its functions, and what excites you most about it?
Naomi Dempsey: The role brings together services, programs, activities, and infrastructure that students need outside the classroom. This includes libraries, informal learning spaces, frontline inquiry services, counseling, accessibility, and advocacy. It also includes the “engine room” of student administration—the systems that drive the University—and academic support framed as “learning hubs,” which focus on study support, pathways, and careers.
John O’Neill: Bringing all that together allows you to holistically influence the experience. What excites you most?
Naomi Dempsey: Step one was bringing everyone together. In big organizations, making those services feel integrated from a student perspective is a challenge. That step is done. We now have a roadmap driven by data and student feedback. I am excited about where the University needs us to be in the coming years. We want to ensure the experience is contemporary. Hopefully, one day, we will be number one.
John O’Neill: How do you hope Victoria University will be perceived in five or ten years as a consequence of these changes? What should it feel like to be a student?
Naomi Dempsey: VU certainly is innovative, and we always want to be perceived that way. We are doing things that are completely transformational in the Australian higher education landscape. Our Polytechnic is also doing amazing things in vocational education and industry work. We want to be thought of as transformative, but most of all, we want to be known for a student-centered approach that ensures success and engagement, living up to our mantra of being a university of opportunity.
John O’Neill: You touched on industry; ultimately, it’s great to be equipped with thinking skills, but it’s also great to have an employability outcome.
Naomi Dempsey: That’s right. We have a large focus on employability and graduate outcomes this year. We have introduced “Success Planning”—helping students manage everything from financial management and study readiness to career outcomes. We use a digital tool from day one to help students achieve those goals throughout their years with us.
John O’Neill: When will you know the job is done? When can you say, “mission accomplished”?
Naomi Dempsey: I don’t think the job is ever done because the student cohort changes constantly. Generations change; what they want today is different from what they wanted two years ago. I can’t believe how rapidly expectations have changed in the five or six years I’ve been back. Students expect more, as they should. Between generational changes, technology shifts, and Australian funding priorities, the work is never finished. It is always driven by what students need.
John O’Neill: Naomi, thank you very much.
Naomi Dempsey: Thanks, John.