Rate My Professor Cathy Stone

Dr Cathy Stone serves as Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science (Social Work) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. An independent researcher and consultant specializing in higher education student engagement and success, her professional background is rooted in social work, where she is accredited as a mental health social worker by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). Stone earned her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2009, with a dissertation examining the experiences of mature-age students entering university through an enabling program. Over nearly two decades, she held management and counselling positions in Student and Academic Services at the University of Newcastle, including Deputy Academic Registrar for Student Support Services (2005-2010) and Senior Counsellor/Manager at the Ourimbah campus (1994-2005). She also served as Director of Student Success at Open Universities Australia from 2011 to 2014 and was an inaugural Equity Fellow with the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) in 2016-2017.

During her time at the University of Newcastle, Stone received the Vice-Chancellor's Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning and the Australian Learning and Teaching Council's Carrick Citation (both 2007) for developing innovative student mentor programs, as well as the Best Paper Award at the THETA Conference in 2013. A past president, lifetime member, and Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA), she co-edited the JANZSSA journal from 2010 to 2018 and currently sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Continuing Higher Education and the Journal of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, while serving as Managing Editor of the Student Success journal. Stone's research focuses on enhancing equity and outcomes for diverse student cohorts, including mature-age, first-in-family, regional/remote, and online learners. Her seminal NCSEHE Equity Fellowship project "Opportunity through Online Learning" produced the "Guidelines for Improving Student Outcomes in Online Learning" (2017), which supported universities' transitions to online delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key publications include co-authored books such as Research Handbook on Student Engagement in Higher Education (Stone & O’Shea, 2024), First-in-family students, university experience and family life: Motivations, transitions and participation (O’Shea et al., 2023, second edition; original 2017), and Transformations and self-discovery: Stories of women returning to education (Stone & O’Shea, 2012), alongside numerous chapters on student transitions and engagement.