Rate My Professor Mieke Witsel

Dr Mieke Witsel serves as Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning at the Centre for Teaching and Learning, Southern Cross University. She completed her Doctor of Philosophy at Southern Cross University in 2008, with a thesis titled Transcultural Teachers: Experiences of Academics Teaching Tourism and Hospitality in Multicultural Classrooms. Her academic career includes prior roles as Lecturer in the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Southern Cross University and Lecturer at INHolland University in the Netherlands. Witsel's expertise spans higher education pedagogy, intercultural communication, and teaching practices in multicultural and transnational contexts, with a focus on tourism, hospitality, and business communication.

Her scholarly contributions include co-authoring Communication Skills for Business Professionals (Cambridge University Press, 2020, second edition 2025), compiling Communication in Organisations (McGraw-Hill, sixth edition 2009), and publishing articles such as Gutsy Women? Conflicting Discourses in Womens Travel Guidebooks (Tourism Recreation Research, 2009), The Happiness Project: Using a CDC Framework for Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Student Transition and Retention Program (2023), Becoming a Part of the Destination: A Model for Teaching Tourism Landscape (2022), and Critical Perspectives in Education: Introduction to the Special Issue (Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 2017). She has also contributed conference papers and presentations on topics including flipped classrooms, heart-centered teaching, international study tours, and sustainable tourism impacts. Witsel holds Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), recognizing her sustained impact on teaching excellence. She leads academic professional learning, delivers workshops and webinars such as New to Teaching @ SCU, and supports curriculum development and student retention initiatives at Southern Cross University.