Rate My Professor Tamra Ulpen

Tamra Ulpen is a Senior Lecturer at Adelaide University, affiliated with UniSA College. She coordinates English Language Studies (LANG 46) and Critical Thinking: Media and Academia (LANG 1002), and serves as an Academic Integrity Officer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies majoring in Japanese from the University of Adelaide, completed in 2001, and a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics, completed in 2009. Ulpen has extensive experience in TESOL, having worked as an Assistant English Language Teacher and Coordinator for International Relations in Japan via the JET Programme from 2002 to 2004. She later served as Japanese Guest Liaison Officer and Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, and as ESL instructor and Activities Officer at Griffith English Language Institute in 2006. From 2008, she contributed to curriculum development at the Centre for English Language at the University of South Australia (CELUSA), including course books and assessment vetting. Since 2011, as one of the three original teaching academics at UniSA College, she designed programs supporting students from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Her research focuses on student engagement, critical pedagogies for equity group students, enabling program policies, language and literacy in open access pathways, and generative AI use in assessments. In 2016, she created and implemented an online literacy diagnostic for pre-enrolment student assessment. Key publications include 'Does an educative approach work? A reflective case study...' with Fudge et al. (2022, International Journal for Educational Integrity); 'An investigation of first year university students’ confidence in using academic literacies' with Nallaya and Hobson (2022, Issues in Educational Research); 'A viable equity mechanism for all?' with Baker and Irwin (2021, Higher Education Research & Development); 'Tensions between generative AI principles and practice in equity education' with Pike (2025, Revista Praxis Educacional); and contributions to 'Toward a theory of critical enabling pedagogy' (2024). Ulpen has published and presented nationally and internationally on these themes and is a PhD candidate at UniSA Education Futures researching generative AI for equity students. In 2018, she was part of the team receiving a UniSA Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for academic integrity resources.