Work Integrated Learning New Zealand Annual Conference

18 Apr 2024

On 9^th April 2024, Dr Dug Cubie attended the annual conference of Work-Integrated Learning New Zealand (WILNZ) at the Victoria University Wellington.

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is the term used to describe a wide range of educational activities incorporating academic learning and workplace practice. Students engage in authentic and meaningful work-related tasks and involve three stakeholders – the student, the education provider and the workplace or community. The current WILNZ President, Dr Karsten Zegwaard, chaired the UCC Thematic Review of work placements in 2020, which has led to UCC’s recently launched WIL Strategic Quality Enhancement Project. Attendance at the conference allowed Dr Cubie to hear cutting edge presentations on different aspects of WIL – from how to protect students on placement from distress and the importance of bystander interventions, to methodologies for academic assessment of legal internships. Such topics will help feed into analysis of how best to integrate new opportunities for work-integrated learning in the School of Law in the coming months.

The visit to Wellington also provided an opportunity to meet former UCC colleagues, Dr Bjørn-Oliver Magsig and Dr Ruby Moynihan-Magsig in the Faculty of Law, Victoria University Wellington, and Dr Cubie provided a staff seminar on his recent research examining the legal implications of sea-level rise for Irish foreign and domestic policies.

Dr Cubie is currently undertaking a Visiting Erskine Fellowship at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and his attendance at the WILNZ annual conference was supported by the UCC Head of Law Strategic Fund.