By Narelle Coulter
Dr Soma Pillay, senior lecturer at Federation University’s Business School, has two secret weapons when it comes to keeping her students engaged – laughter and music.
Aware that the first year students studying at Federation Uni’s new Berwick campus are unlikely to appreciate her favourite ABBA or Bee Gees tunes, Dr Soma Pillay turned to her teenage daughters for advice.
”My daughter is deep into K-pop so I play K-pop and also 2016 Mashups, whatever that means,” Dr Pillay said, laughing.
Dr Pillay has a laugh that reminds me of pealing church bells.
“I’m so guided by them I tell you.”
She reaches over to the computer in her office desk and types into Google ‘best Mashup 2017’.
“Is that the title of an album?” I ask.
“No idea,” she says, with another cascade of laughter.
“I do know that it works wonders. Who doesn’t listen to music, irrespective of the type of music. Who doesn’t tap their feet from time to time, whether it’s to ABBA or Mashup 2017. Music is an important element in our lives and laughter helps people feel comfortable.
“Something as simple as coming across as approachable is really important and I have to say laughter is an excellent tool to keep students engaged. Laughter and music.”
Dr Pillay is one of two academics heading up Federation Uni’s new Berwick campus business school.
The university is sharing the Berwick Campus with Monash University this year. Fed Uni will take full control of the Clyde Road site from 2018.
Dr Pillay said she was excited to be part of the team working with students during the university’s inaugural year in Berwick.
Born and educated in South Africa, Dr Pillay’s first job in Australia was as a research assistant and sessional tutor at Monash’s Berwick campus.
She then worked for Swinburne, before rejoining Monash at its Gippsland campus. She joined the academic staff at Federation Uni in 2014.
“In 2016 when I was offered an opportunity at the new Berwick campus I gladly jumped at it with much, much enthusiasm because I wanted to be part of the new campus and am extremely excited to be here with everyone else who is totally committed to the cause,” she said.
Dr Pillay is an enthusiastic exponent of the business school’s focus on preparing “job ready” graduates who are equipped to deal with real workplaces.
She said the school’s values of respect, diversity, ethical behaviour, courage, integrity and resilience influence what happens in the classroom.
“Our values underpin our culture and the way we do things. We are designing products and preparing students for the real world,” she explained.
“In our business degrees we’ve adopted a learning and teaching plan that incorporates real world dynamics. We’ve adopted an experiential approach to learning, learning by doing.
“I think that one of the most appealing features of our program is that we combine academic perspectives with a very strong practical focus which makes it highly appealing in that we have valuable, transferable skills.“
She said the business school had started consulting with local businesses to gauge employer expectations around graduate employees.
She hopes that in three years Federation Uni Berwick’s first crop of business graduates will be “job ready with in-demand skills” ready to contribute to businesses across the region.
“They have indicated they want people who are job ready and who posses in-demand skills. Equally important they must be good team players. If you can’t get along people it makes life a bit difficult.”
From next year, business students will be able to participate in a industry placement program, with pathways and opportunities for paid on-the-job work experience.
Dr Pillay, encouraged Casey Cardinia Region businesses to get involved.
“Local businesses have a strong contribution and play a significant role in this,“ she said.
“It exposes students to the challenges of the real world. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to put into context what they have learnt in class.”
Dr Pillay said her daughters, one in her first year at university, the other in her third year, had opened her eyes to the challenges faced by “Generation I”.
“Being a mother of youngsters really opened my eyes to some of the dynamics students are having to grapple with.
“We have a very dynamic group of students these days. It’s not just Year 12s, it’s also mature age students as well such as mothers who are now able to focus on study and preparing to get back into the workforce. We are having to grapple with the I generation sitting together with mature-age students who haven’t really been up with the technology.”
She said it was important students could approach academics for advice and one-on-one support and has been heartened by the number of students who knocked on her door in first semester.
“Our students feel really relaxed and confident they can approach academics for that one-on-one support. It’s very important that academics are approachable.”
Dr Phillay said she appreciated her own daughters’ “honest advice” which she had incorporated into her work.
“I often laugh at my own jokes and at home I practice my knock-knock jokes.
“I said to my daughters I would love to share my knock-knock jokes with my students. My younger daughter said ‘Mum, can I give you some advice? Make sure the jokes are either towards the end of the course or, if you’re going to see them again, wait until second semester.’ She was worried it could put them off so badly they won’t want to enrol in my course in semester two.”
Dr Pillay tilts her head back and another peal of melodic laughter fills the room.
“I love my job and I feel so passionate about what I do.
“It’s an intrinsic motivator, engaging with our future leaders. Training and moulding them so they are prepared for the real world.”
