Volume 9 Issue 3

This issue is our fourth Students, Transitions, Achievement, Retention and Success (STARS) Conference special issue (July 8-11 July, Auckland, New Zealand). As is customary, this issue of the Journal publishes the top research papers selected via a peer review process and the top Emerging Initiatives selected by the Conference Committee and Journal Editorial team. This year STARS announced two new STARS Fellows: Dr Linda Leach and Associate Professor Nick Zepke, who recently retired from full-time academic life at Massey University, New Zealand. Their scholarly contributions to higher education and their prolific work on student assessment, success and retention and student engagement represents a lifetime of active research and publishing and their vast body of work has contributed greatly to our understandings of the student experience. We are extremely pleased to publish their article A critical reflection on a research partnership as the Invited Feature in this issue.