Optimising the Third Space in Higher Education

Natalia Veles is an experienced researcher, educator, and manager-practitioner based at James Cook University (JCU), Australia, with the doctoral student supervision affiliation with the University of Southern Queensland and research collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Having worked in educational leadership in Russia, China, New Zealand, and Vietnam, she embodies a third space professional identity: her scholarship and professional practice, commitment to improving learner engagement and increasing collaboration among university actors drive her research and teaching pursuits. Natalia holds a PhD in higher education research. Her academic background is in applied linguistics, organisational sociology, intercultural psychology, and career development within the interdisciplinary higher education research, with a particular curiosity for how organisational boundaries and discursive spaces impact collaboration.

1.Introduction: University third space environments and their theoretical and conceptual antecedents 2. Self-determination towards boundary crossing: Empirical cases of university staff third space collaboration 3. Case one (Australia): A novel solution to a research problem: a case study of "sprinting the marathon" from an idea to the commercial entity 4. Case two (Australia): "Building the aircraft while flying it": a case study of teams defying the boundaries and working together to deliver a new model of generalist medical training 5. Case three (Australia): "If you build it, they will come": a case study of a significant organisational change that emanated from a technology solution 6. Case four (Singapore): "An exciting place to be": a case study of fast-paced, cross-cultural, cross-campus collaboration for building a research culture at Tropical University 7. Case five (Singapore): "It was only a very small project" but a huge step towards reaffirming collaboration: a successful case study of interaction and collaboration between colleagues from different campuses 8. Boundary crossing: Meaning making and learning, and the universal needs of actors working towards university collaborative capital 9. Recommendations for universities and the conceptual framework of the university third space professional staff cross-boundary collaboration and collaborative capital optimisation 10. Final words: University third space and time continuum. Appendix: Two research phases in figures