Submission

Submission Guidelines – ANZSSA 2025

1. Conference Aims and Themes
2. Presentation types
3. Abstract selection criteria
4. Abstract submission
5. Abstract template
6. Abstract notification

 

1. Conference Aims and Themes

On behalf of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA), I am delighted to invite you to the 2025 ANZSSA Conference as we celebrate 30 Years of Innovating for Student Success. Together, we will reflect on 30 years of progress and reimagine the future of student success through collaboration, technology, and inclusive practices. Your participation will enrich this vital dialogue.

For more than five decades, ANZSSA has been at the forefront of shaping student services and engagement and driving positive change across tertiary education in Australia and New Zealand. This milestone conference will honour our collective achievements while exploring new strategies, innovations, and collaborations to enhance student success in the years ahead.

This year’s programme will feature inspiring keynote speakers, insightful student voice panel discussions, a dynamic mix of concurrent sessions, the ANZSSA AGM and networking functions, providing an opportunity to learn from sector leaders, hear directly from students, and connect with colleagues across the industry.

The 2025 ANZSSA Conference will be hosted at the Pullman Hotel Auckland, centrally located in Auckland’s CBD. This prime venue offers state-of-the-art conference facilities, premium accommodation options, and convenient access to the city’s vibrant cultural, dining, and waterfront precincts.

Join us in Auckland for a collaborative, thought-provoking, and forward-thinking conference—an opportunity to celebrate our shared achievements and shape the future of student success together.

We look forward to welcoming you in October 2025!

Theme: 30 Years of Innovating for Student Success

The ANZSSA 2025 Conference Organising Committee invites submissions from student services practitioners, leaders and policy makers. We encourage presentations focussed on Indigenous students, communities and worldviews. 

Authors of abstracts are required to categorise their submission into the conference themes across the following:

a. Learning from the past to look to the future: We welcome submissions that reflect on programs, initiatives, support, policies and services that have delivered impact at scale.. How did you get there? What impact have you had? How did you measure it?? Where are you looking to go next? 

b. Innovations in data and technology: If you love AI and dream of dashboards, we want to hear how you have leveraged available data and technology to measure value and impact and inform the design, implementation, continuous improvement and evaluation of student services. 

c. The student voice: We encourage papers co-written and co-presented with students; as well as papers that showcase meaningful ways in which student voice and student partnership have been enacted at your institution. 

d. Inclusive practices for diverse learners: A thoughtful space? A targeted program or service? We want to hear what you’re doing to support diverse, marginalised, and under-represented cohorts across the student population.

e. Partnering for change: No student service is an island. We know that multidisciplinary approaches and meaningful partnerships with professional and academic staff, sector partners, industry, alumni, and policy makers can take a student service from good to great.

f. The world outside: Cost of living, overburdened healthcare systems, racism, geopolitical tensions, changing legislation and reporting requirements… Tell us how your services and support have responded to societal and governmental complexities.

 

2. Presentation types

There will be three presentation types (Oral presentations, Sparks Sessions and posters) at ANZSSA 2025. All are equally valued contributions. Different presentation formats may be best suited to different kinds of content. Authors are required to choose their preferred presentation format. However, the final presentation type will be determined by the ANZSSA 2025 Programme Committee.

Please note that if your abstract is accepted, the presenting author will be expected to register as a conference delegate by the due date. Failure to register will result in removal of your presentation from the conference programme.

Posters will be on display in the ANZSSA 2025 Exhibition and Networking area and will provide opportunities for relaxed discussion throughout the entire conference.

Oral presentation (25 minutes total, comprising: 15 minute talk + 10 minute Q&A)

Typically, oral presentations will be complete stories or initiatives, with clear outcomes and conclusions. Generally, these presentations will have moved beyond small scale pilots, have been implemented more broadly or transitioned to “business as usual”. They should be placed in a broad institutional, political, cultural or geographic context and therefore be of general interest beyond the immediate subject area. Authors should outline the potential or existing value or applications of the work beyond their original context.

Presentations should aim to engage the audience, to create interest, seek feedback and encourage further enquiry.  Presentations are approximately 15 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes for further discussion/question time, for a total of 25 minutes. 

Sparks session (25 minutes total, comprising discussion, interaction, demonstration)

Sparks sessions are for those wanting to showcase innovative ideas, pilots, prototypes, and pioneering initiatives. These sessions are best suited to those who wish to test ideas, receive feedback, demonstrate technologies or highlight projects and initiatives ready to launch. These sessions may not have any evidence of ‘impact’ but should be able to highlight key learnings, challenges, and questions from the work to date. These sessions should clearly demonstrate the “problem worth solving” or “opportunity worth seizing”.

Presentations should be more experiential and interactive in nature engaging the audience in discussion, demonstration, experimentation and dialogue. Presentations are 25 minutes long.

Posters (A0 portrait display)

Poster presentations are suited for works in progress, pilots, and preliminary results and are also useful for reporting new methods and techniques. Studies that seem ideal for Oral presentations can also be presented very effectively as Posters. 

Posters encourage direct engagement between those with interesting work to share and a wide audience, in a personal setting.  Posters will be displayed in the conference space available to attendees during breaks.  Poster session times will be announced in the conference program. Unattended posters will not be accepted.  

Authors should bring their posters to the Conference ready for display.  Authors will be required to have their posters printed at their own cost and arrangement.

Poster Authors will be allocated a dedicated poster space within the poster area. Velcro stickers will be used to adhere posters to the wall and will be provided by the conference and collected from the registration desk on arrival.

 

3. Abstract selection criteria

The ANZSSA 2025 Programme Committee will attempt to accommodate the preferred presentation type for all authors. The number of oral presentations and Sparks Sessions that can be accommodated in the programme is limited, hence the number of authors requesting these presentations may exceed the places available. If the demand exceeds the available time slots, the ANZSSA 2025 Programme Committee will review all abstracts for presentations offering some delegates the option of presenting a Poster. We do not anticipate exceeding the limitation on space for Posters.

All submissions will be reviewed by the ANZSSA 2025 committee members.

All submissions will be reviewed based on the following criteria:

• relevance to the conference themes
• relevance to contemporary professional practice and connections to relevant research/evidence base
• presents key issues of broader interest to the ANZSSA Community
• transferability, scalability and application of the submission beyond the original context
• quality of the written abstract
• compliance with the word count and format requirements for abstracts (as per template).

All submitters will receive an email confirming the outcome of their abstracts.  All of these criteria are key considerations in the acceptance of all submissions.  We reserve the right to discuss your submission with you as part of the process of assembling the programme.

 

4. Abstract submission

When submitting an Abstract, you will be required to provide the following information in the Portal and in your Abstract respectively.

Portal (instructions within the Portal are clear and self-explanatory)

• Abstract title (should reflect the content of the presentation)
• Name, affiliation and contact details of the corresponding (presenting) Author
• Author biography (100 words)
• Preferred presentation type (Oral presentation or Poster)
• Selection of 1-3 conference themes to which your presentation most aligns
• Permission to publish your Abstract in the conference handbook which will be available online
• Acknowledgement that the presenting Author will register and attend the ANZSSA 2025

Abstract (details are specified in the Template)

• Abstract title (same as in the portal)
• Names and affiliations of the presenting Author and any Co-author(s)
• Abstract text (max. length 250 words, excluding Title, Author Names and Affiliations)
• The completed Abstract in prescribed Template format should be uploaded as a Microsoft Word document

The closing date for Abstract Submissions is 11 June 2025

Once your Abstract has been accepted for a presentation at the ANZSSA 2025, you are required to register and pay to attend before the Presenter registration deadline to avoid being removed from the programme.

Please note: Early Bird Registrations close on 5 September 2025.

 

5. Abstract template

Authors are required to download and use the ANZSSA 2025 Abstract Template to format their Abstracts. Abstracts for all submission types should be no more than 250 words.

A suggested abstract structure is provided below for the various submission types. This is guidance only and abstracts can be structured in other ways, provided the submission criteria are met.

Suggested abstract structure
Oral Presentation	Sparks Session	Poster Presentation
Establish context relevant to your submission (policy, research, institutional, political, practice, technological etc)	Establish context relevant to your submission (policy, research, institutional, political, practice, technological etc)	Establish context relevant to your submission (policy, research, institutional, political, practice, technological etc)
Describe how the work emerged from the context. What did you do? How did you do it?	Describe how the ‘problem worth solving’ or ‘opportunity worth seizing’ emerged from this context.	Describe how the work emerged from this context.
Describe the findings/outcomes from this work.	Describe the early learnings or challenges in this work.	Describe early findings/outcomes/challenges from the work.
Describe the relevance/transferability or scalability of this work beyond your context.	Describe what participants in this session will do. How will your session be interactive?	Describe the next steps for this work or the relevance of the work to other contexts.

 

6. Abstract notification

Authors will be notified of the outcome of the review process by or before 11 July 2025.