Kiwi teaching academic named top Australian lecturer

New Zealander Roma Forbes is Australia’s top university teacher.

Ōpōtiki-born Forbes, who teaches physiotherapy at the University of Queensland, has been in Australia for 16 years, she told RNZ’s Afternoons.

“I studied physiotherapy at AUT in New Zealand and then came over to the University of Queensland to be a clinical educator, and I thought I’d last five minutes in Australia, but here I am 16 years later.”

She accepted the 2025 Australian University Teacher of the Year award, which recognises her student-centred approach to health education, in Canberra on Tuesday.

“It is quite a unique approach, like in the universities in New Zealand, we have huge numbers of students. I’ve got 200 physiotherapy students each year, and we really don’t want students to be another number, or to get lost in vast numbers. So, it’s so important that we get to know students individually.

“We’ve put them into spaces where they can work together. They can be valued and they can contribute to the group,” she says.

Her acceptance speech, which she says she delivered in her still strong Kiwi accent and included the use of te reo, emphasised the importance of student voices being heard.

“The area that I teach is pain, and particularly chronic pain. And so many people have misconceptions about what chronic pain is, so to actually hear from students, what do they understand about chronic pain? What’s been their experiences for them and maybe with their families or even their grandparents?

“To really hear what their views are, it’s so much easier, more fun to teach when we know the perspectives they’re coming in with.”

Forbes says she remains deeply proud of her eastern Bay of Plenty roots and acknowledges Te Whakatōhea and the whenua she grew up on when she speaks publicly.

She credits her upbringing in Ōpōtiki with shaping her resilience and strong sense of responsibility to community.

While she’s found great professional success over the ditch, Forbes hasn’t ruled out returning home.

“I left for personal reasons; my partner was actually over here. So, I miss New Zealand a lot. I’m very tempted all the time to come home and be able to help with universities there.”