(This is a lightly-edited copy of a message I sent to a number of staff at UNSW and CSE, and which is in the public interest enough to warrant reproducing here.)
I am leaving the University of New South Wales.
This may be a surprise to some, especially those who have known of my previous plans to continue at UNSW effectively indefinitely. It saddens me to find my position has changed, and that the next steps for me are away from UNSW and onto new things.
Over my time at CSE, I have worked hard to improve teaching and learning outcomes within the school, and I offer my thanks to all those staff who have given me the opportunities to do so.
I wanted to acknowledge and celebrate the work of the truly unsung heroes of teaching at CSE: the casual teaching staff.
It has been an incredible pleasure and an immense privilege to count myself amongst the cohort of hundreds of enthusiastic tutors and course administrators at CSE.
The casuals supporting the School’s core teaching objectives play an invaluable part in its success: they are an exceptionally powerful force to motivate improving and preserving good teaching practices within the School; and the breadth and depth of the casual staff’s contributions to developing, maintaining, and extending courses is truly immense.
I am proud to have been a part of the team who have been instrumental in keeping CSE amongst the best tertiary computing programs in Australia.
At the moment, I cannot say what I am moving onto next, but I can say I am very excited about it, and I shall remark on it publicly once I am in a position to share this news.
But in my next role, and, indeed, all those that may follow, I very much look forward to taking with me all that I have learned at CSE and UNSW, as both a student and as staff.
~jashank