Sheelagh Matear

Sheelagh Maureen Matear is a New Zealand academic, and is emeritus professor at Lincoln University. She was the Executive Director of the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities for eight years until retiring in 2024.

Academic career

Matear completed a PhD titled The Existence and Use of Benefit Segments in the Irish Sea Ferry Market at the University of Plymouth. Matear worked at the University of Arizona and at the University of Plymouth. Matear was Head of the Department of Marketing at Otago from 2001 until 2004, when she moved to Lincoln University. One of Matear's notable doctoral students while at Otago was Professor Jodyanne Kirkwood. While at Lincoln Matear was Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic Quality and Student Experience. She was also a member of the Committee on Academic Programmes. In 2016 Matear was appointed as Executive Director of the AQA, the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities (previously known as the New Zealand Universities Academic Audit Unit), replacing Jan Cameron. She was responsible for conducting the Cycle 6 of the academic audits of New Zealand universities, and introduced student members to the auditing teams. Matear retired from her role at AQA in June 2024, a move which she delayed in order to coincide with the winding up of AQA by the end of 2024.

Matear was also a non-local member of the council for the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications.

Selected works