Dr Alison Owens BA(Hons) Sydney, GradCert TESOL UNSW, EdD UTS is the Program Coordinator for the Doctorate of Professional Studies and the Graduate Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language programs at CQUniversity.  She is an Associate of the Intercultural Education Research Centre (IERC) and teaches research methods and ethics for the social sciences.

Alison has been teaching diverse student groups in the Australian higher education sector for over twenty years, originally teaching the English language to students and migrants in Sydney-based colleges and through TAFE programs. In 1996 she began lecturing in Communications subjects at Sydney-based universities, including CQUniversity. Since that time, she has designed, developed, delivered and managed several courses and programs for undergraduate and postgraduate CQUniversity students, with an emphasis on culturally inclusive and globally relevant content and pedagogy.

Since 2005 Alison has been actively researching and publishing in the field of intercultural education and she has received three CQUniversity Teaching and Learning Grants. She regularly presents her research papers on themes revolving around intercultural communication, intercultural and international education, and specifically the role of the English language in globalised and technologised communications at domestic and international academic conferences.  Some of her recent papers have included topics on the effects of a lecturer's accent on listening comprehension of second language learners; textual complexity and second language reading comprehension; individualism/collectivism theory in relation to international student performance in university; social integration of international students; transitional learning for culturally diverse students and intercultural issues in telecommunications.

Currently Alison is collaborating on the production of a DVD orientation film for international students at CQUniversity, as well as researching the teaching of Australian law to non-law international students and the career expectations and outcomes for repatriated Indian female business graduates.