Associate Professor Kevin Liu
Ph.D. (Finance), University of Sydney
Kevin is the Associate Dean Undergraduate Programs at the UNSW Business School. Before joining academia in 2011, Kevin served in the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) research department. He has an honours degree and a PhD in Finance from the University of Sydney.
Kevin is an innovative and passionate educational leader committed to education excellence and student experience. He is a UNSW Scientia Education Fellow and EF Faculty Champion for Business. Before taking up the Associate Dean Undergraduate Programs role in 2024, Kevin led the Undergraduate Actuarial Studies Program at UNSW as the Program Director for a decade, growing and sustaining the program to be the world's largest and leading undergraduate actuarial program, recognised nationally and globally.
Kevin has led the development of multiple academic programs, majors, and courses for undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional students at UNSW Business School. He has also pioneered and led many program-wide curriculum and pedagogical innovations, particularly in important areas such as assessment design (e.g. StoryWall Formative Assessment Pedagogy), authentic industry learning at scale (e.g. UNSW Sandbox Program), employability skill development (e.g. Excelerate: Modular Excel Mastery Program for All), student engagement (e.g. Retirement VR), student support (e.g. Adaptive Online Revision Tool), and inclusive and equitable quality education (e.g. Regional and Indigenous Outreach Program). These initiatives have been incorporated into more than 50 undergraduate and postgraduate courses across various faculties and schools at UNSW and other institutions, significantly enhancing the learning experiences and outcomes for tens of thousands of students. Kevin's educational innovation and leadership in transforming business education have been recognised through multiple institutional, national, and international awards. He is also regularly invited to present at international learning and teaching conferences and leading universities.
In addition to being Associate Dean Undergraduate Programs, Kevin holds several leadership positions. For example, Kevin is the Deputy Director of the UNSW Sandbox Program. He also serves on the UNSW Business School Education Committee, Faculty Board, Faculty Assessment Review Group, and the UNSW Board of Studies.
Kevin's research expertise is in superannuation and retirement income policy. His research focuses on the governance and performance of superannuation funds; regulation and supervision of superannuation and private pension funds; systemic risk in retirement systems; and retirement saving and investment decision-making.
Kevin is a regular contributor to superannuation policy development and community engagement. His research impact roles include expert witness, public hearing, and Government advising. His research has been cited by major public reviews and inquiries on superannuation. He served on two APRA working groups on investment governance and trustee governance in conjunction with the post-Cooper Review (Super System Review) superannuation reforms. He has been a consultant on superannuation governance and performance issues to APRA and Industry Super Australia (ISA), and was a member of the Productivity Commission's Industry Roundtable on the efficiency and competitiveness of the superannuation system (2017), as well as a member of the Treasury's Your Future Your Super Review - Technical Working Group (2022) and Roundtable on the superannuation performance test (2024). His work has been featured in the media, including the Australian, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Investment Magazine, and SBS News.
Kevin is passionate about advancing financial literacy and improving retirement outcomes for individuals. He is a director of Understanding Super, a not-for-profit start-up that provides free financial literacy education through its online platform and mobile app to help ordinary Australians understand superannuation.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Research Grants
- 2016-2017: Team Leader and Chief Investigator (with E Ooi), Industry Research Grant, Industry Super Australia, $50,000.
Governance, related-party outsourcing, and MySuper performance of Australian Superannuation Funds - 2016: Chief Investigator (with E Ooi and P Gerrans), UWA Business School Research Development Awards (BSRDA), $8,000.
Who is Best to Look After Our Retirement Savings? The Role of Trustee Independence for Superannuation Fund Boards - 2015: Chief Investigator, UNSW Business School Research Grants (BSRG), $20,000.
Does Governance Explain Heterogeneous Fees for Homogeneous Products? Trustee Board Structure and Default Product Fee-setting in the Australian Superannuation Industry - 2014: Chief Investigator, UNSW Business School Research Grants (UNSW Business School Research Grant), $25,000.
Are Trustees Rewarded for Performance? The Remuneration of Superannuation Fund Trustees and Its Determinants - 2013-2014: Chief Investigator (with B Arnold, H Bateman, R Buckley, S Donald), Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR) Research Grant (with Australian Prudential Regulation Authority), $200,800 over 2 years. Identifying, Monitoring, and Managing Systemic Risks in Australia's Superannuation System
- 2013: Investigator (with H Bateman), The ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) Research Grant, $15,000.Retirement Income Provision in China: The impact of Household Characteristics and Regional Differences
- 2013: Chief Investigator UNSW Business School Special Research Grant (SRG), $10,000. Can Trustee's Expertise be Trusted? The Competence of Superannuation Fund Trustees and Its Implications on Fund Performance
Learning and Teaching Grants
- 2021: UNSW Education Focussed School Grant (with X Xu)
Authentic Assessments: Integrating Real-World Industry Challenges into Curricula as Program-wide Authentic Assessments in BActSt and MActSt Programs, $40,000. - 2018: UNSW Education Focussed Foundation Funding (with twenty EF academics across all Faculties at UNSW), $197,000.
Digital Assessment: Empowering Students and Supporting Teachers through Innovative Student-Oriented Educational Practices - 2018: UNSW Education Focussed Foundation Funding (with eleven EF academics across six Faculties at UNSW), $100,000.
AV Select: Enriching UNSW Teaching Through AV (Audio and Video) Technologies - 2017: UNSW Scientia Education Investment Fund Grant (with H Yip, K Fong, M Uncles, T Wilcox, K Clark, D Mayorga, L Piggott, J Wardrop), $50,000.
A Learner-Centred Approach to Attain Significant Learning of Oral Communication for AOL in MCom Programs - 2015: UNSW Learning and Teaching Innovation Grant (with H Bateman), $20,000.
Enhancing the Learning Experience of Postgraduate Students with Diverse Backgrounds Using Personalised Pathways and Adaptive Tools
- Bloomberg Education Excellence Award - Best Innovative Teaching Practices (with Fei Huang, Xiao Xu, Jonathan Ziveyi, and Sherry Zhang), The 36th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference (2023)
- UNSW, Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Programs that Enhance Learning (with other members of the BCom Redesign Team) (2021)
- UNSW Business School, Bill Birkett Award for Sustained Teaching Excellence (2021)
- UNSW Business School, Values in Action Award (with other members of the BCom Redesign Team and BCom Project Team) (2021)
- UNSW Business School, Award for a Program that Enhances Learning (2017)
- AFA (Association of Financial Advisers)/PFL (Plan for Life), Annuity & Income Stream Innovation Award for UNSW Retirement Planning Course (Collaborated with Challenger, Co-developed with Hazel Bateman) (2014)
Kevin has research interests in the areas of superannuation and retirement income policy. His current research investigates the operation, structure and performance of superannuation funds; the governance and regulation of superannuation and pension funds; systemic risk in retirement systems; retirement saving and investment decisions.
- Member, Department of the Treasury 'Your Future Your Super Review - Technical Working Group' (2022)
- Director, UnderstandingSuper (since 2017)
- Member, Australian Government (Productivity Commission) ‘Industry Roundtable on the Competitiveness and Efficiency of the Superannuation System’ (2017-18)
- Consultant, Industry Super Australia (ISA) 'Superannuation Governance and Performance' (2016-2017)
- Consultant, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) 'Superannuation Outsourcing, Performance and Governance' (2011-2013)
Submissions
- Department of the Treasury, Annual Superannuation Performance Test – Design Options, 2024
- Department of Education, Skills and Employment, National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund Consultation Paper (with Yenni Tim and Veronica Jiang), 2020
- Royal Commission, Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, 2018
- Productivity Commission, Superannuation Competitiveness and Efficiency Inquiries, 2018
- Senate Standing Committees on Economics, Superannuation Laws Amendment (Strengthening Trustee Arrangements) Bill 2017, 2017
Media Coverage
- Designing a Long-term Risk Metric for Superannuation - UNSW Sandbox with Actuaries Institute (March 2024)
- Designing Better Lifetime Retirement Income Products - UNSW Sandbox with MetLife and Aware Super (March 2024)
- How To Engage Superannuation Fund Members to Ensure They Have Appropriate Life Insurance? (February 2023)
- Investment Magazine, Students take on the challenges of engagement and default fund design (January 2023)
- UNSW Sandbox Program - 2020 End-of-Year Event (December 2022)
- Super Review, Students address underinsurance issue with UNSW and MetLife (December 2022)
- Riskinfo, MetLife Australia Partners with Financial Literacy Program (December 2022)
- Metlife And UNSW Sandbox Program Tackle Financial Literacy Challenge (December 2022)
- Government announces members of YFYS technical working group (September 2022)
- Department of the Treasury, YFYS Technical Working Group (September 2022)
- Actuaries Digital, UNSW Data Analytics Sandbox Empowers Young Actuaries to Help Solve Industry Problems (May 2022)
- UNSW BusinessThink, How to really engage young people with superannuation (May 2022)
- Actuaries Digital, Insights from the UNSW Risk and Actuarial Industry Workshop (January 2022)
- Investment Magazine, UNSW Sandbox Program explores retirement support (December 2021)
- Investment Magazine, UNSW Sandbox Program highlights challenges of providing quality, scalable guidance (January 2021)
- Money Matters, Tackling Retirement Known Unknown (November 2020)
- Aware Super, the Connexus Institute, Super Consumers Australia Media Release, UNSW Business School’s Sandbox Program challenges students to solve industry challenges in superannuation (September 2020)
- UNSW BusinessThink, Is your retail super fund shrinking your savings? (April 2018)
My Teaching
Kevin is a UNSW Scientia Education Academy Fellow and a multi-award-winning educator who is committed to empowering students by developing inspirational learning experiences through the integration of a career-focused educational approach and innovative educational technologies. As an EF Academic, he has led the development of multiple academic programs, majors, and courses for undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional students at UNSW Business School.
Kevin is Deputy Director of the UNSW Sandbox Program, which challenges the status quo that work-based learning is merely the “cherry on top”. The Program scaffolds real-world challenges into existing courses, connecting students with industry practitioners to co-create solutions for contemporary issues. Since its inception in November 2019, the Sandbox Program has transformed 25 undergraduate and postgraduate courses across four disciplines at the UNSW Business School. Over 7,800 students have gained work-based experience through working directly with 160 industry experts from 30 leading industry partners, including Microsoft, Australian Red Cross, APRA (Australian Regulation Authority), AwareSuper, MetLife, the Actuaries Institute, Ernst & Young, KPMG, IAG, Suncorp, Salesforce and WWF Australia, to address 70 contemporary business and societal challenges.
Kevin also pioneered the StoryWall Formative Assessment Model, which has been adopted in over 50 courses at UNSW Business School (over 15,000 StoryWall assessment completions by UG and PG students across four schools) to engage students as partners in co-creating authentic learning experiences and active online learning communities.
Kevin also leads teaching innovation projects that use advanced digital technologies to support student learning, e.g. Online Personalised Adaptive Revision Tool, and Retirement VR (Virtual Reality). He is a founding member of two Learning and Teaching Communities of Practice at UNSW, and has jointly received $407,800 in competitive learning and teaching funding.
Kevin received multiple education excellence awards at the university, national and international levels.
Learning and Teaching Leadership
- Associate Dean Undergraduate Programs, UNSW Business School (since 2024)
- EF Faculty Champion for Business, UNSW (since 2024)
- Scientia Education Fellow, UNSW Scientia Education Academy (since 2022)
- Founder, StoryWall Formative Assessment Model (since 2019)
- Deputy Director, UNSW Sandbox Program (since 2020)
- Program Director, Undergraduate Actuarial Program (2013-2023)
- Member, School of Risk and Actuarial Studies, Education Committee (2013-2023)
- Member, UNSW Business School Undergraduate Education Committee (2019-2023)
- Member, BizLab (Business School Experimental Lab) Management Committee (2012-2023)
- Member, UNSW Business School BCom Review Working Group (since 2020)
- Team Champion, UNSW Business School BCom Review Working Group, Active Problem-based Learning Team (since 2020)
- Reviewer, UNSW Peer Review of Teaching (since 2021)
- Reviewer, Business School Peer Support of Teaching (since 2018)
- Mentor, UNSW Academic Mentor (since 2018)
Learning and Teaching Presentation and Showcase
- 2024: SOA (Society of Actuaries) 2024 Actuarial Teaching Conference - Nashville, Reimagining Actuarial Education in the AI Era: The UNSW Experience (with Andrés Villegas), Nashville US
- 2024: UNSW’s Education Festival, Excelerate: Modular Excel Mastery Program for All
- 2024: Invited Speaker at 2nd Annual Pensión Conference - Pensions and Technology, Retirement VR: Engaging the Next Generation in Retirement Saving Decisions Through Immersive Experiences
- 2024: Invited Panel Speaker, Evaluation of Teaching & e-portfolio CoP Workshop, Same, Same, But Different - How Different Disciplines Embrace the Evaluation of Teaching Processes, UNSW PVCESE
- 2024: Invited Speaker, UNSW Course Design Institute (CDI) - Pedagogies
- 2023: 36th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference (AFBC), Addressing Real-World Financial Challenges through UNSW Sandbox Program (with Xiao Xu and Sherry Zhang), Sydney, Australia
- 2023: Invited Keynote Speaker at Assessment Innovation and Digitalization in Financial Education Conference, Rethink, Reimagine and Repurpose Assessment Design in Financial Education, Chongqing, China
- 2023: Invited Seminar Presentation at Monash University (Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics), Reimagine and Repurpose Assessment Design: Co-Creating Authentic Learning and Engaging Future Business Professionals in Industry Problem-Solving, Melbourne, Australia
- 2023: 27th APRIA (Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association) Annual Conference, StoryWall: A Formative Assessment Model for Co-creating Authentic Learning Experiences, Osaka, Japan
- 2023: AFRIC (Actuarial, Finance, Risk and Insurance Congress), Work-based Learning Experience for All - Engaging the Next Generation of Actuaries to Solve Industry Problems in a Sandbox, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- 2023: AFRIC (Actuarial, Finance, Risk and Insurance Congress), StoryWall - A Formative Assessment Model for Empowering Students as Partners in Learning, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- 2023: Advance HE Teaching and Learning Conference 2023 - Teaching in the spotlight: Shaping the future of teaching in HE, Work-Based Experience for All: The Tripartite Impact of UNSW Sandbox Program, Keele, UK
- 2023: Invited Workshop Presentation at UNSW Business School Education Initiative Education Matters Workshop, Exploring StoryWall
- 2023: Invited Workshop Presentation at UNSW LET'S Meet T2 2023 (by Educational Technology Support, PVCESE), Teaching with MS Teams: Engaging Students and Creating Active Online Learning Communities
- 2023: Invited Panel Speaker, UNSW Business School Education Initiative Education Matters: Innovative Teaching Models, Identifying Challenges and Opportunities in Business Education & Innovating Business Education
- 2023: Invited Seminar Presentation at TeachingMatters Seminar, Generative Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges, School of Creative Industries, LASALLE College of Arts, Singapore
- 2023: Southeast Asian Conference on Education, StoryWall: A Formative Assessment Model for Co-creating Authentic Learning Experiences and Feedback, Singapore
- 2023: Invited Presentation at Nanyang Business School, Tripartite Problem-Solving in A Sandbox - Facilitating Industry, Academic, and University Student Partnership at Scale (with Yenni Tim), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore
- 2023: Invited Workshop Presentation at UNSW LET'S Meet T1 2023 (by Educational Technology Support, PVCESE), Microsoft Teams for Teaching
- 2022: SOA (Society of Actuaries) 2022 Actuarial Teaching Conference - Bangkok, The UNSW Sandbox Model: Engaging the Next Generation of Actuaries to Provide Solutions to Industry Problems, Bangkok Thailand
- 2022: Australasian Actuarial Education and Research Symposium, Invited Panelist, Education Panel Discussion - The Tensions in Actuarial Assessment, ANU Canberra
- 2022: Australasian Actuarial Education and Research Symposium, Data Analytics Sandbox: Engaging the Next Generation of Actuaries to Provide Solutions to Today’s Industry Problems (with Fei Huang), ANU Canberra
- 2022: UNSW’s Education Festival, Work-based Experience for all: The Tripartite Impact of UNSW Sandbox Program (with Yenni Tim)
- 2022: SOA (Society of Actuaries) 2022 Actuarial Teaching Conference - Chicago, StoryWall: A Formative Assessment Model for Co-creating Authentic Learning Experiences and Feedback (with Jonathan Ziveyi), Chicago US
- 2022: SOA (Society of Actuaries) 2022 Actuarial Teaching Conference - Chicago, The UNSW Sandbox Model: Engaging the Next Generation of Actuaries to Provide Solutions to Industry Problems, Chicago US
- 2021: 29th Colloquium on Pensions and Retirement Research, Retirement Sandbox: Engaging Young Minds to Provide New Solutions to Old Problems (with David Bell, Shang Wu, and Richard Liu), Sydney, Australia
- 2021: UNSW’s Education Festival, StoryWall: A Formative Assessment Model for Co-creating Authentic Learning Experiences and Feedback (with Fei Huang, Guillaume Boglioni Beaulieu, and Jonathan Ziveyi)
- 2021: UNSW Connections Seminar and Workshop, 'Get Real! Career-focused Assessments to Equip Students for Real-world Challenges' (with Yenni Tim)
- 2020: Education @ Business Showcase, 'StoryWall: A Formative Assessment Model for Enhancing Student Online Learning Experiences' (with Fei Huang)
- 2020: Education @ Business Showcase, 'Future-proofing Our Graduates through A Sandbox Career-focused Experience' (with Yenni Tim and Veronica Jiang)
- 2019: Business School Learning & Teaching Showcase, 'Enhancing Student Learning and Engagement through the Purposeful Inclusion of Student Voices'
- 2019: EF Lunch & Learn – Business, 'Retirement VR, Inspiring Student Learning through Immersive Learning Experiences with Interactive Virtual Reality'
- 2018: UNSW Inspired Learning Summit 2018, Multimedia Showcase - VR/AR Immersive Experience, 'Retirement VR (Virtual Reality) Showcase'
- 2016: UNSW Learning and Teaching Forum, Poster Presentation, 'Enhancing the Learning Experience of Postgraduate Students with Diverse Backgrounds Using Personalised Pathways and Adaptive Tools'
Learning and Teaching Innovation
- 2023: Excelerate – Modular Excel Mastery Program for All - COMM1110 - Created the Excelerate Modular Excel Training program, which transforms Excel learning into an engaging and enriching experience. This program features modular learning resources, a real-world problem-driven approach, advanced formative assessment design, and active online learning communities that foster continuous feedback, delivering effective and engaging Excel learning solutions.
- 2021: StoryWall – Exemplar Moodle site - Developed a comprehensive Moodle site with information and teaching resources on the StoryWall approach that can be easily transferred to other courses.
- 2019 - 2020: StoryWall – Formative Assessment Model - ACTL3192/5306 - Created the StoryWall Formative Assessment Model, which is a learner-centred pedagogical approach that integrates specific conditional actions into online discussion forums to create formative assessment tasks. StoryWall has been adopted by teaching staff across multiple Schools with very positive feedback from students and educators.
- 2020: Sandbox – New Milestone Formative Submission Model - ACTL3192/5306 - Implemented the Sandbox Industry Challenge Project in ACTL3192/5306, which aims to enhance students' career-focused learning experience by bringing real-world scenarios and real industry challenges into the classroom, creating a safe space for students to explore, collaborate, and make changes. Developed a new Sandbox formative milestone submission assessment model. Received strong positive feedback from students and industry partners. Investment Magazine (18/01/2020): UNSW Sandbox Program highlights challenges of providing quality, scalable guidance
- 2020: Digital Placemaking - Creating Virtual Student Learning “Places” to engage students - RISK3003/5003, ACTL3192/5306, RISK5001 - Pioneered the virtual "Student Common" room via "digital placemaking" to transform online “space” into meaningful learning “places” to help build an effective online learning community for students to connect, communicate, and collaborate with their peers. Business School Staff Stories: Bold Ideas for the Student Experience, TEACH @Business (pp10-13)
- 2018-2020: Retirement VR – ACTL3192/5306 - Retirement VR, Inspiring Student Learning through Immersive Learning Experiences with Interactive Virtual Reality.
- 2016: Online Personalised Adaptive Revision Tool - ACTL5401 Retirement Planning (Distance Learning) - This approach addresses the limitations of the existing delivery format for both face-to-face and distance learning cohorts by providing instant feedback and automated learning/revision pathways to meet the different learning needs of a diverse student body.
Courses Taught
- COMM1110 Evidence-Based Problem Solving
- RISK2001 Fundamentals of Risk and Risk Management
- RISK5001 Fundamentals of Risk and Risk Management
- RISK3003 Risk Decision Analytics
- RISK5003 Risk Decision Analytics
- ACTL3191 Superannuation and Retirement Benefits
- ACTL3192 Retirement Saving and Spending over the Lifecycle