Business school graduates celebrated for research excellence with real-world impact

25 June 2026

Two Monash Business School PhD graduates have earned the university's highest academic honours for research that is worlds apart, but shares the same ambition: practical solutions to complex problems.

Dr Adam Dzulkipli (now a Research Fellow at Monash Business School’s Centre for Health Economics) has been awarded the Mollie Holman Award for the Faculty of Business and Economics for his research into schooling policies and child safety.

Dr Adam Dzulkipli and Dr Patrick Li.

And Dr Patrick Li has received a Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for Thesis Excellence for his work on improving statistical model diagnostics.

Associate Dean of Graduate Research, Professor Chris Veld, said the awards reflect the depth and quality of doctoral research across the faculty.

“The work reflects the strength of our faculty: we do research of the highest possible academic standards that at the same time is highly relevant for society,” Prof Veld said.

Schooling as a safeguard

Most policy debates frame school as a place for learning and development.

But new research by Dr Adam Dzulkipli suggests the classroom could also offer critical protection to vulnerable children at risk of harm at home.

His doctoral work suggests that raising the school-leaving age from 16 to 17 significantly reduces children’s involvement with the child protection system.

A second strand of his thesis found a similar pattern earlier in life, showing that starting school at age five rather than six reduces the likelihood of maltreatment in young children.

His research is based on data from various government agencies in South Australia, including departments for child protection, education and health, spanning 1986-2017 and more than 600,000 children.

“Redistributing children’s time away from the household and into the school environment instead can have a powerful effect on their safety,” he said.

His findings also revealed the scale of the problem, with roughly one in five children experiencing contact with the Australian child protection system by the time they are adults.

“It was shocking for me to realise how common child maltreatment actually is,” he said.

“It served as a personal reminder of the importance of this research.”

Dr Dzulkipli said he was humbled to receive the Mollie Holman Award.

“It reminds me of how privileged I have been to receive so much support and guidance from numerous people throughout my journey, including my supervisors, colleagues, former fellow PhD candidates, and my family,” he said.

Smarter data through statistics

For decades, analysts have relied on judgement to identify flaws in statistical models.

Dr Patrick Li wanted to know whether that judgement could be measured - and if computers could learn to do it too.

Studying how people interpret residual plots - a common visual tool used to flag problems in statistical models - Dr Li found people assessed these patterns with surprising consistency. He then developed a computer vision method capable of replicating those assessments.

“The main application is helping analysts and practitioners check regression models more reliably,” Dr Li said.

“My work makes the interpretation of residual plots more consistent, so that model issues can be identified with less subjectivity.”

Now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian National University, Dr Li said the Vice-Chancellor's Commendation reinforced the value of his research.

“It also motivates me to continue producing high-quality, impactful research,” he said.

Learn more about postgraduate research opportunities at Monash Business School