Progress Will Span All of 2005
1 January 2005
Has a year ever disappeared so quickly? It must for me, I
suspect, be the volume and pace of changes at the University. The
foundations have been put in place this year for 2005 and 2006 to
be even more expansive and fast-moving than this year.
The biggest contributor to change this year has been the new
funding formula as well as student growth for the years ahead - the
largest for any single university campus in Australia. That extra
money will mean we can invest in making the University even more
appealing, in a range of ways.
We have a new strategic plan to more directly gauge our annual
performance, we have had reviews of international business and the
Business Faculty. We have completed Stage V (A$16 million) and have
begun several other buildings for Stage VI (A$25 million).
The community has made a new Art Gallery a reality (A$0.5
million). The staff have grown to over 700 on the payroll and it
remains the best qualified staff of any Queensland University and
fifth in Australia.
Recommendations on new Council structures have been provided to
the State Government.
Restructuring the Chancellery has been completed and new
appointments made including a new Pro Vice-Chancellor position to
be occupied by Professor Robert Elliot, who has been the foundation
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
We are working even more closely with Maroochy Shire Council,
SunROC and the State Government, and developments in the emerging
Sippy Downs community are the principal but not sole focus for the
cooperation.
We have forged new links with Education Queensland and a
world-class set of partnership activities is emerging as quickly as
the productive outcomes emerged from the Australian Incubator of
the Year.
Next year, building on these foundations, there are going to be
important new developments linking CSIT and the University
throughout the region.
There are new or expanded discipline areas added to the
University's offerings, and in direct response to student demands
and needs.
Whilst there is a sectoral nervousness and downturn in
university application rates, we are faring better than most
universities. Education, nursing, regional planning are a few of
the new or expanded areas that are attracting students.
There will be other infrastructure that will be completed next
year that will make the campus more complex physically, and
socially, and academically there will also be more support for
students who find the transition to university life fairly
difficult. Continuing study, but having many more freedoms, can
sometimes be a balancing act. It's a balance that can sometimes be
helped directly and we intend to pay more attention to it.
With the new Pro Vice-Chancellor position there will be a lot
more happening in planning our future international engagements,
which is essential at a time when the international market is not
as buoyant as it was even a year ago. And many places in Asia, for
example Singapore, are gearing up to take more international
students and are 'nearer home' for Asian students.
So 2005 is shaping up to be our busiest and biggest year to
date. We shall not only be active at Sippy Downs, but increasingly
also within the region and internationally.
The reputation of the University is now growing rapidly and is
becoming a major asset to the Coast. The more support we obtain the
more we shall be able to return by way of educational, economic and
social benefits.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast