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USC makes history in 2009
University of the Sunshine Coast staff and students are taking a well-deserved break this Christmas after the 14-year-old institution notched up some weighty milestones this year.
From science and education to arts and business, from student achievements to academic accolades, the University is set for further success into 2010.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill cited record enrolments in both semesters, with about 4,000 new students starting degrees at USC in 2009. More than 1,200 students graduated in April, including the first in the world to receive Masters of Climate Change Adaptation.
The most unexpected global success of 2009 – a feat that claimed second spot in Time Magazine’s list of the 50 best inventions of the year – was tank-bred tuna.
USC’s Professor in Aquaculture Biotechnology Abigail Elizur and Associate Professor in Aquaculture Genetics Wayne Knibb helped achieve the world-first spawning of southern bluefin tuna in captivity.
The project took place at the Clean Seas Tuna facility in South Australia and company chairman Hagen Stehr told USC’s Research Conference in November: “We have lifted the holy grail of tuna propagation”.
The environment was a hot topic on and off campus. In March, USC established a Sustainability Research Centre and its director, Professor Tim Smith, won a prestigious Australian Museum Eureka Prize along with research partners in a project that assessed Sydney’s ability to adapt to climate change.
In July, USC attained six prestigious Australian Learning and Teaching Council citations, which Professor Hill said was a huge achievement.
“Based on staff numbers, that’s by far the highest strike rate of any Australian university,” he said.
The awards, each worth $10,000, went to academics Dr Ann Parkinson, Anna Potter and Dr Monte Wynder, plus Kylie Russell and Tegan McFarland of the Headstart program, Margot Reeh of the student mentoring program, and Global Opportunities co-ordinator Liani Eckard.
The University again gained top marks for teaching quality, as the only public university in Queensland to earn five stars in that category in the 2010 Good Universities Guide released in August.
Students were reaping the benefits. In the Australia Day Awards, USC business graduate Jonty Bush was named Young Australian of the Year 2009 for her courageous work in leading the Queensland Homicide Victims’ Support Group.
USC Arts graduate Laura Monaghan, who worked at The Smith Family’s Maroochydore branch, was awarded Sunshine Coast Regional Council’s Young Citizen of the Year 2009.
Athletes from USC won the “Spirit of the Games” award at the Northern University Games held on the Sunshine Coast. About 600 athletes from 10 universities took part in the four-day competitive and social event.
More than 80 USC students went on to compete at the 2009 Australian University Games on the Gold Coast. Education student Nathan Katterns won gold in the longboard surfing event.
USC held its inaugural Sports Awards in November. Triathlete and Sport and Exercise Science student Chloe Turner was named the University’s first Sportsperson of the Year. She and water polo player Billy Miller received USC’s first “Full Blue” awards for sporting achievement.
Further accolades flowed to USC academics. Associate Professor Brendan Burkett received the 2009 Outstanding Service to Swimming Australia award and was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame. He also flew to Brazil as sport scientist to the national team at the International Paralympic Committee’s world Short Course titles.
Senior Lecturer in Interactive Digital Media Dr Christian Jones was awarded a Queensland Police Service gold award for crime prevention in September.
Dr Jones was part of a joint University and QPS partnership that created an online game to help children avoid abduction. ‘Being Safety Smart’ was in response to the disappearance of Daniel Morcombe at Palmwoods in 2003.
And after 16 years of guiding the University from planning to a thriving campus of 7,000 students, Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Thomas AM announced in December that he will retire in 2010.
– Julie Gatehouse