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University And Coast Developing in Parallels
27 May 2006
Recently the Combined Rotary Clubs of the Sunshine Coast met for
their annual event at the University. Since our earliest years
Rotary Clubs have been amongst the leaders in providing support,
and that support endures, extending currently to scholarships for
students. I know students highly value that help and it reduces the
financial pressures on them and their families.
In addressing Rotarians, I emphasised that the impressive growth
of the University has in significant part been due to them
pioneering ways to support us through the difficult early years
when funding was so abysmal for a new university.
Ten years on, however, the situation for the Coast and the
University has changed dramatically. From a region that was almost
invisible nationally, and a University whose name and scale caused
mild amusement, we are now both well-known. The region is a growth
hotspot and the qualitative dimensions of life are becoming more
broadly based. The University is the nation's fastest growing, and
its quality becoming acknowledged internationally.
In my recent visits to partner German universities, for example,
I was taken aback by the level of interest. In a meeting with the
ten most senior staff of one university, two had already been to
USC and loved it, five others were eager to spend long periods
here, and in addition they reported that many other staff wanted to
become engaged with us. As for students, they were turning their
backs on American universities, and even others in Australia. The
Sunshine Coast was where they wanted to come for a semester or
longer.
I spoke to our students in Germany and German students who had
visited USC. There was mutual praise and commendations, across the
board.
This feedback from both staff and students is illuminating for
me because it has underscored the rapidity of our progress and our
international recognition.
The derisory attitudes or the smirks on people's faces of a
decade ago, both about the Coast and the University have all but
disappeared.
The natural beauty of the region, and the quality academic and
support programs at this University, are receiving parallel, and
growing acknowledgement as a potent combination.
Wherever support has been extended to the University, for
example by Rotarians, we have returned the benefits to the
community manyfold.
That symbiotic relationship of University and the Sunshine Coast
community is developing annually and is what is making the world
sit up and take us seriously, at the level of organisations like
OECD or countries like Germany.
Thank you, Rotarians, for playing your important part.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast