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Poised for Orientation
11 February 2006
Next Monday marks the start of another year with commencing
students engaging in Orientation.
We shall be admitting more students than ever before following
an unprecedented 30 per cent increase in demand over last year,
outstripping every other university in the country in that
respect.
Students will be coming to a University that is in a major
growth phase, having attracted a larger number of Commonwealth
growth places than any other single university campus, and in
addition we have attracted extra places from a university unable to
fill its allocated places.
These extra numbers of students will mean even more student
activity on campus, as our total is now 5,000, a far cry from the
500 we started with in 1996.
Returning and new students will be able to see first-hand the
scale and pace of the building program, with two new major
buildings underway and due for completion this year. These will
provide more classroom space more laboratories and more large
lecture locations.
Within months we shall also be embarking on a new Sport and
Leisure Centre with Education Queensland and Maroochy Shire
Council, with the University bearing the lion's share of planning,
capital, land and operating costs in order to provide needed and
overdue infrastructure for Chancellor College, local residents and
the University itself.
In addition to the increasing range of physical facilities,
students can also expect a level of academic support here that few
other universities can match, and that has been independently
judged, year after year.
As Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) will be introduced
nationally after Semester 1, we are gauging carefully the services
that the University will need to provide to continue to support
students personally, as much as possible.
As we are celebrating this year our first and future decade in
the 'Power of Ten', there will be more special events than ever
before for both students and staff.
Ultimately though, students will succeed to a level commensurate
with both their native ability and their commitment.
To be a success at university requires a level of personal
discipline that few students will ever have had to exercise before,
especially if they are school leavers.
Optimising the university experience is about balancing a firm
focus on academic work, but also engaging socially with new friends
doing different things. As well as getting good marks, it is also
about confidence, communication, leadership, teamwork, security and
few of those traits can be learned solely in the classroom.
Balancing the academic and social, and avoiding excesses is
therefore very important.
Finally, I'll be stressing to students the importance of this
environmentally unique campus and the need to respect and protect
it.
For the great majority, next week will be the start of what will
become one of the most memorable and influential periods of their
lives.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast