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Carrick recognition
11 August 2007
In our early years our major focus was on developing a range of regionally significant academic programs. The major pressures on the highly qualified academic staff were those related to teaching and student support. In the last few years an emphasis is also being placed on research, to build our profile and increase our regional impact in highly selected areas.
Already we are attracting world-class researchers, just as we attracted some gifted teachers in our earliest years.
The rewards for the highest performing researchers have always been much more identifiable for these academics than for teachers, and are reflected in winning grants, the quantum of the grant, publishing powerful outcomes and so on.
Therefore it was nationally significant when a few years ago the Carrick Institute was established to place a sharper focus on rewarding outstanding university teachers.
Last year some of our staff were nationally recognised in this way. This year, Gayle Mayes and Karen Brooks have won citations worth $10,000 each for their work. It is an undoubtedly well deserved honour for it is people like them, who are not only practicing as good teachers, but are also prepared to have their credentials tested nationally who have put USC annually at the forefront of university teaching and support of students.
Lesley Willcoxson is also part of a team that has won a major Carrick grant worth $250,000 and she too, is to be congratulated on this huge achievement.
Also, in our Office of Learning and Teaching, Tilly Hinton has been co-ordinating much of the work associated with grant-getting, and her work has also been nationally recognised as a new Carrick assessor, making judgements about all university applications, and feeding back her experience into what happens here.
Congratulations to these people for setting the pace.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast.