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Strong moves to specialisation
29 December 2007
It’s the end of another brilliant year for the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). The growth and regional benefit continue, as the University moves to double its size to 10,000 students across the next five years.
Now, with over 1,000 staff, and over 5,000 students it is a University that is not only growing to be one of the region’s largest institutions, but is also creating enormous interest on the world stage, evidenced in the recent international OECD conferences in Copenhagen and Valencia.
Across our first decade or so there had to be a development focus on Sippy Downs, and a suite of academic initiatives that addressed advancing the needs of the Sunshine Coast.
That remains our focus, but we are now able to address those needs with growing expertise. Perhaps one of the most significant features of 2007 has been the recruitment of senior research leaders. Within a relatively short time frame we will be able to answer the question of ‘what do we specialise in?’ In addition to outstanding teachers and world class engagement projects, we will soon see the emergence of powerful research clusters. We are, thus, now in a position to embark on a course that most universities, with varying degrees of success, embarked on decades ago.
One of the most obvious areas of specialisation will undoubtedly be health. Much valuable work has been accomplished with Queensland Health this year to plan the professional needs associated with the Kawana public hospital. The scale of the hospital is particular will mean that huge numbers of professionals will be needed, in excess of the current numbers of available graduates, and really placing strains on training placements.
A good deal of lead time is needed to plan, accredit, recruit, train and graduate professionals before the hospital’s planned opening in 2014.
That is but one of the new specialist areas that will emerge at USC as the University’s growth and regional role move to a new, higher level.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Sunshine Coast.