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Further development in Teaching and Research
20 December 2008
At this time of the year there tends to be a flurry of activity as funding arrangements for the following year are finalised by the Commonwealth Government. Two recent announcements are particularly relevant for our University because they relate to our core responsibilities in teaching and research.
Last week, the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, announced a one-off injection of $500 million into the country’s universities through a new Teaching and Learning Capital Fund. With allocation based on domestic student enrolments, our share of this fund amounted to $3.3 million. While final details of how the grant can be spent are yet to arrive, the funding will target the development of new infrastructure as well as the upgrading of existing facilities. It’s welcome news for USC. As our student numbers continue to grow at greater than 10 percent per year, existing teaching spaces are heavily utilised. We are also experiencing a pipeline effect for the new programs in professional areas like nursing and paramedic science. As students progress to more advanced levels of study, clinical and other facilities need to be expanded to match the expectations for accreditation. Likewise, there has been a rapid uptake by staff of e-learning and other innovative approaches to enhancing learning that supplement face to face teaching. This has led to increasing demands for new generation teaching spaces and facilities.
For an institution that takes great pride in its reputation for excellence in teaching, a grant of this type will allow us to continue upgrading the buildings and technology available for learning and teaching. And for our students, these aspects of the campus are already superior relative to many long established institutions where older buildings are not conducive to contemporary approaches to course delivery and where it is extremely difficult and expensive to upgrade what is currently in place. When it comes to the learning experience, there are real advantages to being associated with a new university.
The other grant announced last week related to our research profile. The Research Block Grant (RBG) is an annual allocation based on performance in research grants, publications and higher degree by research students. The funding pool is distributed to universities according to their performance relative to other universities. USC’s allocation for 2009 is a little over $1 million, up by 7 percent on the allocation for the current year. While the University has a long way to go in reaching the aspirations we have for research, the growth in funding is a very welcome sign that we are succeeding with our approaches to building research excellence.
However, the most pleasing aspect of the RGB story is that funding is based on past performance rather than what happened in the current year. The RBG grant for 2009 is based on outputs from 2006 and 2007. With research outputs again improving substantially in 2008, the next round of this fund should see continued growth in the funding flowing to the University. We can then reinvest these resources in our researchers, postgraduate research students and the facilities they require to be productive.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.