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Reflecting on USC's rise in 2009
12 December 2009
As the year draws to a close ahead of the Christmas-New Year break and as I set off for a month’s recreation leave with my family to the U.K., there are two things I’d like to do.
The first is to wish all readers the very best for our festive season and for the New Year.
The second is to reflect on a few of the year’s highlights at USC which has been another period of growth and development.
The year started with a 12 percent increase in student enrolments and the year is ending with QTAC projecting a 20 percent increase for next year. When these figures are put in the context of a picture painted by sceptics in the mid-90’s that the University College, as it was then, would not grow significantly, we have certainly confounded them. We have again been reaffirmed as one of Australia’s fastest growing universities for 2010.
On every front staff have accomplished some remarkable successes.
In Teaching and Learning areas, USC had more Australian Learning and Teaching Council citations per head of staff than any other Australian university.
The student experience at USC was yet again ranked amongst the highest in the State by the Good Universities Guide, which is based on student feedback.
The surge in research output continues. Millions of dollars were added to the pool and the performance of some individuals was outstanding. The significance of Abigail Elizir’s work on blue-fin tuna was fully acknowledged by Time magazine, which rated the innovation as the second most import in the WORLD in 2009, next only to a NASA rocket at No. 1.
Then there was Tim Smith’s highly prestigious Eureka prize for Science as a result of his sustainability research.
In research we are moving from locally significant to genuinely world class with these researchers.
International student numbers, inter-institutional collaboration, and the opportunities to study overseas, all increase to enrich our global perspective.
Enhancing our physical infrastructure has received a boost late in the year, with Stage 1 success in the intensely competitive ‘Education Investment Fund’. Only three Queensland projects have made the short list, so we must be at least be close to getting our $30M Health and Nursing building.
With the Regional Council’s newly announced commitment to develop the Sippy Downs Town Centre, hopefully in the not too distant future a new set of retail, commercial and leisure activities will add to the social interest of this area.
These are just a few of so many developments, but they are clearly indicative of the growing scale and impact of the University both within the Region but also across the nation and the world.
My firm view, based on the accumulating evidence is that USC will emerge as one of Australia’s strongest universities in the course of these next decades.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.