Rhodes Scholar Outstanding Alumni Outback online
Making a difference
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Ben White ... our first Rhodes Scholar
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In brief ...
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Internet sees blue skies beckon outback graduate
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QUT science train takes science to the people
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Forensics fire Karen‘s imagination
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Mental health reformer embraces quest for learning and sharing
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Have qualifications will travel
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Double degree aids global consultant‘s success
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Data experts forecast scholarships need
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Last word ...
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Keep in touch ...
C ONTENTS
http://www.qut.edu.au
A university for the real world
QUT Links is published by the QUT Corporate Communication Department, in co-operation with QUT Alumni Relations Unit.
Design and production by QUT Publications Unit.
Photography: Suzanne Prestwidge, Coombs Photography (Canberra shots on cover, P8 and P12), Phil Norrish (Christene Capel shot courtesy of The Courier-Mail, P4)
Editorial material is gathered from a range of sources and does not necessarily reflect the opinions and policies of the QUT Foundation or QUT.
QUT has been a fully fledged university for less than a decade, but it has reached a distinguished point in its evolution with the recent announcement of the first Rhodes Scholar from within our ranks.
Naturally our warmest congratulations go to Ben White who wants to pursue studies in international law following his successful undergraduate studies at QUT.
His progression to the hallowed halls of Oxford is reward for hard work, dedication, diplomacy and a strong community spirit.
It also is further evidence that the course we have set ourselves at QUT is ensuring the achievements of those who study and work here do make a world of difference.
As the Australian higher education sector receives an ever-diminishing pool of Commonwealth Government funding, QUT is determined to adjust to the new financial imperatives without jeopardising those achievements or our reputation.
Of course, to truly be ‘a university for the real world’, equitable access to higher education must remain an important priority for QUT. Initiatives like the Faculty of Law Founders’ Scholarship and perpetual trusts established by generous benefactors like the Donnachie family and others help the university to achieve that aim.
Those from outside the university who contribute to such initiatives are to be congratulated for their foresight as well as their
philanthropy. Their generous contribution will continue to reap benefits in the decades to come.
For now, I bid you all a happy and healthy holiday season and look forward to a promising 1998.
Professor Dennis Gibson Vice-Chancellor
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Meet Ben White ... our first Rhodes Scholar
“One of the things that drives me is the possibility of being able to look back ... and to have made a difference.”
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grandfather who helped establish the State’s Legal Aid system has been a driving force behind the academic and career success of Queensland’s 1998 Rhodes Scholar, QUT law graduate Ben White.“Grandpa” Bill White was Under- Secretary in Queensland’s Department of Justice from 1976 to 1979. His achievements during those years have become family folklore and left a lasting impression on his enthusiastic 22-year- old grandson.
Ben will move to the hallowed halls of Oxford in October 1998 to begin the three-year Rhodes scholarship, which is awarded to only a handful of Australia’s finest young minds.
Chosen above 42 other applicants for the Queensland Rhodes scholarship – which is awarded for character,
leadership and intellectual and academic excellence – Ben completed his four- year QUT Bachelor of Laws degree with first-class honours and won the 1996 University Medal in Law.
At his graduation ceremony in 1997 he was also awarded the Faculty of Law’s inaugural Gerry Connolly Memorial Prize for Outstanding
Community Service.
The prize was recognition of his long involvement with the Queensland University of Technology Association of Law Students (QUOTALS), the Faculty of Law’s equity committee, the
university’s NEXUS program and the faculty’s peer mentoring program. He also helped organise the inaugural Faculty of Law (talent) review.
At Oxford, Ben plans to study for a Master of Letters in Law and progress on to a Doctorate of Philosophy, with particular emphasis on maximising the effectiveness of law reforms and their use as tools for change in society.
“My long-term goals are not set in concrete, but I would really love to come back (to Queensland) and work on policy and law reform in the area of access to justice,” Ben said.
“It might be through any of a number of bodies, such as the Department of Justice’s Policy and Legislation Division, or through the Queensland or Australian Law Reform Commissions, or a body such as Legal Aid.
“One of the things that drives me is the possibility of being able to look back on your career and to have made a difference – to have changed the landscape in some way.
“My grandpa can look back and say he was involved in setting up something which I think is very important – is a fundamental right – that people have a right, especially in criminal matters, to a fair defence.
“To be involved in setting up something like that would be, I think, a worthwhile life.”
Having just finished his year-long appointment as a judge’s associate to Queensland Supreme Court Justice Glen Williams, Ben plans to do QUT’s
six-week Bar Practice Course in January, 1998, which will seal his qualifications as a barrister.
He then plans to work as a temporary law clerk with Legal Aid in Queensland for six months from March 1998 before he leaves for Oxford.
At Oxford, Ben hopes to live in the famed University (residential) College, which counts American President Bill Clinton as one of its most successful graduates of recent times.
With appealing modesty, Ben said he had not been confident of securing the scholarship despite being short-listed in the State and national selections the previous year.
“You can’t go in expecting to win something like this or saying that you are a favourite or anything because you have done well in a previous attempt,”
he said.
“I am blown away by the thought of becoming part of Oxford – I think it is due in a large part to the support of my parents and younger sister Vanesa who have helped me to grow emotionally as well as academically.”
A keen sportsman, Ben competed with distinction in a wide range of sports at St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, and maintains a strong interest in basketball and kayaking.
Cecil Rhodes founded the scholarship awards in 1902 for people aged 19 to 25, with women becoming eligible in 1972.
Contemplating life at Oxford . . . Queensland’s 1998 Rhodes Scholar Ben White takes a short break from legal work for the Supreme Court’s Justice Williams
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In brief ...
UN SNAPS UP FIRST HUMANITIES PHD
QUT’s School of
Humanities has farewelled its first PhD graduate, Greg Terrill, who has taken up a full-time position as a policy advisor with the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.
Just prior to his
graduation, Greg had spent time at Oxford University in the United Kingdom where he helped edit a book about open government in Britain, a topic closely related to his thesis.
SPACE DEAL INVOLVES UNI Low-orbit Australian satellites expected to weigh less than 60kg – and around the size of a bar fridge – are set to rocket Queensland into the new millennium.
And QUT and Griffith University will be part of a cutting-edge team developing the satellites which will be launched from the middle of 2001.
The news came as the State Government recently approved $1.2 million over five years to support the project which will entail a satellite technology research and development centre being established at QUT.
SCIENCE DEAN TO HEAD ARC QUT’s Dean of Science, Professor Vicki Sara, has been appointed chair of the nation’s most powerful research funding body, the Australian Research Council (ARC).
Professor Sara is the first woman to chair the ARC, which commands an annual
budget of more than
$300 million.
With more than 20 years of research experience both in Australia and overseas, Professor Sara will bring substantial international experience and a diverse research background to the position of ARC Chair.
Professor Sara is to take up her full-time appointment early in 1998.
FORUMS LAUNCHED BY BUSINESS LEADERS
Prominent business, political and academic figures are to address a series of high- profile Leaders’ Forums in Brisbane being organised by QUT’s Faculty of Business and sponsored by a number of large organisations.
The initiative was
announced recently as a band of influential private and public sector executives gathered at the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane to toast the importance of the venture with political commentator and television presenter Paul Lyneham.
Flanked by chairmen, chief executive officers, managing directors, legal partners and department heads, acting vice-chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake said QUT intended to foster increased high-level interaction among people from industry, the professions, media, government and the
university in order to enhance the State’s business and economic climate as well as the calibre of its business graduates.
“As we near the end of
this century, it is critical that we lift the standard of debate on key business, economic and political issues impacting on our community,” Professor Coaldrake said. “There is much to be gained from discussing these issues from local, national and
international perspectives and, by holding these forums, QUT will engage in and foster that debate.”
INDIGENOUS CENTRE ANNOUNCED
QUT will be a partner in a
$2 million centre that will train indigenous people as health professionals and researchers equipped to tackle chronic health problems in indigenous communities.
The Queensland
Indigenous Higher Education Centre will be jointly managed by QUT, which is the State’s largest provider of higher education in health, and the University of Queensland, with the Federal Government contributing
$1.5 million towards the centre and the remaining
$550,000 coming from the two universities.
QUT Oodgeroo Unit manager Penny Tripcony said the QUT arm of the project had the potential to train indigenous nurses, podiatrists, optometrists, health
administrators and experts in oral health nutrition, dietetics and environmental health.
The centre aims to eventually become self- funding, with a revenue base generated by research consultancies and other funding initiatives.
Bill Blair
FOUNDATION CHIEF HONOURED
The President of QUT’s Foundation, Bill Blair, has received a medal in the general division of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community, business and tertiary education, particularly through QUT’s Foundation.
Bill was awarded the medal as part of the Queen’s Birthday celebrations.
QUT UPGRADES JAPANESE NURSING LINKS
Following a successful tour of Brisbane’s hospitals by 300 trainee nurses from Osaka in June 1997, QUT’s School of Nursing officially welcomed back 88 senior nursing officials from Osaka in late November for a two-day study tour.
The tour focused on aged and terminal care and included seven education- information sessions at Kelvin Grove as well as a day of visits to local hospitals.
Underwritten by Osaka Prefecture’s Government and Osaka’s Director General of Public & Environmental Health, the latest tour marks an important development in the likely provision of advanced nursing courses by QUT to facilitate the upgrading of qualifications
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Q U T L I N K S
for a large group of Japanese nurses. (Most of Japan’s 430,000 qualified nurses have a diploma or certificate of nursing and prefecture governments across Japan are keen to see nurses upgrade to a bachelor degree.)
Following the tour, School of Nursing senior lecturer Rob Thornton said QUT aimed to provide a one-year program for qualified Japanese nurses in Brisbane from the middle of 1998.
Rob, who is due to return to Japan in April, also confirmed that negotiations with other Japanese prefectures – including Fukuoka and Brisbane’s Sister City Saitama –␣ were well advanced.
Gaming Machine
Community Benefit Fund.
Dr McGrath, who completed her Masters in Applied Ethics and Human Change through QUT’s School of Humanities, understands from family experience the impact of bone-marrow cancer.
She will initially investigate the effectiveness of the State Government’s Patient Transport Assistance Scheme, which subsidises the costs of regional patients’
accommodation and travel.
Dr McGrath will also assess the Leukaemia Foundation’s
‘Taking Control’
support course.
Data produced through these and other research projects will help reduce the human and financial costs of serious illness, improve patient services, inform government policies and educate health professionals.
STUDENTS DON SPACE-AGE SUITS
Seven Indonesian students are the first batch of
postgraduates at QUT to don distinctive blue neck-to-toe suits as they work on the latest high-tech composite materials.
The students completed the new Graduate Certificate in Engineering (Materials Technology) in QUT’s School of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Medical Engineering.
Their graduate certificate forms the second half of a masters program which is being taught jointly by QUT and the University of
Indonesia and is sponsored by BPPT, the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.
In the QUT laboratories, the students wore protective suits to keep out resins and the fine kevlar, carbon or glass fibres as they worked through a three-week block dealing with engineering composite materials. They also
completed three other blocks – on polymers, ceramics, and electrical and magnetic materials – and carried out a research project.
Protected by their space-age blue suits, Graduate Certificate in Engineering (Materials Technology) students work on high-tech composite materials.
undergraduate degree in medicine, dentistry or psychology and be eligible for registration in their
profession. Members of the Australian Hypnosis Society who have a diploma in clinical hypnosis will also be able to upgrade their qualifications by completing the second year of the graduate diploma course.
Dr Gow said the graduate diploma and graduate certificates would be offered to international students from 1999, with off-shore teaching possibly on offer in Singapore, Hong Kong and India by the year 2000.
SOLUTION FOR STRUGGLING READERS
With many children struggling to master the art of reading, at least some
problems involved may be solved by a book recently released by a QUT Bachelor of Education graduate.
Brisbane teacher and author Judy Frost has just published her first book – Now Read This – which, she said, had been written for parents to help their children with reading.
Judy said the focus of the book was to encourage parents, in particular, to spend time listening to their children read and, if they find that their children are experiencing any problems with reading, the book offers a technique to improve their progress.
The book is available from Key Publications and Judy Frost can be contacted on (07) 3369 4990.
Officials from Osaka, Japan visit QUT’s School of Nursing.
QUT TO TRAIN HYPNOTISTS Health professionals will soon be able to offer patients alternative pain and phobia treatment by doing postgraduate studies in hypnosis at QUT.
Practising doctors, dentists and psychologists will have access to the latest hypnosis research and treatment techniques through three new award courses to be offered from February 1998 by the Faculty of Arts’ School of Social Science.
Course co-ordinator Dr Kathryn Gow said the courses would be full fee-paying and applicants must have an FUNDS FLOW FOR IMPACT
STUDY
QUT masters graduate Dr Pam McGrath has been appointed a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Public Health and will conduct research on the impact of life- threatening illnesses – such as leukaemia – on individuals and their families.
The position has been initiated by the Leukaemia Foundation in collaboration with the QUT School of Public Health. It has been funded by an initial $15,000 grant from Perpetual Trustees and $50,000 from the
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Internet sees blue skies beckon outback graduate
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“The QUT project has given rural women a voice and an audience.”
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f you said studying at QUT had opened up a whole new world to Christene Capel, you could easily be accused of an understatement.For this energetic rural woman who lives 100 km north-west of Longreach in central west Queensland, a Graduate Diploma in Teacher Librarianship at QUT introduced her to the Internet, exchanging her relative isolation for participation in the global village.
Christene’s studies have since steered her into agripolitics, put her on speaking podiums across the State and introduced her to a host of local, national and international contacts.
“Because of that study, my life has taken a different direction,” Christene said. “It has opened doors to things I could never have imagined.”
The former teacher began her graduate diploma in 1994 as an external correspondence student, but advancing technology tracked her down and her course ultimately required her to use electronic mail.
“I was dreading that actually but, when I got going, I loved it,”
she admitted.
“At first I used it only for a specific course project but, ultimately, I became
the first person ever to submit teacher librarianship assignments to QUT via e-mail,” she said.
Christene’s involvement with QUT led to her participation in two projects co-ordinated by Dr Margaret Grace, a senior research associate in the Communication Centre.
“The first project focused on rural women’s access to communication technologies for information and networking and provided 10 rural women, of whom I was one, with three months’ free Internet usage. I became a total convert,” Christene said.
“The second project – Enhancing rural women’s access to interactive
communications technologies – was funded by the Australian Research Council.
It focused more on using information technology for rural
community development.
“Workshops on Internet awareness were conducted by the researchers and local contacts like myself in about 10 different rural communities and an on- line discussion group for rural women, now called ‘WELink’, was established.
“The project has had an enormous effect. It has drawn together like-minded
people and raised awareness in the bush about the benefits of this technology and of our problems in terms of facilities, costs and access.”
WELink connects urban and rural women and a group of industry partners including the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Health, the Office ofWomen’s Affairs, the Office of Rural Communities and the
Department of Public Works and Housing.
“Through WELink, policy- and decision-makers tap into the needs of rural communities and raise these with governments where appropriate,”
Christene said.
“The QUT project has given rural women a voice and an audience that would once have been impossible. That space has taken on real power for us.”
Christene’s growing familiarity with the Internet set her active mind to devising other uses for it, particularly for rural areas.
“I began to think about teleworking – working remotely for an employer based anywhere in Australia, using simply a phone, a fax and the Internet.
There were many jobs I felt could be
Christene Capel
Photo courtesy of The Courier Mail
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done this way, providing a boost for rural employment.
“I spoke at a Positive Rural Futures conference run recently in Charters Towers by the Office of Rural Communities (ORC) and the Priority Country Area Program (PCAP) and mentioned teleworking.
“ORC’s general manager was there and was interested in the concept.
“The ORC later offered me a job, so I’m the first person appointed by the Queensland Government as a rural- based teleworker.
“I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s working with the rural policy area, researching issues which go through to the ORC and providing advice to the Minister.
“The ORC works with the whole of government on issues affecting rural communities – health, education, primary production,
telecommunications – and ensures rural communities are adequately serviced and governments are made aware of
the impact of rural policies on rural residents.
“The position will be mutually beneficial. I’m able to have this wonderful, one-day-a-week job which deals with rural policy and the ORC and government obtain grass-roots feedback from someone who lives in the bush and with the results of rural policies. It has been a really
exciting breakthrough.”
Christene’s rapid adoption of the Internet led to her story appearing in a book called 24 Hours in Cyberspace.
“The publishers picked 100 people from around the world whose lives had been changed by the Internet and, on February 8 last year, sent 100
photographers out to 100 Internet users worldwide to photograph them in their natural environment,” Christene said.
“Of course, that meant I had to get out in the sheepyard, which isn’t really my natural environment, but it was worth it.
“That photo has now been picked up by a US hard-drive manufacturer, used as an advertisement in an American computer magazine and it refers to my study with QUT.”
Christene’s Graduate Diploma in Teaching Librarianship has
supplemented her earlier Bachelor of Arts and Diploma of Education gained in the early 1980s and she intends to do a masters in the future.
“But, at the moment, the children (Jessica, 12, Duncan, 9, and Miles, 18 months), helping my husband David with the property, the teleworking job, speaking engagements, my involvement in several rural organisations and my work with rural telecommunications, all tend to keep me pretty busy,” she said.
“These days, I’m attached to the computer by the hip until about 6.30pm. Thanks to my study, my career has taken a different direction – a really exciting and rewarding one.”
G
raduates living in Singapore have formed their own alumni chapter and are playing an active role in briefing intending students wanting to come to Brisbane to study at QUT.The group is being assisted by Bachelor of Business (public relations) graduate Vivian Song who now works for QUT as an international relations officer.
Vivian, who is based in Singapore doing work for
the university’s Office of International Relations, said her “mission” went beyond lending support to QUT colleagues based
in Brisbane.
“I’m proud to be an ambassador for QUT and I look forward to sharing with prospective students the joy of my undergraduate days as an international student, as do the 400-plus alumni chapter members we have registered in the past year or so.
“With the help of the QUT Alumni (Singapore
Chapter), I am sure the activities we are organising for 1998 will also provide fuel for greater bonding among graduates.”
Vivian invited Singapore- based graduates to contact her via e-mail at
[email protected] or to visit the group’s website at
http://www.qut.edu.au/
publications/00org/
development/alumni/
alumni_chapter.html for more details about the chapter.
Vivian Song takes a short break during a recent visit to Brisbane.
Singapore alumni form own chapter
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QUT Science Train takes science to the people
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“We obviously captured the imagination of Queenslanders.”
M
ore than 25,000 Queenslanders experienced science first-hand when they climbed aboard the popular QUT Science Train during August and September.The $500,000 project took the world of science on a 10,000 km, five- week journey around the State from August 17 to September 19, stopping at 23 regional and rural centres. The train then spent a final week on show in Brisbane, closing its doors on September 26.
The brainchild of QUT’s Dean of Science – and Australian Research Council chair elect –␣ Professor Vicki Sara, the Science Train aimed to give rural and regional Queenslanders a personal, interactive experience of science.
“People living in these areas don’t often get the opportunity to visit metropolitan science centres, museums and universities,” Professor Sara said. “We thought it would be great to take science to them, rolling it into their local railway station.
“We obviously captured the imagination of Queenslanders – more than 21,500 climbed aboard our mobile science display in the 23 centres and a further 3,500 visited in Brisbane.
“School students thronged to the exhibit and feedback was extremely positive – descriptions such as ‘rad’,
‘cool’, ‘wicked’ and ‘legendary’ being logged in the visitors’ book.
“The Science Train was also a big drawcard to adults, business people and family groups who took advantage of our evening opening hours to visit and get a greater understanding of how science impacts on their daily lives.”
Professor Sara said the train, decked out “from dinosaurs to DNA”, featured three themed carriages demonstrating earth, environment and cell sciences, with a fourth carriage providing information about study at QUT.
“The themed carriages represented a timeline from Earth’s barren beginnings through the development of vegetation to the appearance of life forms,” she said.
“The displays were interactive and dynamic. Faculty of Science staff and postgraduate students staffed the train and involved visitors in experimenting with the various exhibits.”
Some visitors drove for hours to see the Science Train, which had
tremendous media and community support across the State.
In Roma, a 94-year-old former steam engine driver was given a red carpet inspection of the train’s four carriages, while three out of every four residents in Richmond and more than a quarter of Mitchell’s residents visited the train.
The temperature in Richmond topped 40 degrees and, when the train ran out of water, staff and students on board had to forgo their daily shower.
On arrival at Charters Towers the following morning, there were no facilities at the station, but a generous local hotelier stepped in to save the day so that Charters Towers visitors were none the wiser.
In the wake of the Science Train’s historic journey, the number of
applications to study undergraduate science at QUT have lifted considerably, with the faculty receiving its first applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
According to Professor Sara, the successful project would never have got off the ground without the enthusiastic support of a number of sponsors, including QUT, which started the ball rolling with a $90,000 contribution.
Other sponsors included the Commonwealth Department of
Industry, Science and Technology as well as the Queensland Government, Queensland Rail, the Queensland Performing Arts Trust, The Arts Office - Queensland, Rotary and
Sunstate Airlines.
Professor Vicki Sara with Deputy Premier Joan Sheldon at the offical send-off of the QUT Science Train.
Forensics fire Karen‘s imagination
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“We have an arrangement with QUT whereby the university provides us with technological support.”
Karen Crawford using QUT’s scanning electron miroscope
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t may not be as glamorous as it appears on television, but, for Karen Crawford, forensic science work with the Queensland Police offers many rewards.“I’ve always been interested in science,” Karen admitted.
“But the forensic application of it appealed to me and there was the bonus that what you did could really make a difference.”
Karen completed her Applied Science (Chemistry) honours at the end of 1996, winning a QUT academic medal in the process.
She has worked with Queensland Police since January this year.
“I work in the analytical support unit in the scientific section,” Karen said.
“We provide analytical work on exhibits in court cases.
“Our special area here is fire debris analysis – examining fire damage or looking for accelerants.
“We also specialise in paint and glass comparisons from break-and-enters and hit-and-run cases.
“The work is not often definitive in solving a crime.
“More regularly it’s a contributing factor – it supports or refutes stories, but it won’t always give you the story if you don’t know what that story is.”
“It always makes a contribution to the end result, but rarely does the entire case rest on (forensic findings).”
Interestingly, Karen’s connection with QUT has continued through her work with Queensland Police.
“We have an arrangement with QUT whereby the university provides us with technological support,” she said.
“QUT has equipment that our lab at Roma Street Police Headquarters doesn’t possess and I’m often over at QUT using its scanning electron microscope, among other things.
“Some of the work I’ve done there involves examining gunshot residue and analysing paint.”
“It’s a good opportunity for knowledge-sharing and feedback with people in the lab at my former university.”
Karen says the use of forensic evidence in court cases is on the increase.
“It’s an upward spiral. The more work the forensic scientists do, the more results we produce, which demonstrates how forensic science can be used by investigating officers to support their cases.
“It’s been a gradual process of producing the results and heightening awareness among investigators of the assistance we can provide.
“Now they approach us to see what we can do for them.”
Karen sees a long future ahead in the forensic science field.
“I’ve found the work more rewarding than I originally thought I would,” she said.
“It’s fascinating from a scientific perspective and very rewarding when you get feedback from an officer on how your work impacted on a case.”
Dr Harvey Whiteford
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“I maintain contact with patients because this is the grass-roots of everything I’m trying to achieve”
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Mental health reformer embraces quest for learning and sharing
H
e graduated as a medical doctor in 1977 and completed his psychiatry studies in 1984. This was followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine in the US. Returning to Australia in late 1986, he became acting deputy director of the Division of Psychiatric Services in Queensland’s Health Department and was concurrently consultant psychiatrist at both Wolston Park and Princess Alexandra hospitals.He was directly responsible for almost 2,000 staff in three psychiatric hospitals, forensic psychiatry services and 12 community psychiatry services.
In 1988, he was appointed director of adult psychiatry in Queensland Health’s Psychiatric Services Division, maintaining his consulting
responsibilities and adding the role of honorary senior lecturer in the
QUT’s 1997 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient is the
Commonwealth’s director of mental health, Dr Harvey Whiteford, a Master of Public Health graduate.
Harvey has been determined to bring the often-marginalised area of mental health into mainstream health care and has been an
“atypical” health-care reformer, straddling the world of clinicians and the world of health policy and administration.
University of Queensland’s Psychiatry Department.
Harvey established a 24-bed
psychiatric research unit at Wolston Park Hospital with more than 40 staff that is now the Queensland Centre for Schizophrenia Research.
In 1991, he became Queensland’s director of mental health and was a dynamic reform agent in mental health services.
“I felt I needed improved
administrative and policy skills for this position, so enrolled in QUT’s Master of Public Health program,” Harvey said.
The MPH program was jointly offered by a consortium of QUT, the University of Queensland and Griffith University.
“Each offered a different strand, and I chose QUT’s health economics, policy, financing and planning areas. I used the
Other successful faculty nominees:
Arts
Peter Beattie is a 1997 Master of Arts (Humanities) graduate who is the Leader of the Opposition in the State Parliament and has represented the State seat of Brisbane Central since 1989. His thesis – The Window of Opportunity: The Fitzgerald Experiment and the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission 1987-1992␣– follows the Fitzgerald Inquiry from inception to completion and examines the effectiveness of the inquiry’s recommendations.
Built Environment and Engineering Allan Gillespie attained his Associate Diploma in Electrical Engineering in 1969 and has built up a career in the electricity industry which has taken him around Queensland, to New South Wales and up to Papua New Guinea.
The Chief Executive Officer of Austa Energy – a fully corporatised
Government-owned organisation which owns and operates 75 per cent of the major electricity generation in Queensland – Allan has led large, technology driven corporations through change using total quality management techniques, best practice benchmarking, equity and quality assurance.
Business
John George is a 1989 Bachelor of Business (Management) graduate who established the successful Mrs Crocket’s Kitchen, a fresh food and salad
manufacturer and distributor. He has built the business into a multi-million dollar enterprise, winning the Best Small Business Award in the early 1990s and currently ranking in the top 120 Queensland companies.
Education
Kathleen Newcombe, the managing director of Lorraine Martin College, has had a long association with studies at QUT. A 1978 Diploma of Teaching knowledge gained in the MPH to
facilitate reform Statewide and nationally.
“Putting mental health into the mainstream of health care, linking it with other services, planning and
commencing new hospital and community services, were my priorities.”
During this time, Harvey chaired the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council National Mental Health Working Group (1993-1997) which plans and oversees Australia’s mental health services reform.
Earlier this decade he was invited by the World Health Organisation to sit on a panel of experts to develop a model of best practice in mental health service delivery and earlier this year he took up the new position of director of mental health with the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services.
Responsible for driving the Federal Government’s mental health initiatives, including Australia’s National Mental Health and Youth Suicide Prevention strategies, Harvey has been shaking the tree of mental health policy and service delivery while continuing to see patients and lecture students.
“I maintain contact with patients because this is the grass-roots of everything I’m trying to achieve – keeping in touch with the real need,” he said. “Teaching also builds bridges between mental health care practice and administration and, when I was in Brisbane, I taught at QUT and UQ.
Teaching is a way of giving something back to the system.
“The MPH taught me the language of health policy and administration and my medical experience grounds me in the world of clinical care. Very few people are fortunate enough to have qualifications to be able to work in both areas. The masters has allowed that to happen for me.”
graduate who completed her Bachelor of Education in 1981 and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration and Marketing at QUT in 1987, Kathleen began her career as a school teacher. She then became a course counsellor at Lorraine Martin College in 1987. Since then she has progressed from consultant to director of international marketing, deputy principal (Brisbane campus) and principal (Brisbane)/general manager (Queensland) before recently taking over the top job in the organisation.
Information Technology Christopher Curtis is a 1981
Bachelor of Applied Science (Computer) graduate with a history of both technical and managerial roles in the information technology industry. In the late 1980s, Christopher started a company which developed human resource software for in-house systems. The product became very successful and is still marketed by MINCOM who bought the company in 1990.
Law
Paula Gerber is a 1986 Bachelor of Laws graduate who specialises in construction law as senior associate in the construction group at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Solicitors, in Melbourne.
In 1995, Paula founded the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and establish State chapters and three NZ branches. In 1996 she received the Crystal Vision Award from NAWIC (America), the Telstra Business Woman of the Year award (Private Sector at both National and State levels) and, this year, the Law Institute Journal Writers’ Award.
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“I found a job in Saudi Arabia through a health recruiting company following the Gulf War.”
Mary-Ellen Vidgen
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unique approach which combined the best in healthadministration with a strong business focus has seen graduate Mary-Ellen Vidgen go from a career start in Brisbane to working interstate, and internationally, in health information management.
Mary-Ellen, who graduated from QUT with a Bachelor of Business – Health Administration in 1985, said the business focus of the course created a type of health professional which was unique for that time.
“Most other institutions offered health administration as an applied science degree, so we were the only ones who had that business emphasis,”
Mary-Ellen said.
“I think it attracted a different sort of student in those days.
“As a result, QUT graduates often approach problems from a different perspective and utilise alternative methods of solving those problems compared to our counterparts from other states.”
Mary-Ellen said graduates from her year had a strong interest in breaking out of traditional medical records roles in hospitals and that many had pursued non-traditional careers.
And her own career is such an example.
Following a start in leadership roles in medical records departments at the Mater Private Hospital and the Royal Brisbane Hospital, Mary-Ellen moved to the Queensland AIDS Medical Unit in 1989.
In addition to its role as a testing and treatment clinic, the unit also had an epidemiology surveillance role in tracking the spread of the virus in Queensland, Mary-Ellen said.
“There was a lot of difficulty encouraging people to be tested because of the confidentiality issues, so part of my job was to ensure the highest level of confidentiality for records,”
she explained.
“We had to invent new ways of ensuring confidential information couldn’t be accessed. For example, we coded pathology samples so patient names didn’t appear on the specimen, in case someone at the lab knew them.”
Mary-Ellen was subsequently promoted in Queensland Health into a job where she travelled around Queensland advising small country hospitals on health information management and helping them implement computer software systems.
That job was eliminated when the Goss Labor Government regionalised the Queensland health system and Mary-Ellen decided to explore the possibilities of taking her skills overseas.
“I found a job in Saudi Arabia through a health recruiting company following the Gulf War,” she said.
Mary-Ellen said she had little difficulty adjusting to the Saudi culture, although there were a number of professional hurdles to clear.
“On one occasion I was asked to leave a hospital administration computer demonstration before it began because it was the policy of the company not to have women in attendance. That upset
me because it prevented me from doing my job,” she said.
“You had to get used to a different set of values – I had a male staff member call one morning to say he would be late because the washing machine had overflowed and he couldn’t leave his wife alone with the repairman.
“You don’t really understand until you have been there a while.
“I would go back to Saudi again but I wanted to come home, buy a house and see if I could still get the sort of job I wanted back here.”
Needless to say she did and today Mary-Ellen works in the Information and Data Services Division of the New South Wales Health Department where she oversees the collection of in-patient data from hospitals to assist in planning health services for the State.
Q U T L I N K S
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Double degree aids global consultant’s success
“The degree covers everything you see in a manufacturing company.”
b y G l e n y s H a a l e b o s
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double degree that could have been tailor-made for QUT graduate Mark Fry has opened the door to an exciting and varied career which has sent him jet-setting around the globe.“When I was looking at what degree I was going to do, I tossed up between engineering and accounting,” Mark said.
“They’re about as far apart as you can get, so it was great to see the Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Business Management double degree being offered.
“It was just the thing I was looking for. It was the first time the course was offered, so the timing was excellent for me.”
Mark began his two-pronged studies in January 1988, finishing in 1992.
“The degrees, if done separately, would have taken seven years, but the way this course is structured, it’s a five- year program,” he said.
“A proportion of the engineering degree covers some management topics so, by combining the two, the
duplication is rationalised and course duration reduced by two years.”
While the two professional areas – engineering and business management
(Mark majored in marketing) – seem to be at opposite ends of the career choice spectrum, the course has practical application, according to Mark.
“The degree covers everything you see in a manufacturing company – strategic planning, management, product design, manufacture and marketing,”
he said.
“It was really useful – we were given insights into the different aspects of company operation.”
Mark now works for Price
Waterhouse as a principal consultant in systems implementation.
“We use a whole-of-business software package from SAP, which is the largest of its kind in use internationally,”
he said.
“It’s the package of choice for a significant percentage of the Fortune 500 companies, and many of Australia’s largest companies.
“The package has a number of different modules – financials, sales and distribution, materials management, production planning, plant maintenance, for example.
“I analyse the particular company’s current procedures, examine its future
requirements and then establish the actual systems while improving the overall business process.
“This involves design, construction and implementation phases.
“The key elements are the process, the actual system, project management and then the change management – looking at how the new system will impact on people’s jobs.”
Since commencing with Price Waterhouse in January 1993, Mark has become a frequent overseas traveller.
“I spent six months in the United States implementing the package for a semi-conductor company in California’s Silicon Valley and I’m currently working on a project in Jakarta for a palm oil plantation in addition to working on Brisbane-based projects.
“The project work I’m doing gives me tremendous variety.
“I work with the same software package, but with disparate aspects of it, with different companies in various industries from a number of countries,”
Mark said.
Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Business Management graduate Mark Fry ... excellent timing.
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b y G l e n y s H a a l e b o s
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hen Desmond Donnachie decided to study computing at the former Brisbane College of Advanced Education (now QUT), neither he – nor the College – realised it wouldculminate in his lifetime profession and cement a partnership that would pave the way for future generations of students to study information technology.
“Obtaining my computing
qualification changed my life,” Des said.
“It has rewarded me professionally and personally and has allowed me to meet my personal goal of being a dedicated professional.”
So aware is Des of the difference study made to his life, that he has decided to give a similar opportunity to others by establishing a perpetual trust which will provide scholarships to study information technology at QUT.
“My brother and myself are the only remaining members of my family. We’ve agreed that our estate will not form part of consolidated revenue, but will serve a useful purpose.
“We want our bequest to QUT to be allocated to financially disadvantaged students who will study information
“My brother and I could not think of anything ... more lasting than to offer someone a shot at an education.”
technology and who want to be dedicated professionals.”
Des’s generosity and vision has created a long-term partnership between himself, QUT, and students of the future by establishing the Donnachie
Scholarships.
“My brother and I could not think of anything finer or more lasting than to offer someone a shot at an education,”
he said.
It was back in the early ’80s that Des first developed an interest in computers – “doing the things hacks do”.
“I bought myself one of the first micros, an Apple IIE, and computing became my hobby,” he said.
Deciding it would be good to make his hobby his career, Des looked around for universities offering computer courses.
“The Brisbane College of Advanced Education (BCAE) seemed to have the only computing courses that related to the real world,” Des said. “Other universities offered very theoretical or engineering-based courses, whereas BCAE was real-world, hands- on computing.
“In 1987, I began an Associate Diploma in Computing, graduating in November 1990, the year BCAE and QUT merged. Graduating at age 49 was one heck of a milestone. It opened doors to an exciting and varied career.”
Des was head-hunted to the public service and joined the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in January 1991, moving to Canberra to take up the position of computer systems officer (now information technology officer).
“Essentially I’m a programmer. The ABS conducts a plethora of surveys, the biggest being the Australian Census every five years. Teams of ABS information technology staff produce the computing systems for those surveys.
I was proud to be a member of the team which produced the computing systems for the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Census – a subset of the Australian Census.”
Des said many organisations – government and private – commissioned the ABS to develop surveys.
“Suppose, for example, McDonalds plans to build a new outlet – it wants to build where the kids are,” he explained.
“That information can be derived from census data produced by computing systems I helped to build.
“About two years ago, the ABS was commissioned to take part in a National Nutrition Survey with the Department of Health and Community Services. The department wanted an in-depth survey of what Australians eat, how often and their physical measurements.
“My role was to produce a computing system which would bring together data collected from a number of sources to be used for further statistical processing.”
Prior to studying for his Associate Diploma in Computing, Des worked with the Taxation Department and in credit management.
But computing has become his first love and, through his bequest, Des is making it possible for many future students who share his interest in computing to realise their ambitions.
Des Donnachie ... investing in the future.
Simone Garske
Head – External Relations Development Office
Division of Research and Advancement QUT, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane Q 4001
Remembering QUT
Gifts such as Des Donnachie's help to realise QUT's mission as a university for the real world through its teaching, research and service to the community.
If you would like information regarding bequests to QUT, please contact:
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Q U T L I N K S
Last word ...
LAW GETS FOUNDERS SCHOLARSHIP
QUT’s Law Faculty announced plans for a scholarship scheme designed to help socio-economically disadvantaged students enter the legal profession at its recent 20th anniversary gala dinner.
The Faculty of Law Founders Scholarship concept was launched by the faculty’s first law dean – Tom Cain, AM – at the Brisbane Convention Centre dinner with several hundred graduates, current students and members of the legal profession in attendance.
Justice Bruce McPherson of the Supreme Court of Queensland’s Court of Appeal was the official guest speaker at the function.
Current Faculty of Law Dean Professor Malcolm Cope said the scholarship had already attracted a steady stream of donations from former QUT Law graduates who are working in the law profession.
“Law is now in the highest Higher Education
Contribution Scheme (HECS) band and we think that there may be people who would like to study law who are academically meritorious but are unable to do so for financial reasons,” Professor Cope said.
“The Faculty is
endeavouring to raise enough funds to provide an
opportunity for a student to undertake studies of law who might not otherwise be able to do so for financial reasons.”
Professor Cope said he hoped the annual scholarship scheme – which will offer students the option of having their annual $5,500 HECS debt paid for one year, or the equivalent amount in financial assistance – would be formally launched in 1998.
For further details, call Professor Cope (07) 3864 2227.
ASSESSMENT TAKES UNUSUAL TWIST
Just under 100 QUT information technology students have completed the first two subjects offered in a unique collaboration with industry.
Over the past three years, the School of Information Systems’ Associate Professor Guy Gable has developed a relationship between the university and SAP, the company which is providing the comprehensive
accounting software package, R/3, which is being adopted for use by State Government departments and other large organisations.
“With strong support from our Dean of Information
private and public sector users of its R/3 package, as well as from students;
• a keener interest from undergraduate students to go on to postgraduate studies after being closely involved with industry projects this year;
• two or three new PhD students likely to come from the postgraduate group and equally strong interest from the marketplace to provide funds for relevant scholarships;
• the introduction of a third, advanced undergraduate subject in early 1998 based on the SAP fourth-generation language used to create R/3, as well as a business process re- engineering subject; and
• early interest from other universities in running similar programs.
Now Guy is working on a more flexible format for his postgraduate subject which could see the bulk of
attendance on Saturdays, either as full or half days, from next year.
He has also been
formalising QUT’s links with SAP and has been instrumental in its recent establishment of the SAPIENT College initiative, which will draw on universities like QUT to provide more in-depth training for SAP users.
Foundation Dean Tom Cain and current Dean of QUT’s Faculty of Law Professor Malcolm Cope were joined at Law’s gala 20th anniver- sary celebrations by the faculty’s only other Dean, Professor David Gardiner, who is now Pro-Vice- Chancellor, Planning and Resources, at QUT.
Associate Professor Guy Gable . . . building a new foundation for
“acquired solutions” in business.
Technology, Professor John Gough, I redesigned a capstone undergraduate subject, Information Systems Management, which shifted the emphasis from in-house, customised solutions to utilising acquired solutions, such as SAP’s R/3, for its 71 students,” Guy explained.
He also introduced 22 masters-level students to a subject called Enterprise Application Software, assigning them eight separate R/3 empirical projects with real- world users of R/3 such as Queensland Treasury, Queensland Transport, Price Waterhouse, BHP, Coopers &
Lybrand and the Department of Public Works and Housing.
“By involving our undergraduate Information Systems Management students as one of the stakeholder groups in our postgraduate Enterprise Application Software projects, I entrusted our undergraduates with a formal evaluation of the graduates’
work, both at the earlier planning and later reporting stages,” Guy said, “and it worked extremely well.”
The exercise had been extremely successful, he noted, with:
• SAP supporting QUT to the tune of $2 million worth of R/3 software connections, Digital donating a $100,000 server to run R/3 at QUT and local R/3 supplier Data3 installing (and supporting) the package without charge;
• extremely positive feedback from SAP, various
