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QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3864 2111 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778
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O Week offers facts and fun
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Bright new creche for Gardens Point
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Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue ... • Month, 1999 Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue 199 • March 7 – 27, 2000
A
s the new academic year got into full swing at QUT, more than 50 ambulance officers began their studies for the State’s first degree for emergency care workers.The new Bachelor of Health Science in Emergency Health Services was created jointly by QUT and the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS).
The course will see 150 ambulance staff upgrade their qualifications to degree level over three years.
Academic Policy and Programs director Dr Don Field said QUT had won the right to offer the course after a competitive tender process.
“Traditionally ideas for courses emanate from universities, but this process occurred in reverse. It shows QUT is serious about responding to the demands and needs of industry and the public sector,” Dr Field said.
Public Health head Professor Brian Oldenburg said the degree would build on the existing knowledge and experience of serving ambulance officers with diploma qualifications and would enhance Queensland’s standards of emergency care.
“Students will develop skills in areas including occupational health and safety,
Ambulance degree sets trend
public health and health services management,” Professor Oldenburg said.
“They can also choose electives from areas including physiology and
epidemiology, depending on their interests and career goals.
“The result will be an increasing number of QAS personnel with
advanced management, research and clinical expertise.”
Professor Oldenburg said the program would also be available to ambulance
officers throughout Queensland through distance education and would take three years to complete part-time.
Queensland Ambulance Service Commissioner Dr Gerry FitzGerald said the specialised tertiary course for ambulance officers would be similar to that offered in four other states.
“This program will enhance the levels of pre-hospital care we provide to the public and ensure QAS staff have the most up-to-date knowledge of emergency health practices,” Dr FitzGerald said.
“By developing this program, QAS and QUT are demonstrating their commitment to professional development and quality service to the public.”
The first students are set to include ambulance officers, communications operators and QAS educators. All will remain in active service while studying.
The new degree is among a range of new courses and degrees being offered by QUT.
Dr Field said QUT approved 17 new courses in 1999, including one undergraduate degree, two double degrees, five graduate certificates, six graduate diplomas and three masters.
– Margaret Lawson Two of the first Queensland emergency health services students, David Brose (left) and Mardi de
Rozairo (centre), demonstrate their skills on QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson while Dean of Health Professor Ken Bowman looks on.
New methods for diagnosing infectious diseases and genetic variations were among projects that were highlighted at a QUT symposium this week.
School of Life Sciences Associate Professor Phillip Morris addressed the QUT Centre for Molecular Biotechnology (CMB) Symposium which ran from March 6 to 7 at Gardens Point Campus.
Professor Morris described QUT’s progress towards developing a simple, cheap method to test DNA for disease genes, such as cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.
“We are creating quick, cheap blood tests that can be used by pathologists to test for many diseases that currently require sophisticated and expensive DNA analysis,” Professor Morris said.
School of Life Sciences researchers also addressed the symposium on the discovery of a new gene that could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer.
The new gene, known as KLK4, was identified and cloned over the past 18
Symposium showcases gene research breakthroughs
months by a research team headed by Associate Professor Judith Clements.
Professor Clements and her research team recently won a five-year grant worth more than $1million from the National Health and Medical Research Council to further investigate the role of the KLK4 gene in prostate cancer.
Professor Clements said the gene could, in time, hold the key to more effective and accurate tests to detect prostate cancer and more successful treatments.
“The KLK4 gene is similar to the prostate-specific antigen gene, which is used in the PSA test for prostate cancer,”
Professor Clements said.
“The current PSA test is not very good at discriminating between cancer and simply a benign enlargement of the prostate, which is relatively common in men.
“The PSA test also doesn’t discriminate between aggressive cancers which are immediately life-threatening and those cancers which grow more slowly.”
– Margaret Lawson and Amanda O’Chee An agreement signed last month will
give up to 100,000 students, including those at QUT, increased flexibility in pursuing their university degrees interstate.
Students from the Australian network of technology (ATN) universities will benefit from the agreement which allows them to more easily transfer between institutions, without the danger of losing credit for their previous studies.
Member universities to the agreement are Curtin University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, the University of South Australia and the University of Technology, Sydney.
The agreement will allow under- graduate students at any of the five universities to complete their degree at another institution.
The deal was signed by ATN Vice- Chancellors last month.
Transfer deal will benefit QUT students
QUT Life Sciences Associate Professor Judith Clements (right) and PhD student Steve Myers are part of the team which has
discovered the new KLK4 gene.
Commencement service draws people together
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Page 2 INSIDE QUT March 7 – 27, 2000
From the Inside ... From the Inside ... From the Inside ... From the Inside ... by David Hawke by David Hawke by David Hawke by David Hawke
A word from the Vice-Chancellor
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esponses from unions to QUT’s latest round of enterprise bargaining were expected on Tuesday, March 7 after offers were made to academic staff and to general staff late last month.Academic staff received notice by mail and email of a revised offer of 12.25 per cent over three years, while general staff
QUT offers 12.25 per cent pay rise over three years
received initial notification of a similar offer over the same period.
The anticipated salary increases would incorporate the 2.5 per cent wage rise awarded to all staff late last year and backdated to September 1999.
Information sessions about the offers were held on all three QUT campuses in early March while details of the offers
are available at two Web sites: http://
www.qut.edu.au/admin/hrd/ebacad.htm (for academic staff) and http://
www.qut.edu.au/admin/hrd/ebgen.htm (for general staff). Staff can also raise questions related to this round of enterprise bargaining by sending an e- mail to [email protected] (academic) or [email protected] (general).
Are you always stuck in heavy traffic?
Catch every red light when you’re running late? Do people thank you for showing small courtesies on the road?
QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety researcher Graham Fraine wants to record Brisbane drivers’
experiences on the road.
Mr Fraine needs 60 volunteers for a study investigating the common situations that drivers face and how they think and behave on the road.
Drivers asked for observations
Volunteers will need to complete a
“travel diary” for two days, listing the length and purpose of trips and a description of each day’s journeys.
“We are studying what drivers love and hate about driving, what it is like to drive the streets of South–East Queensland and what traffic conditions are like,” Mr Fraine said.
“In order to improve driving and driving conditions we want to know things like whether people get trapped
behind slow drivers, whether they often drive on the open road, or whether they find merge lanes a trouble spot.”
Volunteers must be regular drivers who drive most days of the week.
People interested in helping with the study can call 3864 4623 and leave their name and contact details.
The study is being conducted by QUT’s Centre for Accident Research &
Road Safety (CARRS-Q).
– Amanda O’Chee QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety researcher Graham Fraine wants to hear about Brisbane drivers’ experiences on the road.
Renowned dance artist Cheryl Stock has been appointed the new head of dance at QUT’s Academy of the Arts, bringing with her almost 30 years of dance industry experience.
Ms Stock takes over from Professor Sue Street, who left QUT after 10 years as head of dance to take up the position of dean of dance at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.
“I look forward to working with the highly experienced dance staff, who, under the leadership of Professor Street, have positioned QUT as a leading force in tertiary dance education in Australia and in the Asia-Pacific region,” Ms Stock said.
Highlights of Ms Stock’s career include an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship in 1994. She was founding artistic director of Dance North from 1985 to 1995 and has been National President of Ausdance since 1996.
Ms Stock is completing her doctorate on issues arising from intercultural performance with QUT’s Centre for Innnovation in the Arts.
She is also continuing to develop cultural exchange programs between Australia and Asia, particularly Vietnam.
• Professor Street and former Dean of Education Professor Alan Cumming had the title Professor Emeritus conferred on them shortly before they left QUT.
Dance head brings wealth of experience
Cheryl Stock ... appointed new head of Dance.
postgraduate information from faculty staff.
Careers resource officer Cassandra Sceresini said more than 35 employers would participate.
The fair, to be staged on Main Drive, will run from 11am to 3pm.
For more information call Ms Sceresini on 3864 2695.
Employment opportunities and post- graduate options will be on display at a careers fair to be held at QUT’s Gardens Point campus on March 21.
The fair, organised by Careers and Employment staff, will provide students with access to graduate employment displays from external organisations and
Gardens Point careers fair
QUT is exporting its successful certificate course for tertiary teaching staff.
The Graduate Certificate of Education (Higher Education) program has been running at QUT for several years, with a growing number of tertiary academic staff adding the qualification to complement their discipline degrees.
The program will be offered for the
Tertiary training course extended
first time in Australia outside of QUT thanks to a collaboration fostered by QUT’s Teaching and Learning Development Unit and University of South Australia’s Dr Ted Noonan.
TALDU lecturer Pat Kelly said that, from this semester, QUT would begin intensive delivery at the Adelaide headquarters of the University of South Australia.
As the first semester begins for the 2000 academic year, it may be a good time to reflect on just what we mean by the “academic year”.
There was a time when universities were all but deserted during the long summer holiday: closed libraries, no students, with only a skeleton of academic, research and administrative staff on duty.
This picture perhaps lingers on as a public stereotype, but each year it corresponds less and less with reality.
The summer is now a busy time for many at QUT – for the increasing number of students and staff involved in the summer program, for staff preparing the applications for Australian Research Council grants that are submitted early in the new year, and for administrators preparing for the influx of students in the new semester.
QUT’s Summer Program has expanded from virtually nothing a few years ago to the point where more than 2,500 students took units in the 1999/
2000 summer program, creating extra
An all-year-round university
work for both teaching staff and staff providing support services such as library, computing and enrolments.
At the same time, increasing numbers of staff spend time over the summer preparing ARC and NHMRC grant applications.
The increased activity over summer is a sensible use of our staff and physical resources; it has also changed the nature of the academic year. University life is now a year-long reality.
– Professor Dennis Gibson
By Andrea Hammond
S
tudents are commanding top salaries after training in software technology through QUT’s Information Systems Management Research Centre.The university has formed an alliance with SAP, the world’s fourth-largest software company, and plans to set up a showcase service bureau for teaching and research.
QUT has already started to teach students in SAP’s cutting-edge Enterprise Wide System (EWS) software. About 300 first-, second- and third-year students will study EWS software-related subjects this year.
Computer grads in demand
Professor Guy Gable said it was not unusual for students studying Enterprise Wide System software units to receive multiple offers from American, UK and Australian firms before they graduated.
“A masters student in QUT’s first EWS subject accepted a $150,000 a year contract with a manufacturing firm in Sydney before graduating,” Professor Gable said.
“The strong industry demand for EWS has resulted in a serious dearth of related expertise.
While this is a problem for employers, it has created attractive possibilities for
students who have an opportunity to gain expertise on EWS at QUT.”
Professor Gable said the Information Systems Management Research Centre had worked closely with SAP to closely integrate the company’s education and training with university subjects.
“In June, QUT was appointed as the Australian SAP University Competence Centre, third in the world after Switzerland and Germany,” Professor Gable said.
“As the Australian SAP University Competence Centre, QUT will receive several million dollars of computer hardware, software and support from
SAP and Sun Microsystems over the next few months to establish a showcase service bureau in support of EWS-related teaching and research activities of Australian universities,”
he said.
Professor Gable said EWS was now used by businesses and governments around the world.
“The acceptance and adoption of EWS has increased dramatically in the past five years because of globalisation, the pressure to adopt ‘best practices’ in business computing and the privatisation of government services,”
Professor Gable said.
By Noel Gentner
New QUT Student Guild President is not new to the position – Sophia Tagliapietra was acting president for the last few months of 1999.
Describing herself as a “strong unionist”, Ms Tagliapietra said her interest in student affairs had snowballed in the past few years.
A third-year visual arts student, Ms Tagliapietra said she had been part of a student group at Kelvin Grove which had lobbied the university concerning visual arts issues, and then she had become involved with the guild.
Ms Tagliapietra said there were a number of goals she had set herself this year.
“Many students still don’t realise what the guild does and, as a result, a lot of them are not
New Guild president sets high goals
happy when they pay their guild fees – they don’t feel they are getting their money’s worth,”
Ms Tagliapietra said.
“It was the same problem last year. It’s hard to get the message across and let them know what we are doing.
“The guild is there to advocate for student rights. We have hundreds of students come through the guild every year with complaints and problems – whether it’s an academic appeal or just a problem with a lecturer – and we help them deal with, and resolve, their issues.
“I think any student who hasn’t had problems doesn’t realise how effective we can be for them.”
Ms Tagliapietra said there was a need to present the guild as a professional organisation and re-evaluate its commercial services.
“We need to re-evaluate a lot of our services and how we operate,” Ms Tagliapietra said.
“We have to make sure that the services are not only relevant to students but are as productive as they possibly can be.
“The Guild needs to be self-supportive in the future should voluntary student unionism or anything like that become law.
“I think one of the failures of the guild in previous years is that it has lacked any solid direction.
“This year I can see a very real direction emerging within the Guild for staff and office- bearers alike.
“We all want to makethe guild more effective and accessible. I know they are key catchwords, but this is what we are after.”
New QUT Student Guild President Sophia Tagliapietra ... planning to make the organisation more accessible.
QUT service sets tone
for new year
A moving service to celebrate the commencement of QUT’s academic year was held at Albert Street Uniting Church in Brisbane in late February.
The theme of this third annual Commencement Service was Unity in Diversity in the Pursuit of Peace – Toward a New Millennium.
Religious and community leaders from across the spectrum took part in the service which combined prayer, hymns and readings. The Seventh Chapter of Fine Brass and QUT’s Choir provided musical contributions.
Aboriginal, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic representatives gave readings at the inter-faith service while prayers were led by supporting chaplains of QUT.
QUT music students Marian Collier and William Lebihan, equal winners of the Vice-Chancellor’s music composition competition, performed their compositions at the service.
The official welcome was delivered by the Moderator of the Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia, the Reverend Dr Ray Reddicliffe while an address was also delivered by Hindu nun, the Reverend Pravrajika Ajayaprana Mataji.
Rev Reddicliffe said all those gathered shared common aims.
“Such a gathering can present an invitat ion to us to reaffirm some fundamental values exposed by persons of goodwill and integrity, regardless of their creed, their race or their culture,” he said.
“This is so because of a shared commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and truth, and their application to enhancing the common good – and especially in seeking to promote enivronments where justice, peace, prosperity and freedom for all can find expression.”
University staff and students, as well as religious and community leaders attended QUT’s third annual commencement service held at the Albert Street Uniting Church.
By Amanda O’Chee
Primary school teachers could hold a key to preventing children from developing mental health problems later in life, new research suggests.
Preliminary findings from a three-year study lead by researchers at QUT show teachers can successfully detect many factors that put children at risk of developing behavioural or mental health problems as teenagers or adults.
QUT research fellow Dr Jan Nicholson said the study would enable researchers to devise a system for teachers to help them detect “at-risk” children and direct them to intervention programs.
“Children who experience a combination of adverse factors, such as exposure to conflict at home, poor parenting, changes in family structure and impoverished living conditions, have an increased chance of developing behavioural or emotional problems, such as depression and anxiety in the coming years,” Dr Nicholson said.
“Finding new methods for accurately identifying which children are most at risk is important for providing help at an early stage, where there are the greatest chances for helping the child and his or her family.”
Data from the study’s first year showed that teachers could accurately identify risk factors such as a family’s socio- economic status, single-parent status, or mobility, said QUT PhD researcher Sarah Dwyer.
Teachers could also identify recent adverse life events, such as whether the parents had divorced in the past year, moved house in the past year, or experienced the death of a family member.
The study is being led by Dr Nicholson and involves researchers from QUT’s School of Public Health, The Centre for Adolescent Health in Melbourne, and the Center for Health Promotion Research and Development in Texas.
Teachers and parents of 1,620 children attending preschool to Year 3 at 27 state primary schools have completed questionnaires for the study.
Funding for the project has come from the National Health Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund.
‘Teachers can help detect
mental health
problems’
Page 4 INSIDE QUT March 7 – 27, 2000
O Week provides facts and fun
Orientation Week at QUT introduced thousands of new students to the workings of the university across the Gardens Point, Kelvin Grove and Carseldine campuses.
The Orientation Committee, made up of Student Administration, Student Guild and faculty representatives, arranged a host of information sessions and fun events to familiarise new local and international students with QUT.
QUT student band, Flipside, (above) entertained the crowds at the Vice-Chancellor’s welcome ceremony at Gardens Point campus.
Bachelor of Arts first-year students (from left) Sarah Jones and Melinda Buchanan enjoy a taste of Orientation Week at Carseldine.
International student Adrian Chiu was on hand at Gardens Point
campus to inform students about the Campus Christian Movement. From left: Atle Gerhardsen, Annet Devik, Hanne Isiaelsen and Live Dokka all enjoyed the international lunch held at Gardens Point during O Week.
QUT’s School of Accountancy has risen to the challenge of the impending GST and is offering a variety of courses which deal with the new tax.
One of the largest providers of taxation education in Australia, QUT moved quickly last year to develop both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in GST once it became clear the sales tax would be introduced in July.
By the end of 2000, more than 400 students will have completed the university’s specialist GST subjects.
Hundreds of students get jump on GST
Robert Olding, a taxation partner at KPMG, is an adjunct professor in QUT’s School of Accountancy with particular responsibility for developing the School’s GST knowledge and subject offerings.
Mr Olding has headed KPMG’s Queensland indirect tax practice since 1988 and has been lecturing in indirect taxation at QUT for many years.
The school has also been involved in a national training program for Australia’s not-for-profit sector.
QUT’s Associate Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes is an internationally recognised expert on the regulation of the not-for-profit sector.
Over the past year, he has assembled a large team of experts in the fields of taxation law and not-for-profit law to provide training throughout Australia’s capital cities and country regions on how the GST is to be applied to non-profit organisations.
This massive task is being completed with the co-operation of the Australian Taxation Office.
All QUT employees can now receive payments for reimbursement of expenses, advances and allowances by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
Finance Department Accounts manager Trevor Poyner said the new facility was introduced in February.
He said EFTwould gradually become the principal method of payment used by Accounting and Business Services for staff, students and creditors.
The EFT facility would be
Electronic Funds Transfer will ease reimbursement of expenses
particularly useful to QUT staff when they travelled on official business, Mr Poyner said.
“The EFT will provide immediate access to funds with no waiting time for cheques to clear and no possibility of cheques being lost in the mail,” he said.
He said other advantages included a reduction in the administrative process associated with handling cheque payments, enhanced security and improved cash management.
Q
UT has opened a second childcare facility on the Gardens Point campus.The Gardens Point Creche, which will be operated by the QUT Student Guild, is open to the public, QUT staff and students, and can accommodate 30 children.
Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care Anna Bligh and QUT Chancellor Dr Cherrell Hirst officially opened the bright new creche last month in X Block, the former Queensland Conservatorium of Music building.
The Queensland Department of Families, Youth and Community Care, and the Commonwealth Department of Families and Community Services contributed $530,000 towards the total cost of $800,000 for the creche.
“The opening of the new Gardens Point Creche will provide a total of 55 childcare places on the campus,” Dr Hirst said.
“Having childcare places available on campus can be very important to students wanting to further their studies, or to staff trying to balance a career with family life.”
Ms Bligh congratulated QUT on opening the creche.
The Gardens Point Creche caters for children from birth to five years of age, but will concentrate on children under three. There are still a limited number of vacancies at the creche. For more information, call director Richard Hart on 3864 4047.
Second city creche opens at QUT
Gardens Point Creche director Richard Hart with Emily Cook (centre) and Thandi Patterson at the opening of the new childcare centre last month.
Former ATSIC Commissioner and Australia’s highest ranking indigenous police officer Colin Dillon received an honorary doctorate from QUT on February 18.
Inspector Dillon, who chairs QUT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee, urged young Australians to seize every opportunity to improve their education.
“It’s very important for young people to grab opportunities with both hands and to get a tertiary education to compete in this world,”
Inspector Dillon said.
In 1990 Inspector Dillon became the first indigenous Australian to be appointed as an inspector of police and, in the same year, he was awarded the Australian Police Medal in the Queen’s honour list for distinguished police service to Queensland.
Inspector Dillon joined the Queensland Police Force as a constable in 1965 – a profession he says was then riddled with racism – and has received commendations for his police work and bravery.
In 1996 he was appointed to the board of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission by the Federal Government, and was given responsibility for all matters relating to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Honorary doctorate for former ATSIC commissioner
Inspector Colin Dillon ... honoured by QUT
Australia’s newest Aviation Academy has taken off with its first intake of students.
The Academy for International Aviation Careers (AIAC), based at Brisbane’s Archerfield Airport, brings together QUT, the Royal Queensland Aero Club (RQAC) and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Queensland.
Graduates who complete the 18-month course will receive a TAFE Diploma of Applied Science (aviation).
Academic programs director in the Faculty of Science Dr Al Grenfell said students who successfully completed the diploma or equivalent would gain entry to QUT’s Bachelor of Applied Science course and could be credited with an aviation co-major.
This year the AIAC plans to have two course intakes – the first was in February and the second begins on July 17.
AIAC international marketing and careers manager Geoff Hill said 12 students would be trained on each course, with about equal numbers coming from Australia and overseas.
Mr Hill said it was quite feasible for a student to complete the TAFE diploma, the QUT degree and have an Australian Private Pilots Licence, Commercial Pilots Licence, Multi-Engine Command Instrument Rating and an Air Transport Pilot Licence within four years.
– Noel Gentner
Australia’s Aviation Academy takes off
Flying instructor Mark Stelzh (left) with Tanweer Rehman from Pakistan who is upgrading his pilot qualifications for Australia.
A group of 50 QUT students celebrated Australia Day in China in the most true-blue fashion – drinking beer with former Prime Minister Bob Hawke.
Their chance encounter with Mr Hawke at the Australian Consulate in Shanghai was a diversion during a fact-finding trip for business students interested in doing business with, or in, China.
The trip, undertaken as part of an elective business subject, was designed to introduce students to the opportunities and challenges of doing business with China, which is one of Australia’s largest, and increasingly important trading partners.
Management lecturer Dr Kate Hutchings and PhD student Rob McEllister co-ordinated the trip.
Dr Hutchings said 10 of the students planned to work in China.
“The trip exposed the students to China’s rapidly developing economy, which will play a pivotal role in Australia’s future economic and social future,” Dr Hutchings said.
Business students exposed to burgeoning Chinese trade
“It also gave them some idea of the career potential for business students interested in working overseas.”
Mr McEllister said students were surprised by China’s economic development, but disturbed by the gap between rich and poor.
“The students were amazed by the extent of the development in China and in particular the obvious wealth and spending power of many Chinese,” he said.
“At the same time, the poverty and differences in income were obvious in the poorer housing and even the number of beggars.
“I think they were unprepared for the extent of the development of cities such as Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing.”
The group met with Queensland’s Trade Commissioner to China Scott Shephard, who outlined the current trading activity between Queensland and China, and future business opportunities in education, food and tourism.
– Amanda O’Chee
Page 6 INSIDE QUT March 7 – 27, 2000
A university for the real world
Oodgeroo Scholarships 2000
The Oodgeroo Scholarships have been created by the Oodgeroo (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Unit, Queensland University of Technology, in consultation with the family of Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
Scholarships of up to $3,000 per year are available to Indigenous Australians enrolled (either as commencing or continuing students) in the following postgraduate programs at QUT in 2000:
■ Master of Arts within:
Academy of Arts: Dance, drama, music, visual arts;
Queensland University of Technology
Victoria Park Road Kelvin Grove Q 4059 http://www.qut.edu.au
School of Humanities: Literature, political studies; or
School of Media and Journalism:
Creative writing.
■ Master of Education (Research) Applicants should demonstrate a commitment to the work and ideas of Oodgeroo Noonuccal especially in promoting awareness of Indigenous cultures, history and contemporary issues.
For an application form or further information concerning eligibility or other requirements, contact the
Oodgeroo Unit on (07) 3864 3610, fax (07) 3864 3982 or e-mail: [email protected]
GEN4
By Noel Gentner
O
lympic athletes and the elderly could benefit from research being carried out at QUT to understand and solve the riddle of the causes of muscle pain.Dr Simon Green has developed a technique which investigates leg cramps caused by restrictions to circulation.
A lecturer in exercise physiology in the School of Human Movement Studies, Dr Green has already received international recognition for his work.
Dr Green’s research is unique in Australia and only two other research groups in the world are developing the technique using active live muscle.
Dr Green said his interest in the subject began more than18 months ago during a visit to the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre in Denmark.
Since then Dr Green has received an International Olympic Committee World Congress on Sport Sciences award for excellence in biological sciences.
Dr Green said the research was investigating a number of avenues that could be related to the pain, including chemical signals originating in active muscles.
“The nature of these muscle signals is not well understood,” Dr Green said.
“The pain you experience if you exercise or work too hard and the fatigue you feel may be related to these signals.”
The new Dean of QUT’s Faculty of Arts, Professor John Hartley, describes himself as a “new Australian” looking forward to what the country can offer.
London-born, Professor Hartley has lived and worked in Australia for many years but has spent the past four years in Wales as Professor and head of the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University.
Before that he was Foundation Professor of Media Studies at the Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, spent eleven years at the Murdoch University, and nine years at the Polytechnic of Wales.
He is author and co-author of numerous books and articles in the fields of contemporary media and cultural studies, a radio broadcaster and filmmaker.
Professor Hartley, who took up his position at QUT last month, said he was looking forward to the challenges his new position brought.
Patients are reluctant to ask nurses for strong pain relievers because they fear they will become addicted to pain relieving drugs, say QUT researchers.
QUT School of Nursing senior lecturer Robyn Nash said post-operative patients frequently waited until their pain became severe before they would approach nurses for relief.
Ms Nash and fellow-QUT School of Nursing academics Patsy Yates, Associate Professor Helen Edwards, Belinda Fentiman and Jan McDowell found education strategies before surgery made patients more willing to ask about pain relief.
Ms Nash presented a paper at the second Australasian Evidence-Based Nursing and Midwifery Colloquium, Getting a Grip on the Evidence, held at the Parkroyal Brisbane last month.
The guest speaker was Geelong Hospital Chief of Critical Care Services Dr Stephen Bolsin.
QUT Conference Organising Committee spokesperson Deanne Gaskill said nurses from across Australia attended the colloquium, designed as a forum for nurses to compare the results of their research, reduce errors and improve health care.
A team from the School of Mathematical Sciences has won a $295,000, three-year Strategic Partnerships with Industry – Research and Training (SPIRT) grant to undertake biostatistics research for Brisbane’s Prince Charles and Princess Alexandra Hospitals.
Researchers will develop new statistical models to improve the recording and interpretation of key data on patients, medical procedures, drug use and research in the two hospitals.
Including in-kind support, the study is worth about
$750,000 over three years.
Senior lecturer Dr Kerrie Mengersen will lead the research team, which includes head of School Professor Tony Pettitt, senior lecturer Dr Rodney Wolff and a consortium of staff from the Prince Charles and Princess Alexandra hospitals.
The School of Mathematical Sciences has reaped half of all the latest ARC SPIRT grants awarded for maths research across Australia.
The school has won four of eight SPIRT grants for maths, representing approximately 25 per cent of the dollar value of all SPIRT grants won by QUT in the latest round.
School scoops four grants
Referring to the biostatistics research project, Dr Mengersen said the study of biostatistics was a booming field in statistics.
“Hospitals are being pushed to better justify their clinical and administrative decisions by using data. This is called evidence-based medical practice,” Dr Mengersen said.
“In order to do that they need to gather the data and, in order to understand the data, they need statistical methods.”
The team will develop new statistical techniques which are tailored to the needs of the health sector, such as measuring and comparing two medical techniques or different drug regimes, predicting rare health outcomes or producing trends or projections of hospital activities or outbreaks.
“We will develop statistical methods that are more appropriate for the type of problems that are faced in hospital research, because most statistical methods are not very good at predicting rare events,” Dr Mengersen said.
The study complements the quantitative modelling being conducted by the Queensland Health Care Research Group (a joint venture between Qld Health and QUT), within QUT’s Centre in Statistical Science and Industrial Mathematics.
Research into muscle pain
Dr Green’s technique also looks at, and endeavors to identify, these signals to quantify the extent of their involvement in physiological responses to exercise and pain.
He said the importance of his research was that it continued to develop the
methodological foundation for other approaches to be made into muscle fatigue and pain.
His research had shown that potassium is not responsible for increased pain people experience when blood flow was restricted to working muscles.
Dr Green said for more than 30 years there had been a focus on potassium as a factor in pain- producing substances.
“We will now have to look at other substances as the main culprits that cause pain,” he said.
Lecturer in exercise physiology in the School of Human Movement Studies Dr Simon Green is researching the problems and causes of muscle pain.
New Dean of Arts takes the reins
“There are areas of excellence within the faculty that are already in a leading position in Australia and I would like to assist in making the whole faculty pre- eminent in what it does,” Professor Hartley said.
He said he saw some immediate opportunities ahead.
“One challenge will be in finding a focus for a large but diverse faculty that is spread over three campuses,” Professor Hartley said.
“Another challenge is to make sure a faculty of arts in a university of technology pursues research and teaching in ways that draw on the strengths of the connection between arts and technology.
“An exciting example of what might be possible is the plan for the development of a creative industries precinct at Kelvin Grove which would involve several schools in the faculty.”
Professor Hartley said the northern corridor and the expansion of facilities at Carseldine also offered new opportunities for the faculty.
He said he hoped the faculty would develop a distinctive identity and an internally collaborative climate that would help staff and students alike to reach the highest standards in their specialist areas.
Arts Dean Professor John Hartley.
Patients have fears about pain relief – study
A draft report on QUT students’ and staff technological literacy skills, computer usage, access and attitudes is available on the Web.
The site is at http://
w w w . t a l s . d i s . q u t . e d u . a u / T a L S S S / TALDU/TandL.htm
The report is part of the Technological Literacy Project, a two- year initiative funded under QUT’s Large Teaching and Learning Grant Scheme.
It brings together findings from three student surveys, conducted between 1997 and 1999 and one staff survey conducted in 1998.
Comments are sought from staff before March 17 and can be directred to Technological Literacy Project manager Darien Rossiter. Email her on [email protected] or call her on 3864 2993.
Technological literacy report released
In Japan recently, International Marketing Manager Kieran O’Brien found himself in pain and unable to keep up with offsider Laurel Bright running for a train to make the next meeting.
The reason, he soon realised, was not the state of his lungs, but rather his shoes felt a size too small. In a hurried exit from his previous meeting – where protocol demanded he remove his shoes before entering an executive office - he had obviously jumped into the wrong pair of shoes. It was little comfort to him that someone else must have been walking around in look-alike shoes a size too large.
While an attractive solution was to buy a new pair of shoes to match his dark suit, a quick assessment of the cost of shoes there made it easier for him to demonstrate that casual brown shoes can actually be worn with all sorts of outfits.
S
tate Health Minister Wendy Edmond had an eye-opening visit to QUT in Orientation Week as the special guest at the inaugural Faculty of Health student lecture.Ms Edmond, who addressed 250 students and staff, offered encouragement to new students embarking on health careers in Australia.
Ms Edmond recalled her own career uncertainty when, on her first day of training at the Queensland Radium Institute, the head of department predicted the demise of radiography.
“The head of department told us that we couldn’t rely on ongoing employment as radiographers because, he explained, ‘we all know the cure for
Minister has eye-opening experience
cancer is imminent’,” Ms Edmond said.
During her visit Ms Edmond had her eyes examined in QUT’s Optometry Clinic and toured the Health Faculty’s research and teaching facilities.
Ms Edmond said she was impressed by the quality of ongoing health research at QUT and looked forward to increasing links between the university and Queensland Health.
“Our partnerships with QUT and other leading educational organisations allow us to provide input into health- related courses to ensure that students
… are receiving education and training that is relevant to industry needs,” Ms Edmond said.
– Margaret Lawson
Queensland Health Minister Wendy Edmond is examined by QUT optometry student Natasha Sleep during a tour of the Health Faculty’s research and teaching facilities.
QUT, the Department of Main Roads and the Queensland Audit Office have banded together for an 18-month study investigating how to successfully manage “culture change”.
Masters student Jenny Waterhouse will study culture change within the Department of Main Roads.
QUT management lecturer and team leader for the project Dr Kerry Brown said the study highlighted the close working relationship between QUT’s School of Management and various government departments.
“Jenny works for the Queensland Audit Office, but they have allowed her transfer to Main Roads to complete the research,” Dr Brown said.
“The study looks at the transition from traditional public administration to a new public management model, which has a more strategic approach and which focuses on managing relationships between workers.”
Dr Brown said the project was strongly supported by Director-General of Main Roads Jim Varghese and the State Auditor-General Len Scanlan.
– Amanda O’Chee
Study focuses on change in workplace at Main Roads
QUT masters student Jenny Waterhouse studing change in the Department of Main Roads.
Childcare centres across Queensland will play a greater role in promoting nutrition and healthy eating to young children, thanks to a book written by three QUT academics.
School of Early Childhood Studies’ Nadine McCrea and Julie Appleton and Carla Patterson from the Centre for Public Health Research have written There’s More to Food Than Eating: Food Foundations for Children from Birth to Eight Years.
The book is a comprehensive resource for food and nutrition education in childcare services. It has been distributed to more than 2,000 childcare, school-age care and family day care centres across the State.
Ms Appleton said the book contained easy recipes for children.
“It focuses on involving children in planning their diet, hands-on food experiences and shows that food education can also boost numeracy and literacy learning,” she said.
The project received a State Government grant of $100,000 and was officially launched last year by Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care Anna Bligh.
– Andrea Hammond
Healthy eating promoted at State childcare centres
By Amanda O’Chee
QUT education lecturer Associate Professor John Lidstone has received international recognition for excellence in teaching and research in the field of geographical and environmental education.
Professor Lidstone was last year awarded the University of Helsinki medal, bestowed on distinguished visiting teachers of international prominence.
He was approached to spend a month as a visiting lecturer at the University of Helsinki, where all seven of the books he has written or edited are held and used as teaching resources at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Professor Lidstone, from the School of Professional Studies, has become an internationally recognised figure in his field.
He founded the International Research in Geographical and
Education lecturer wins medal from University of Helsinki
Environmental Education journal and has been co-editor for the past decade.
Professor Lidstone said he was honoured to receive the award, particularly from a university with such a long history.
“The University of Helsinki was founded in 1640 and moved to Helsinki in 1828 when Turku was burned down,”
said Professor Lidstone, who has a special interest in teaching and learning about disasters.
“The university is centred on Senate square, in the centre of Helsinki, around which the four pillars of Russian society (Finland was a Grand Duchy of Russia for more than a hundred years) are represented by the church, the civil government, education and commerce.
“Inviting teachers and researchers from a wide range of countries seems to be part of the university culture in Scandinavia.
“One of the great joys was sharing breakfast with a theoretical physicist
from Russia, a statistician from Poland, an education professor from the UK and an environmental aesthetics professor from the US. Such interaction enabled me to view my own areas from totally different perspectives and to learn so much.”
Comparing Australian and Finnish universities, Professor Lidstone said Finnish students in education regarded a master’s degree as the basic qualification and few left immediately after finishing a bachelor’s degree.
“Students are very quiet in class, listen avidly and reflect before entering into a conversation or question/answer debate with the lecturer,” he said.
“When they do speak, their questions are then very pertinent and reflective.
It was rarely possible to give a brief answer to their questions.
“There seemed to be a much greater emphasis on exploring deep meanings in the context of traditional philosophy than in Australia.”
Professor John Lidstone has been awarded the University of Helsinki medal.
Page 8 INSIDE QUT March 7 – 27, 2000
Check out What’s On and post you entries at http://www.whatson.qut.edu.au/
Inside QUT is published by QUT’s Corporate Communication Department.
Readership includes staff, students and members of the QUT community.
It is also circulated to business, industry, government and the media. Each story has been checked with the source prior to publication.
Letters to the editor are welcome via mail or email [email protected]. The Corporate Communication address: Level 5, M Block, Room 514, Gardens Point or GPO Box 2434 Brisbane 4001.
Opinions expressed in Inside QUT do not necessarily represent those of the university or the editorial team.
Colleen Ryan Clur (editor) 3864 1150.
Andrea Hammond 3864 4494.
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Fax 3210 0474.
Photography: Tony Phillips, Suzie Prestwidge
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Faculty of Science Dean’s Scholar Melanie Simpson officially opened the new, state-of-the art Student Centre at QUT’s Gardens Point campus last month. A new one-stop centre is almost complete at Carseldine while a new centre for Kelvin Grove will be launched later this year.
Competent and confident people are being sought by the QUT Student Guild Sport and Recreation department to take part in the 2000 National AUS Games in Ballarat and various championships this year.
The people the guild is looking for won’t be competitors, rather managers for particular sports at the venues.
Guild sports officer Karen Bucholz said the department was seeking volunteers with a thorough understanding of the sport they will
Guild seeks help with Games
manage, as well as confidence in dealing with the management of a large sporting event.
“The successful applicants will be working as a team with the Sport and Recreation staff.”
The Australian Universities Sport (AUS) northern games this year are being hosted by the Central Queensland University in Rockhampton from July 2 to 6.
Athletes will compete in 13 sports, including netball, squash, soccer,
cycling, basketball, hockey, rugby union, softball and volleyball.
Ms Bucholz said the games would provide sport managers with an opportunity to enhance their administration skills.
She said volunteer managers were also required for the Australian Swimming short course championships being hosted by QUT at the Gardens Point campus from April 27 to 28.
For more information call Ms Bucholz on 3864 3708.
– Noel Gentner
Sport scholarships worth almost
$10,000 are available to QUT students.
Student Guild Sport officer Karen Bucholz said the scholarships would help QUT students complete their university education while still competing in their chosen sport.
“Most of the cost of participating in sport is borne by the students who represent QUT in inter-university championships and games,” Ms Bucholz said.
“As one of the largest universities in Australia and one with an illustrious history of participation and achievement, we would like to be able to continue to have our best athletes represent us.
Scholarships on offer
“Faced with rising university costs, students need all the help they can get just to be able to go onto the field.”
Ms Bucholz said the ability to combine sport and education should not be limited to those who could afford it.
She said scholarships available included four worth $1,200 each and eight worth $600 each.
“Last year, the scholarships attracted 150 applicants,” Ms Bucholz said.
Applications close on March 15 and the winners will be announced at a luncheon on Friday March 31.
For more information call Ms Bucholz on 3864 3708.
Former Senator Margaret Reynolds will be the guest speaker at a lunch to celebrate International Women’s Day at QUT.
The free lunch and seminar are being
organised by the Equity Section and will be held at Old Government House at 12.45pm on Friday March 10.
For more information contact Lilijana Simic on (07) 3864 5601.
Margaret Reynolds is guest speaker
During the summer 12 Academy of Arts students worked with two of Australia’s leading directors, Steven Grives and Anatoly Frusin, as they prepared for their first full-length productions.
Mike Leigh’s edgy black comedy Smelling a Rat will be the first Academy performance for 2000, running from March 2 to 11 in Kelvin Grove’s Woodward Theatre from 7pm.
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean runs from March 23 to April 1. It was made famous by the 1982 film of the same name.
For theatre-goers coming straight from work, a $15 ticket available from Beadles Café on the Quad will entitle them to pasta and a glass of wine before the show.
These exclusive dinner-theatre tickets are available only on March 3, 9, 10, 24, 30 and 31 by calling Beadles Café on 3864 9701.
Holidays cut short for actors
FROM THE ACADEMY
Mar 9 - 10 Movie: Election. Kelvin Grove campus - Mar 9, 4pm, L101; Gardens Point campus – Mar 10, 12noon and 4pm, Gardens Point Club; 7pm at Kindler Theatre.
Mar 11 Disorientation Festival 2000. Cost is $10 for students,
$12 for the public, $15 for both shows, 5pm, Arena – Fortitude Valley. Line-up includes Sprung Monkey, Lunachicks and ZBD.
Tickets are available from Rocking Horse, Skinny’s, QUT Student Guild Help Desks or call Arena on 3252 5690.
FROM THE ACADEMY
Mar 2-11 Smelling a Rat. An edgy black comedy directed by Steven Grives and written by Mike Leigh. Contact Karen Willey at [email protected] or call her on 3864 3453.
Mar 22 – Apr 1 Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Directed by Anatoly Frusin, this play is set in a small town in West Texas where members of a local James Dean fan club gather for a 20-year reunion. Contact Karen Willey at [email protected] or call 3864 3453.
Daily free lunchtime music at Beadles Café at Kelvin Grove.
SEMINARS, WORKSHOPS, CONFERENCES
CAREERS AND EMPLOYMENT
Mar 21 QUT Careers Fair. Information for students about graduate career opportunities and postgraduate study, 11am-3pm, Main Drive, GP. Contact Cassandra Sceresini at [email protected] or call her on 3864 2695.
ATEM BREAKFAST
Mar 27 Breakfast with Professor Vicki Sara. Cost is $25 for ATEM members and $30 for non-members, 7.15-8.45am, Hotel Grand Chancellor. Professor Vicki Sara is the Chair of the Australian Research Council. Register with Paul Abernethy at [email protected] or call him on 3864 2693.
STAFF WELLNESS PROGRAM
Mar 9 Breast Self-Examination Forum. Campus nurse Marie Kappel will lead you through all you need to know about breast self-examination. Morning tea will be provided.
Contact Sheree Richmond at [email protected] or call her on 3864 9704.
Weekly Walking for Wellness. Carseldine campus – L Block, Monday, 5-6pm; Kelvin Grove campus – Wellness Centre (P102A), Tuesday and Thursday, 7-8am. For further information email Sheree Richmond at [email protected] or call her on 3864 9704.
Weekly Stretch/Yoga classes. Gardens Point campus – from 20 March; Kelvin Grove campus – from 23 March. Times vary - contact Sheree Richmond at [email protected] or call her on 386 49704.
