eensland 1versity of echnology ewspa er

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eensland 1versity of echnology

ewspa er

Issue No. 42

Queensland University of Technology 2 George Street Brisbane Q. 4000 Telephone (07) 223 2111

Registered by Australia Post- Publication No. QBF 4778 28 February 1989

Qld Government Chair

in Quality for QUT

Buyers of many Queensland products and services can expect better quality and value in 5-10 years with the establishment of a State funded Chair in Quality at QUT.

The Queensland Government will contribute $100 000 per annum for three years to QUT to meet the full . alary cost of the appointment of a professor m Quality.

The QUT Foundation is seeking external funding of chairs at the university.

Announcing the grant on 27 February, Premier Mike Ahem said that for Queensland and Australia to survive "we must be fully internationally competitive. One of the way to ensure that is with quality, good value products and services.

"QUT already has strong links

Mr Phil Heywood, head of OUT's Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture and president of the Bike Institute of Queensland will promote the pleasures and pitfalls of cycling at a rally on 18 March. .. story page 7.

with industry and the establishment of a Chair of Quality will ensure Queensland firms have the benefit of the best expertise and research on quality," he said.

The move was the latest practi- cal and positive initiative in the State Government's 'Quality Queensland' program.

QUT Vice-Chancellor, Dr Den- nis Gibson, said the Government correctly saw the university as a valuable resource for achieving high quality in Queensland product~ and services.

"Queenslanders are already producing some products which are engineered for quality and competi tively priced. But l would like to think that in 5-l 0 years Queensland products could have the reputation for top quality and competitive price which, for example, Swedish and Japanese products now enjoy," Dr Gibson said.

look good and be competitively priced for local and overseas markets. Achieving quality is not just a matter of checking for faults at the end of a production line."

As well as instilling the 'quality' ethic in its students of engineering, business, science, computing, architecture and building, QUT will play a leadership role in introduc- ing higher standards of quality in industry through

• management education

• staff training

• improved manufacturing systems to suit individual company needs

• emphasis on good design.

Housing crisis demands priority on public rental

A prominent Queensland plan- ner says proposals to solve the State's housing crisis have ignored tho e most in need, under the most stress and with the least resources to solve their own problems.

Mr Phil Heywood, head of QUT's Planning and Landscape Architecture Department said one-quarter of the population had to rely on rental accommodation and these people were badly affected by the present crisis. The worst hit were literally homeless and "sleeping rough".

He said an estimated 21 000 Queensland families now rented public housing. But 28 000 chose to, or were forced to live in caravans. There was a dearth of public housing and with rapid- ly escalating rentals, they could not af- ford private accommodation.

Mr Heywood said public rental housing made up only 2.8 percent of all accommodation in Queensland compared v.ith II percent in South Australia. He claimed that the Queensland Housing Commission "'potentially had all the powers of the South Australian Housing

Trust, but only one-<juarter of its performance".

He said it should either be funded and instructed to perform its role adequate- ly, or the government should establish a new housing trust charged with solving the State's housing crisis.

Mr Heywood said although he fully supponed any plans to help young couples achieve the 'Australian dream' of home ownership, the government must widen its approach to create more public housing.

It should drastically expand its own program of house construction "which has been totally inadequate for20 years, as well as buying existing housing for rental to those in need".

Mr Heywood also called on the Federal Government to tie "its generous funding of the Queensland Housing Commission more directly to the creation of adequate stocks of rental accommodation".

Reforms also were needed to ensure a ready supply of reasonably priced land and to stabilise the building industry.

Mr Heywood said Queensland had no public agency to make certain hous-

ing land was available at the right price, at the right time.

He said this had been left to private enterprise and it had failed: "If you want a steady supply of reasonably-priced land, you obviously have to acquire it well in advance of needs."

Queensland needed an Urban Land Trust like South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales to provide land for both public housing and for private builders.

For its part, the Federal Government stood condemned for using house building as a way of regulating the economy. Interest rate volatility was directly responsible for the bankruptcy rate among small contractors being the highest of any small business in Australia.

The Federal and State governments should cooperate to bring down the cost of home ownership by legislation to make superannuation and pension funds available for housing at low and regulated interest rates.

Higher density proposal-see page 3.

Demand for QUT courses con- tinues to rise strongly. There were 7600 first preference applicants for 3000 first year undergraduate places at QUT in 1989. Total enrolment was 10 800.

And, despite growth of 350 ( 15 percent) in the first year quota over 1988, Registrar. Mr Brian Waters, says TE scores edged up for most QUT courses.

Average TE score for entry to bachelor degree courses was 940.

Popular courses included Optometry (975); a number of combined degrees- Accountancy/Law (970), Electronic Systems/Computing (970), Comput- ing/Law (960), Manufacturing Sys- tems/Management (945); Architecture (950); Law (960); and Communication (950).

Postgraduate programs received 1600 applications for 700 student places. The new MBA recorded 350 ap-

for

paying oversea' 'Iudents mto the first year of courses. \1ost are studying computing and accounting degrees with 30 percent enrolled at postgraduate level.

The fees range from $8750 for a business degree to $16 500 for a masters by research.

Mr Waters said the Higher Education Contribution Scheme appeared to have no effect on demand for QUT courses.

HECS impact on postgraduate students was minimised by 159 Common- wealth funded scholarships for all full- time masters students and part-time masters by research students at QUT.

Some of these scholarships had been set aside for the university's first PhD students.

Orientation well attended

The new QUT held its first orientation on 16-17 February before semester began on 20 February. More than 1500 students tilled the refectory to hear welcome ·pc <..hes from the QUT management and Student Guild.

Student orientation was preceded on 15 February by parents' orientation with the largest attendance ever. More than 1200 parents heard an overview on v.hat parents should

Also, a special orientalion progran1 was held for overseas and migrant students from 9-15 February which included an introduction to Brisbane city, the QUT campus, a mock lecture and ~

hints on study skills.

First year students check their bearings at the new uf'iversity's orientation day on 16 ~ebruary.

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Vice-Chancellor's comment

A say in government research policy

The historic first semester has begun for OUT, with the new univer- sity Act taking effect from 1 January. Welcome to the 3000 new under- graduates and the 700 new postgraduates, and welcome back to con- tinuing students and staff.

It seems that the Vice-Chancellor is the only one who is not "back" in a full-time sense. In fact, I have spent a great deal of time in the "south"

on Federal Government committees over the past six weeks as a mem- ber of the Australian Research Council; the ARC sub-committee on Research, Training and Careers (chair); the Committee for Review of Higher Education Research; the Commonwealth Postgraduate Awards Working Party; and the Higher Education Council Graduate Studies and Higher Degree Working Party.

I can assure you it is hard work. The problem is that I am the only rep- resentative on these committees for the institutes/universities of tech- nology nationally. This really is

a

time of tremendous change in higher education and it is essential that the technological institutions have input at this level to research policy formulation.

While traditional universities have been strong on pure research, they have made a lesser contribution to applying research in industry.

The applied research record of the universities of technology shows they have a legitimate and grow- ing complementary role to play in the higher education research program.

From mid-March, /look forward to returning full-time to campus and helping consolidate plans for OUT's future.

Dr Dennis Gibson

New Chancellor also heads Expo redevelopment

The new QUT Chancellor, Mr Vic Pullar, was named by the Premier this month as chairman designate of the South Bank Redevelopment Cor- poration which will undertake future development of the Expo site.

Legislation creating the corporation wiJJ be introduced into State Parliament

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Since 1982, MrPullarhas been chairman of international engineering consultants Macdonald Wagner whose projects include the Gateway Bridge, the Sydney Harbour tunnel and the Navy's new submarine contract in Adelaide.

He is also chairman of the Gateway Bridge Company, a Fellow of the In- stitution of Engineers, an elected repre- sentative of the engineering profession on the Board of Professional Engineers Queensland and a member of various other engineering associations.

Born in Cloncurry, and educated at Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland, he graduated with honours in civil engineering in 1952.

"It will be a challenging and exciting project with great historical importance to hoth the city of Brisbane and the State of ueensland," Mr Pullar said.

Wearing his other hat as QUT Chan- cellor (and Chairman of QIT Council since mid-1987), Mr Pullar said the new university of technology had a strong base on which to build an international reputation.

"However, QUT must not lose sight of its 'feet on the ground' philosophy of educating professionals and conducting applied research relevant to the needs of Queensland industry. QUT's mis- sion, more than ever, will be to assist economic development of the State."

S 1A-r E SUPPoRT FoR QuALITY CHAIR WILL BE REVIEWED AFTER

THREE

YEARS (s-toRY

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Council profile: Ron Heard

Head of the User Services Section at QUT's Computer Centre, Mr Ron Heard, is now the only general staff member on Council.

Mr Heard became one of the four elected members of the then QIT Coun- cil in mid-1987, but his sole position on the flfSt QUT Council is not due to the institution's change of status.

The QUT Act, effective from I January this year, provides for three staff members to be elected from the academic staff and one from the general staff.

However, Mr Heard's singular position occurred before that date due to the resignations from QUT of former senior planning and statistics officer, Mr Peter Kruger, and head gardener, Mr Mark Pace.

"General staff make up some 58 percent of total staff on campus and I believe they have more to contribute than is often recognised," Mr Heard, also a member of the QUT Staff Com- mittee and Academic Assembly, points out. "Some, for instance, are part-time students, while others have chosen to work here because of a particular interest in education."

The computer systems officer's approach to his Council position stresses cooperation: "QUT is very much a cooperative enterprise of academic staff, students and general staff."

'General staff' covers a wide range of people from the Registrar to labourers; most belong to one of three unions - the Professional Officers As- sociation, the Federated Clerks Union, or the Miscellaneous Works Union.

MrRon Heard

FCU shop steward and meeting chairman since 1985, Mr Heard finds staying in touch with the unions one way of remaining aware of general staff needs.

'Staying in touch' also has led over the past few year' to the development of his former computer programming job into a user services section: "We could not stay backroom people who simply made the computers work. It was important to assist people to get the most out of their computers. So now we talk over problems, give courses and publish a newsletter and how-to-do-it type notes."

Mr Heard is well equipped for run- ning courses: his previous experience includes tutoring for the University of Queensland's Computer Science Department. Victorian-born, he gained his Bachelor of Science (majoring in

pure and applied mathematics) from Melbourne University in 1966 and his education diploma from Monash the following year.

He taught high school maths and physics 1968-70 before completing a University of Queensland diploma of computer science in 1971, sharing first place in the year. After five years as tutor and senior tutor at U of Q he worked as position analyst/program- mer for Unicorn Consultants Ltd in London, before joining QUT in 1979.

Mr Heard, and his wife, Colette, a part-time librarian at BCAE's Mt Gravatt campus, have a son, Liam,9, who attends the Eight Mile Plains Spe- cial School. Liam 's intellectual hand- icap led to their joining the organisa- tion, Queensland Parents of People with a Disability. The Heards also belong to a group which is now trying to set up a parent-controlled home for disabled people. If successful, it will be the first of its kind in Australia.

Mr Heard· 'cooperative a roach·

on

me

^of

his old Queensland home at Highgate Hill.

The verandah is the planning and sorting centre for a local fruit and vegetable consumer cooperative which he organises on behalf of some 20 households; different members are delegated to make regular trips to Brisbane's Rocklea markets.

Retiring Dean of Law

becomes Bond professor

Six new sc hools

Six new schools have been created, coinciding with the start of QUT.

The five announced late last year are the (Charles Fulton) School of Ar- chitecture and Industrial Design, and the Schools of Nursing, Information Systems, Computing Science, and Con- struction Management. All except construction management replace departments of the same name.

QUT Dean of Law, Mr Tom Cain believes the Bond University law school will compare with the best in Australia.

Mr Cain, who set up the then QIT's School of Law in 1977, will retire next month - two years early, and will be- come a visiting professor at Australia's first private university on the Gold Coast.

The new opportunity arose soon after he had submitted his QUT resignation.

"The Bond University will offer a very traditional and respectable LLB course," Mr Cain said. "Academic staff have been drawn from a variety of well- recognised law schools in Australia and

elsew~ere and, so far, the majority of acceptances for Bond are for law students. I understand that many are top quality students."

Mr Cain said some of these students had been offered scholarships; others

"both able and industrious" were at- tracted by the three-term years which would enable them to complete degree studies faster than elsewhere.

He said it was "still early days" for the private university and it would take time for it to achieve full public recog- nition.

'The QUT Law Faculty is now well

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MrTom Cain

established and in pretty good shape, so it ; s a convenient time for me to go.

"The three-year Bond appointment

~ill allow me to return to teaching and writing instead of spending most of my time in administration and management," Mr Cain said.

One writing commitment which he regretfully abandoned several years ago due to pressure of administrativt< work was the 12th edition-his sixth edition -of Charlesworth and Cain's text book on company law. Mr Cain had a 20-year

Page 2 INSIDE OUT, '28'Februar'y f988

involvement with the widely-read publication.

An Oxford graduate with 35 years experience in academic law, Mr Cain joined QIT in 1976 after I 0 years at the University of Sydney where he was a senior lecturer.

He set up QJT's law school the following year with six academic staff and 200 students. The QUT faculty now has 36 full-time staff and over 1500 students.

In the 1988 Australia Day honours, Mr Cain was awarded the AM (Mem- ber of the Order of Australia) for services to tertiary education, particularly in the field of legal studies.

Two things Mr Cain wanted to achieve before he left QUT, have come to pass -all sections of the Law Facul- ty are now located together in new Law/Optometry building and the faculty has just introduced its Master of Laws by coursework.

And he will soon achieve his wish of spending his last few years of working life teaching and writing.

The Law Dean's position will be advertised internationally early next month. Mr David Gardiner will be ac- ting dean until a permanent appointment is made.

QUT is one of 13 institutions in Australia to share in $3.6 million Com- monwealth special grants for technology over the next three years.

According to Federal Minister for Education, Mr John Dawkins, the institutions receiving grants were part of the advanced education sector (before the Unified National System) with capacity for quality research in areas of strategic importance to Australia.

QUT will get $150 000 per year over three years to "undertake developmen- tal projects in line with its research management plan".

In other research funding develop- ments, the university will be able to bid for Australian Research Council project grants which, if successful, will come with 35 percent infrastructure funding. It also received 159 postgraduate research scholarships in 1989, some of which will go to QUT's first PhD students.

The five capital city institutes/universities of technology including QUT have requested an extra I 0 percent of operating grants for research infrastructure funding through the committee reviewing allocation of research funding in higher education.

The new School of Construction Management incorporates the QIT Department of Building and Quantity Surveying.

Just approved is the new School of Mathematics.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dr Tom Dixon, said the former Mathematics Department had achieved the size at which schools had been created in the past. As well, the departmental head, Dr Bob Gould, had retired and now seemed an appropriate time for the move.

QUT appl ies for AVCC

membersh ip

QUT this month applied for membership of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee.

Three Vice-Chancellors will visit the campus in March to review the applica- tion: Professor L W Nichol (Australian National University), Professor L M Birt (University of New South Wales) and Professor K J Morgan (University of Newcastle).

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Rat control technology is exported to Hawaii

The Hawaiian sugar crop will benefit from a method of rodent control developed by a QUT biologist to save the Queensland cane and grain industries millions of dollars in rat damage.

Population biologist, Mr John Wil- son, said the concepts and techniques proven in Queensland would result in similar savings elsewhere.

Mr Wilson, research director for QUT's Centre for Biological Popula- tion Management, will visit the United States for 11 months from 6 March to advise American researchers in the field of animal damage controL

The Denver Wildlife Research In- stitute, part of the US Agriculture Department and the main pest control body throughout the States, believes his

Higher density zones would make Brisbane homes more affordable

QUT architecture lecturer, Mr Jim Stewart, says the Brisbane City Coun- cil could help solve the housing crisis by 'densifying' inner suburbs.

He said he believed many people clung to the' Australian dream' of a suburban lot simply because they had not been offered sufficient choice of alter- natives.

As housing density increased, costs decreased, which at present would make such accommodation very attrac- tive.

Mr Stewart described detached housing in the inner city suburbs as "crazy and wasteful". He said that with higher densities (by eliminating single lot housing within two kilometres of the Central Business District), it should be quite possible to provide a good dwell- ing for $50 000.

"At 600 square metres per lot, a subdivider gets about 10-11 houses per hectare after taking out road/parking space. Using medium density two- storey town houses, the same subdivider would get 40-44 houses per hectare," Mr Stewart said.

"These houses would be cheaper to build, cheaper for local government to service, and would make mass rapid transit economically viable."

Mr Stewart said the City Council should quickly rezone inner city areas residential 'B' to allow medium to high density construction to a minimum of five storeys.

He said European cities like Rome, Paris and Barcelona had no detached housing within several kilometres of Central Business Districts, yet Europeans lived good lifestyles arid successfully brought up families.

Proper design (for ventilation and patios, say) would overcome any possible difficulties due to Queensland's warmer climate.

Mr Stewart said the 'great Australian dream' of a detached suburban house required immediate rethinking. Not only was it totally inappropriate to meet changing economic and social needs, it was eating up vast tracts of the country's most arable land.

methods would be of particular value in Hawaii.

In Denver Mr Wilson will outline his concepts and techniques of habitat manipulation in vertebrate pest control before setting up a management strategy for rodent control for Hawaii.

His method relies on identifying the weak point in the relationship between an animal population and its environment, and scientifically minimising the pest problem by altering the environment at a critical stage.

During PEP (professional experience program) leave in the United States, the population biologist will be based at Denver, Colorado, but will make several trips to Hawaii to liaise with American researchers there.

'Prevention rather than cure' is the concept that has helped establish the QUT Centre's international reputation in the area of rodent and other vertebrate population management. But Mr Wil- son says there is a place for traditional steps like baiting.

"While habitat control methods are much more effective and cost effective, baiting can be used if things have got out of hand and there is a population ex- plosion of pests."

Part of Mr Wilson's US stay will be directed at taking baiting methods from folklore to science, that is, developing a highly toxic bait which rats will find palatable even when there is plenty of food elsewhere. The research, still in its infancy, will entail looking at the basis of communication in rodents.

One attractant could be based on a bad smell: "We have found a compound normally found in rat breath can increase bait palatability," Mr Wilson said.

Month by month

The Albert Shire Council recently approved in principle an applica- tion from the Bond University to expand the university development by about 40 hectares to 137 hectares. The total/and available to the university is 212 hectares, making it probably the biggest area-wise in Australia.

OUT occupies about seven inner-city hectares which makes park- ing tight. On the other hand, students do have the city heart and the City Botanic Gardens as near-by recreation areas.

* * *

QUT will advertise on QUF Industries Ltd milk cartons in the Brisbane area for the next five weeks. The free offer was made by QUF General Manager, Mr Bill Blair who is also President of the QUT Foundation. While some thought was given to a creative message worthy of the medium, the only relationship which QUT nutrition expert Ms Yvonne Webb could suggest between milk and brainpower was that milk contained a natural drug called Tryptophan which aids sleep. So the message was kept simple, along the lines of QIT becomes QUT with congratulations from QUF.

Meanwhile, another drink vendor, Bond Brewing, has politely declined an invitation by The Australian newspaper to advertise In a QUT feature in the Higher Education Supplement.

* * *

A booklet released for the start of semester by OUT's Counselling Centre aims to help students for whom English is a second language with idiom and associated learning difficulties. Edited by Denis Arthy, the booklet is called "Survive and Succeed in Academe". It encourages students to use Counselling Centre services to overcome these dif- ficulties.

* * *

The Brisbane City Council has recognised senior QUT staff member, Mr Phil Heywood in its 1988 Australia Day citizenship awards.

The citation reads: "In his position as head of the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, Mr Heywood shares his skills, his vision and his enthusiasm with many people. This year Mr Heywood is immediate past-president of the Queensland branch of the Royal Australian Planning Institute, and an active member of the Urban Coalition formed last year. Mr Heywood is also a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee and this capacity contributes his expertise to the City of Brisbane. In his service to The Gapp-Enoggera Community Advisory Board, Phil Heywood involved his energies in the development of a strategic plan for that area. "

* * *

Student identity cards issued during Orientation Week still showed the '0/T' logo. The logo was on the validation plate in the camera and formed an essential part of the card security. New validation plates had been ordered from Polaroid in the US with 10 weeks delivery. The new 'OUT' logo was on cards issued from the first day of semester.

wins Design Institute Award

A S45 000 Federal grant made jointly to QUT and a small entrepreneurial Queensland company could put Pratco Industries Ltd on the road to expansion into exports.

adequate manufacturing data base would be a step towards the creation of a product/management/costing data base that would support expansion, including exports."

A QUT student's design for a dialysis machine won first prize ($1000) in the national Design In- stitute of Australia student awards for 1988.

lighter, easier to use, more durable and mobile, and encapsulates canisters of chemical concentrate. He plans to approach existing dialysis machine manufacturers with the design.

Meanwhile, another industrial design student, Camillo Ranali, picked up third prize in the GE Plastics- Australia student design competition for his design of a bee-hive.

Pratco specialises in the manufacture of carbon steel cutting implements for cane harvesting and turf care.

It has also developed a robotic weld- ing system for applying hardfacing material to increase the life of 'ground- engaging' tools like trench-digging tynes.

The Federal Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce (DITAC) approved the grant, to be paid over two years, under the National Teaching Company Scheme.

The scheme provides incentives for companies and academic institutions to work together on company-based projects.

The Pratco teaching company's goal will be to develop an integrated manufacturing data administration system for its relatively small engineering plants.

QUT will provide mechanical and manufacturing engineering expertise through principal consultant, school head, Dr Walter Wong, and lecturer, Mr Andre de Jong.

Thirty thousand dollars of the grant is allocated to offset salary costs of a well-qualified young graduate just ap- pointed to the position of research associate. She is mechanical engineer, Ms Zahra Zadasshar, a graduate of Brad- ford University, UK.

The research associate will be super"

vised jointly by the QUT consultants and Mr BoswelL

Mr John Humphreys of Q Search which negotiated the teaching company contract said $10 000 of the grant would be paid to QUT for academic super- vision and $5000 for scheme administrative costs.

The competition is open to all final year students at design schools throughout Australia.

Bradley Ryan, 22, was a student in the one year full-time (two years part-time) postgraduate diploma in Industrial Design at QUT, having also completed his undergraduate degree at QUT. He is now working in Sydney for design company Design Resource International.

Bradley said the machine was basi- cally a water treatment plant which purified the blood. Existing machines had both physical and psychological disadvantages. They were big, ugly and sometimes smelled.

"My objective was to simplify the task for the patient. We have a situation where the patient is in charge of a piece of medical equipment at home or at the hospital for say 4-6 hours, three days a week," he said.

According to company director, Mr Alan Boswell: "The development of an

Pratco brings to six the number of teaching companies awarded to QUT since 1985.

People with kidney disorders need to be able to take the machine on holidays, so it needs to be mobile, and easy to operate and monitor from seating position.

His design does the same job but is Bradley Ryan with his award winning half-size model of a dialysis machine.

Fewer internal committees to improve efficiency

QUT has restructured its internal committees in line with the White Paper model for institutional management, in an effort to be both more business-like and more flexible.

The number of University Council committees has been cut to three, meeting frequency has been reduced, and more power has been vested in the Vice-Chancellor and senior officers.

The move follows an extensive review of the former QIT committee and decision-making structure.

A study of QIT committees in 1987-88 showed that in the 12 months July to June, committees cost the institution over $250 000.

Almost 5000 person hours were spent in 117 meetings, considering 430 items of separate business. More than 200 people served on committees to fill 300 positions.

The QIT Director spent the equivalent of over five working weeks in meetings.

"By traditional university standards the QIT structure was by no means cumbersome," Dr Gibson says. "However, I believe the new,

streamlined committees will be more effective in the strategic planning process, and will minimize overlap in role and function."

Committee restructuring for QUT reduced the number of committees reporting directly to Council from QIT's 13, to three - Management, Academic, and Planning and Resources.

(The Management Committee has a Staff sub-committee, while the Academic Committee has sub-committees on academic appeals, research management and course assessment. Faculty academic boards also report to Academic Committee.)

With the exception of the Management Committee, the new committees usually will meet quarterly, instead of monthly, the previous norm.

Dr Gibson: "Revised delegations of authority (to QUT ad- ministrators) reduce the need for Council and its committees to meet as often as previously. It is important that QUT Council and its committees do not deal simply with routine business that could be hand- led executively, and ratified at a later meeting."

It is anticipated the Vice-Chancellor will spend only half as much

time in meetings as the QIT Director and that the new committee system will cost the university $60 000 less than it cost QIT.

Although the revised committee structure involves new and increased responsibilities for QUT administrative heads, Council's continued dominant function is spell out.

"Council's role in setting broad objectives and policies for the institution, and in regularly reviewing performance against objectives, must be pre-eminent," Dr Gibson says.

To allow the QUT system to respond flexibly and quickly to change, its Council and committees will have the power to establish ad hoc committees, or to call on officers to carry out particular tasks.

The 1988 Dawkins White Paper on Higher Education included in its major recommendations for institutional management the introduction of strong managerial modes of operation, adequate levels of consultation both within and without an institution, streamlined decision-making processes, and maximum flexibility to facilitate quick changes in policy.

INSIDE OUT, 28 February 1989 Page 3

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'Quincy' unit gets $260 000 electron microscope boost

QUT's 'Quincy' unit whose recent work includes investigating the failure of building slings in Brisbane, has received a $260 000 Police Department boost for its forensic services.

The police contribution has allowed the purchase of a new $400 000 scanning electron microscope far more sen- sitive than existing machine.

The agreement between the Police Department and the AEMF (Analytical Electron Microscope Facility), a joint QUT-Griffith University venture, fol- lowed 12 months negotiation coor- dinated through the QUT Foundation.

The AEMF 'Quincy' unit is housed within QUT's Department of Medical Laboratory Science.

Unit supervisor, Dr David Allen, said that once the new equipment was in- stalled on 13 March, it would be possible for the first time, to detect and quantify trace elements in both materials and biological samples.

"This is of particular value in forensic science as it enables the accurate comparison and matching of a wide variety of materials like paints, fibres, soils and glass," he said.

The scanning electron microscope

would have two wavelength dispersive x-ray analysers appreciably more sen- sitive than the dispersive system on the existing equipment.

It would be fully automated for un- attended operation. This would mean time consuming work like multiple par- ticle analysis for identification of gun- shot residues could be done overnight.

The microscope also would extend the

range of consultancy services offered by AEMF, particularly in the geologi- cal and engineering areas.

The joint arrangement between universities enables purchase of equipment which otherwise would be too ex- pensive.

The existing scanning electron microscope will be retained for undergraduate teaching.

Six receive promotions

Four QUT academic staff have gained personal promotions dating from 1 January, while another two had their externally funded positions con- ftrrned for permanent internal funding.

New senior lecturers this year are: Dr David Atchison (Optometry Depart- ment), and Mr John Wilson and Mr Habib Yezdani (Biology).

Dr Brian J Thomas (Physics Dept) has been promoted from senior lecturer to principal lecturer.

Principal lecturers, Dr Brian Brown (Optometry) and Dr Will Scott (Mechanical and Manufacturing En- gineering), have had their externally

funded postttons confirmed as permanent appointments.

The new appointments are the last under the existing scheme. New arran- gements will be made with the university's introduction of professor-·

ships.

Personal promotion from lecturer to senior lecturer will continue but principal lecturers will now be able to apply for associate professorships.

"QUT wishes to reinforce and expand the academic career track for its staff and the extension of the scheme to associate professor and professorial level reflects this desire," says Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dr Tom Dixon.

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Professorships to "mean something" at QUT: V-C

QUT has called applications in- ternally for its first professors.

QUT Vice-Chancellor, Dr Dennis Gibson, said that as a first step, academic staff from principal lecturer upwards had been invited to apply for professorships or associate professorships.

Principal lecturers and heads of departments and schools were entitled to apply for associate professor titles.

(Heads of QIT departments which became new QUT schools this year are now principal lecturers.) Heads of schools also could apply for the full professor title, along with deans of faculties.

Some 40 applications were received by the closing date of 10 February and it is hoped to make recommendations to the 25 May Council meeting.

A professorial advisory committee, including external academic, business and staff representatives, will recom- mend on appointments.

Dr Gibson is confident that many senior academics will receive new titles. However, he points out that applications will be critically assessed.

"We have only recently passed the university test and Council is deter-

mined that titles will really mean something at QUT," he said.

The consideration of titles coincides with the moving of senior staff across to university pay scales. While staff themselves retain tenure at QUT, the head of department/school and dean positions will be contractual (maximum five years).

An existing internal promotion scheme will allow other academic staff to apply for the associate professor title.

The scheme provides for promotion annually of several outstanding lecturers to senior lecturers, and of several outstanding senior lecturers to associate professor.

Foundation professorships The University is advertising internationally to fill seven foundation professorial positions and one foundation associate professorship.

The positions are: Law Faculty Dean, heads of the schools of Computing Science, Information Systems, Ar- chitecture, Construction Management, Nursing and Mathematics, and associate professor and head of Applied Geology.

Applications for the positions being advertised throughout Australia and in New York and London close at the end of March.

New Years Eve ball heralds new QUT

Some 700 people attended a New Years Eve Ball on campus, on the lawn in front of Old Government House, to farewell QIT and welcome the new QUT. The QUT Act changing QIT into a university was effective from I January 1989.

The ball was attended by Council members, staff, students and friends of QIT/QUT.

Page 4 INSIDE OUT, 28 February 1988

At 30 seconds to midnight, organisers brought up the QIT logo in fireworks. This was faded out over midnight as the QUT logo flared

"P·

beJOooiog' big

frr'i1i"'''Y

^ov~th< Bri•bm< Ri:~·

Bands, dining, dancing, fireworks and a good time at the 'OfT becomes OUT' New Years Eve Ball. At the centre of things were new Chancellor, Mr Vic Pullar, 1988 student union president, Alison Fraser (left) and Thea nne Walters of Coun- cil Secretariat. (Chief organiser was Assistant to the Registrar, Mary-Rose MacColl.)

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Antarctic moss research will throw light on thin ozone effects

Science Faculty member, Dr Garth Everson visited Antarctica recently for an *ASAC-supported research project on the biology of plant life on the icy continent.

One of the earth's most fragile ecological zones, Antarctica is being exposed increasingly to pollution.

Mosses are the highest form of plant life found on the Antarctic mainland, and scientists believe they can provide useful clues for interpreting the survival strategies of plant life under extreme conditions. They may also help us to understand what effect the thinning of the orone layer and the consequent extra UV radiation has on plants growing underneath.

Dr Everson, a plant physiologist, is principal research scientist in a project to study photosynthesis in three species of moss growing in the vicinity of Casey, one of Australia's three An- tarctic bases. The Biochemistry Depart- ment of the University of Georgia, USA, is also associated with this project.

Dr Everson describes his Antarctic trip and the research.

"The German ship, 'Icebird', under contract to Australian National An- tarctic Research Expeditions, left Hobart for the 5000 km, week-long trip to Casey on 7 December. Among its 70 passengers were the director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Mr Phillip Toyne. On arrival at our destination late on 14 December, almost on the Antarctic Circle and close to the

South Magnetic Pole, we were wel- comed by flares, and next morning we went ashore by barge.

Casey is bustling with activity when the major re-supply visit occurs each year but this visit by lcebird was particularly hectic. As well as conveying the usual scientists and base support staff for 1989 projects, both summer and winter, it unloaded extra stores and supplies for completing a new cluster of buildings.

A splendid new red accommodation block was opened by Senator Richardson (Federal Minister for the Environment and Territories}, via satel- lite, on the last day of the visit.

The building, constructed to withstand the worst blizzards in the world, commands a superb view of the harbour and its surrounding icy hills through double-glazed fixed windows.

Small groups of Adele penguins and seals can be seen along the foreshore or on the ice floes. And a craggy line of grounded icebergs along the Peterson Bank (sha!Iows north-west of Casey) marks the skyline.

The weather for the duration of the ship's stay was unseasonably warm, around one to two degrees Celsius for several hours a day, although when the wind blows there is a high chill factor.

For some, it was warm enough for shorts and shirtsleeves but protective gear was always close by in case the weather changed. Being mid-summer, there was less than an hour of 'night'.

Sunset occurred around midnight and sunrise soon after. It was not that hard to get to sleep: you could keep the light out of the four-bunk sleeping containers which are centrally heated.

Nevertheless it was good to 'get nights back' on the Ice bird 's return jour- ney. Two days out of Hobart, on Christmas Eve a real 'highlight' of the trip was the Aurora Australis which was clearly visible from the ship.

Projects underway at Casey include drilling a deep core of ice for information on climatic changes over thousands of years, studies of the upper atmosphere, and conservation of the natural environment and historic sites."

Dr Everson returned from An- tarctica with about two kilograms of mossy lumps from three different species packed in an ice-filled Esky.

He arranged from Hobart to have them stored in a coldroom at the University of Queensland's Anatomy Department at minus 30 degrees Cel- sius, before taking the samples this month to the University of Georgia.

A special US Department of Agricul- ture permit was necessary to transport the materials directly without going through quarantine.

Studies of the mosses involve measuring the fluorescence of the chlorophyll present in the leaves. This gives an indication of photosynthesis activity in the moss. Dr Everson:

"This tells us whether the plants are

Retirement no holiday for 'sugar king' Rowley

One of QUT's longest serving staff members, Mr Rowley Noakes, a friendly, unassuming man, retired on 3 February some hours after being borne into a dimmed lecture theatre on a Roman litter. The chemistry lecturer was carrying a ceremonial staff of sugar cane at the time and that was before the party.

The farewell included a students' gift of the Australian 'Touring Guide for Pilots'.

Chemistry has always been Mr Noakes's main love but a lot of others have competed constantly for his attention.

Reared on a cattle property in the Central B umen, Mr Noakes was educated by correspondence until his senior high school years when he attended Mary- borough's Christian Brothers College.

His parents were friendly with a Pial- ba doctor so when young Rowley 'went to town' he got into the medico's laboratory and manufactured strange chemical smells. When at the age of 12 or 13 he received a cash gift, he bought a chemistry book.

That was the start of the chemistry.

Becoming "mad crazy" about flying probably dates back to a Bert Hinkler flight over the Noakes farm to see his father when he was, he guesses, four or five. The boy waved back. He ended up as an RAAF fighter pilot.

Mr Noakes got to what is now the QUT campus before QIT existed.

At the Central Technical College he gained a sugar chemistry diploma in the second half of the 1940s, returning for a diploma in industrial chemistry a few years later.

Between the two courses, he pursued his other main interest as anRAAFfighterpilot, at the same time completing the hours needed for the civilian's licence. He had learnt to fly before joining the Air Force.

After leaving the RAAF in 1955, he worked in Toowoomba with what is now the State Department of Primary Industries in areas such as agricultural chemicals and stock foods.

That was what started him off on poultry breeding.

Mr Noakes helped one farmer with his chickens' nutritional problems. The farmer gave him a number of New Hampshires. The gift eventually multi- plied to the stage where he was sending poultry and eggs throughout Australia, as well as exhibiting. He and his wife Carmel still keep New Hampshires on their acreage at the Gap.

Sugar king Rowley arrives at his sendoff.

Mr Noakes joined the new QIT in January 1965 as an instructor, the equivalent then of lecturer, and he has been teaching ever since, specialising in sugar chemistry. So long, in fact that he has been teaching sons and daughters of former students.

QUT career highlights included es- tablishing 'sandwich' courses in Mack- ay for sugar technologists (an applied science associate diploma now trans- ferred to TAFE) and, more recently, his 1981 visit to Papua New Guinea to select the initial management trainees for the proposed Ramu sugar mill outside Lae. Since then he has run a number of on-site courses for Ramu technologists and infrastructure staff.

A students' reunion group he started while a student himself is now the QUT industrial chemists group. The proceeds of the group's social gatherings are in- vested to provide the Byron Watkins and the Frank Oliver prizes for chemistry.

Other roles played by Mr Noakes include quarantine officer, plant diseases inspector, fruit and vegetable inspector and seeds officer. He and a CSIRO en- tomologist made sure there were no weevils in the Australian Wheat Board's first shipment of wheat to China in the early 1960s.

Along the way, Mr Noakes has continued to fly and to drive.

With flying he now has only one choice - the single-engine Cessna 182 kept at Archerfield (he and his wife Car-

mel have been known to whiz off to Central Australia for the weekend).

With cars he has eight cho~ces. For town, there's the Espada Lamborghini, the model-T Ford, the Vauxhall, the FJ Holden, or the rotary Mazda, all kept under the house in the yard at the Gap.

He keeps the Landrover and the cattle truck, appropriately, on his 2000 hectare beef holding between Biggenden and Gayndah. He started with a much smaller property 30-plus years ago and built up from there.

In Brisbane, Mr Noakes is also active in the RSL where he has for four years been Services Club president. In addi- tion, his professional 'wings' qualify him for membership of the Queensland group of the City of London Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.

Theoretically, with retirement, Rowley Noakes should have more time to spend on his flying, not to mention the fact that he wants to get the New Hampshires up to exhibition standard again.

In practice, he will continue with consulting; there is mention of Africa and the South Pacific along with Queensland work.

Mr Noakes says private planes and Lamborghinis aside, he is not rich:

"that's why l don't have any money."

His personal high flying may, however, explain why a modest man whose first choice in a myriad of choices was sugar chemistry, enjoyed being carried aloft bearing a stick of sugar cane.

Plant physiologist, Dr Garth Everson, aboard MV '/cebird' in the Antarctic.

{Photo courtesy of Jan Mackie, ANARE Club, Melbourne.) significantly inhibited by the high

levels of light radiation, including UV, in the Antarctic summer.

This radiation state is potentially dangerous to the chloroplasts (struc- tures where the plant organises chlorophyll for photosynthesis) in the leaves, because of low ambient temperatures.

Under temperate zone growth conditions, this problem does not normally arise because the speed of chemical reactions in plants prevents radiation damage. However, when temperatures are around freezing, chemical reactions

are much slower and plants like mosses have to defend themselves against a hostile environment. They are at risk from the high light intensity/low temperature combination and start tore- radiate some of the light as fluorescence.

Information on the interplay between light, including UV, and temperature, may yield important clues to our under- standing of how changes in the ozone layer affect the ecology."

*

ASAC: the Federal Government's Antarctic Scientific Advisory Commit- tee.

New lecturer tells of plant response to greenhouse effect

New QUT biology lecturer, Dr Grahame Kelly, an expert on boto thesis, is in the United States this week to present a paper to a major international conference on the world's environment.

The five-day conference from 28 February is being run by Cornell University's Centre for Environmental Research.

The theme is Global Environmental Change: Connecting Science and Policy.

The conference was designed to bring together selected scientists and policy makers who currently are deal- ing with what a Cornell spokesman called 'a gathering storm of global environmental change'.

Dr Kelly, a plant biochemist, planned to discuss the response of plants to the greenhouse effect and also to ozone depletion.

On the greenhouse effect, he says scientists agree that certain gases in the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide, will double over the coming few decades. The theory is that this will warm the earth. However, Dr Kelly says, in practice there is a possibility that something else might happen, eg.

the warming could lead to more

Dr Grahame Kelly evaporation from oceans, to extra cloud formation which would reflect sunlight back into space.

Dr Kelly joined QUT in mid-January after six years with CSIRO Marine Laboratories in Hobart where he was principal research scientist. His special interest there was phytoplankton photosynthesis.

Strong field for new law masters

There has been an excellent response to the QUT Law Faculty's first Master of Laws by coursework (LLM) program which began on 20 February.

Law Dean, Mr Tom Cain, said he was delighted with the number and quality of applications for the initial year of the course.

About 60 people applied for a quota place. Thirty seven of the 39 offered a place accepted it.

Mr Cain said well over half those accepted had an honours LLB degree from the University of Queensland or QUT.

Most of the other students had "very good" pass degrees in law, although three places were kept for barristers or solicitors without LLBs but with outstanding professional records.

Mr Cain said the object of the LLM

course was to deepen and broaden legal training; the course was especially useful for employees or junior parmers in large city firms of solicitors.

Subjects being offered this year are

advanced company law. commercial

leases. law relating to building and engineering contracts. and commercial remedies.

Subjects under consideration for 1990 include advanced law of trusts and business planning (taxation con- straints).litigation. <Uld the criminal jus- tice system. Further infom1ation is available from the Faculty ofticeon 223 2707.

People without a law degree but with professional experience who are imer- ested in enrolling in 1990 should contact Mr B J Conrick. principal lecturer in law. before the end of March. 19!l9.

INSIDE QUT, 28 February 1989 Page 5

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First 'women in engineering' graduate enters workforce

When 37-year old Beryl Zardani decided three years ago to enquire about QUT's 'Women-in-Engineering' program, she had a commercial Junior pass.

Her curriculum vitae included such jobs as

• small shop owner (one year)

• co-owner (with husband) of Sunshine Coast pineapple farm

• co-manager (with husband) of Friesian stud

• housewife/mother.

Although eligible for mature age entry to a tertiary institution, she had not studied for 20 years. And it was not just a case of bringing her physics and chemistry up to tertiary entrance standard: Beryl had never done physics or chemistry.

Nevertheless, QUT decided to accept her for the bridging program which aims to get more women into the heavily male-dominated engineering courses.

"I think they wanted to see how mature women like me got on," Ms Zardani said.

Beryl got on by attacking the bridging courses with a vengeance.

It took her six months in the second half of 1986 to learn physics and chemistry from scratch and to get those subjects and mathematics up to tertiary entrance standard. She gained a credit for chemistry.

Then she did the two-year full-time Associate Diploma course in mechanical engineering, which she completed successfully last year. Her associate diploma subjects included four (in the manufacturing area) at degree level.

Last month Ms Zardani became assistant production manager for Brisbane-based specialist printers, Beta Press Pty Ltd at Rocklea.

The enthusiasm with which she tackled the engineering course is now evident in her job: "I never guessed I would end up in printing, which is one of the big growth areas of Australian industry. And I didn't realise how many aspects there were to specialist printing."

Ms Zardani says her new position is 30 percent engineering and 70 percent management.

As second-in-charge to the production supervisor she sees

Engineer Beryl Zardini at work at Beta Press.

herself as a key figure in the team effort to achieve total quality control.

"Dr (Walter) Wong, the head of QUT's School of Mechani- cal and Manufacturing Engineering, asked me to go back this year and do the degree course, but at this stage I was keen to get to work," she said.

Ms Zardani attributes her success, apart from hard study, to two quite different factors. One was the encouragement of QUT Women-in-Engineering Coordinator, Ms Wendy Mathieson whom Beryl says "became a real friend".

The other was working the Mt Larcom Friesian stud which she says made her appreciate the principles of a production line.

Beryl Zardani is the first QUT Women-in-Engineering graduate to enter the engineering workforce.

QUT to cooperate with Korean lOT

QUT this month signed an agreement with Pusan National Institute of Tech- nology under which the two institutions will cooperate through educational and cultural exchanges.

Pusan is the largest industrial city outside Seoul and PNIT already is

providing office support for QUT marketing activities in Korea.

The agreement, negotiated through Q Search, encourages staff and student exchanges, joint sponsorship of semi- nars, and utilisation of information and research facilities.

President of Pussan National Institute of Technology, Dr Yun Han Sang and OUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dr Tom Dixon finalise the cooperative agreement.

Graduate is PRIA president

New State president of the Public Rela- tions Institute of Australia, Ms Susan Grigson, is the first woman in Queensland and the first graduate in business communication, to hold office.

Ms Grigson, 42, graduated from QUT in 1982, joining the State Public Service the following year.

She is now a projects officer in the Public Relations and Media Office of the Premier's Department.

Her main aims as PRIA president are to help formalise plans for the registra- tion of PR consultancies and to encourage non-graduates working in the industry to gain formal accreditation.

Long-term planning, involvement keys to fund raising success

QUT's Engineering Faculty is implementing a comprehensive formal program to improve the quality of teaching in its three engineering schools and department of surveying.

The program's introduction is the result of research and detailed recommendations by the Dean, Dr John Corderoy, following CTEC engineering discipline review findings made public last year.

Although QUT rated highly in comparison with other engineering faculties throughout Australia, the CTEC committee pointed out that nationally, engineering teaching could be upgraded. Federal Green Paper statements stress- ing the importance of effective methods of staff assessment gave impetus to the preparation of Dr Corderoy's paper on teaching quality.

"The question was not whether our lecturers were good enough, but whether they could be better, and could

they prove how effective they were?"

the Dean said. "Until now QUT has had

no systematic agreed method for

monitoring and improving teaching quality. It was time for us, as professional educators and concerned engineers, to initiate one."

QUT had always regarded itself as a good institution for teaching but this was hard to prove objectively.

Dr Corderoy recommended that each academic staff member undergo a two- yearly review of teaching effectiveness. As well, every five years, each school and the surveying department should conduct a major review of learning outcomes.

The program means that engineering lecturers now have to produce evidence of how well they are doing as teachers and how they expect they can improve.

The emphasis, Dr Corderoy says, is on individual improvement and little importance should be placed on absolute values obtained in the review process.

Response poor for graduate survey

There has been a poor response to QUT's annual graduate destination survey: only 58 percent of 1987 graduates bothered to fill out the latest questionnaire compiled by the Graduate Careers Council of Australia and the university.

The response was the worst since the survey began in 1974.

QUT Graduate Placement Officer, Mr Ian Robertson, said response rates had been falling over the past decade.

In 1979, the rate was 90 percent.

He said one possible reason was the increasing complexity of the questionnaire form.

His section was looking at simplify- ing the fourth and final page of the questionnaire to see if this would encourage more graduates to complete the form.

The fmal page is the only one compiled by the individual tertiary institution.

. Mr Robertson said the survey was extremely important. Information about employment trends over a number of years allowed tertiary institutions to gauge the need to either expand or retract courses, according to job demand. The questionnaire also gave graduates a formal opportunity to com-

ment both on their courses and on the QUT administration.

The latest survey revealed that 93 percent of respondents who were available for full-time employment after completing their courses in 1987, had obtained work by 30 April 1988.

This compared with 91 per cent the previous year.

Optometry continued to provide the highest commencing salary for new graduates - averaging around $32 000 per annum, while commencing salaries for law (LLB) remained among the lowest, averaging some $14 OOOpa.

Mr Robertson said law salaries were low in the first year due to the articled clerk system.

One significant fmding of the survey was the decline over the past few years in new graduate intake by Australian government and semi-government agencies. The intake fell from 10.5 percent in 1986 to only 6.8 percent of QUT graduates last year.

This was matched by a State government and semi-government rise from 25.5 percent in 1986 to 30.9 percent in 1988.

Page 6 INSIDE QUT, 28 February 1989

Rod Miller with OUT mugs being sold through the OUT Foundation and the bookshop.

Some US fund raising ideas could work here

QUT is examining fund raising techniques which have put hundreds of millions of dollars into the coffers of leading US universities like Har- vard.

This follows Business Faculty Dean, Dr Bernie Wolff's lengthy fact-fmding tour to 14 American and two English tertiary institutions, including Oxford.

American institutions included in the tour ranged from prestigious establishments like Harvard, MIT and the University of California (Berlceley), to the small South West Baptist University, Missouri.

Dr Wolff said an example of the mag- nitude of some US fund raising was the plan by one university to raise $400 million in five years. Information gathered by Dr Wolff, including university cor- porate strategy documents for fund raising of this type, could prove extremely useful for QUT Foundation fund raising drives. Among contacts made during the trip was Harvard Business School's Development Manager who has the responsibility of raising some

$20 million annually.

"US university fund raisers were very open about their methods and pro- cedures, possibly because I was not a direct competitor in the US tertiary institution marketplace."

Dr Wolff agreed that QUT might not

be able to incorporate all American ideas. But he has acted quickly to initiate market research on which methods might transplant readily.

Senior lecturer in marketing, Mr Reg Hardman is undertaking the research in close consultation with Assistant Dean - Development, Mr Rod Miller.

"The most successful US fund raisers are the private universities. However, state universities which a decade ago depended primarily on government funds are very quickly learning the game. So much so that they now prefer to term themselves state-assisted universities, rather than state universities," Dr Wolff said.

"American business and leading citizens are keen to associate themselves with prestigious tertiary institutions. Donations, sometimes huge, are the result.

"Business people on university coun- cils and advisory committees regard serving on those committees as a privilege and, together with alumni, make annual donations. Contributions are also made by wealthy citizens who are proud of having a highly regarded university in their locality."

The initial QUT market research on the US fund raising concepts will be completed this semester.

QUT Assistant Dean, Mr Rod Miller, has returned from a three-week USA trip with some fresh ideas for university development along with a warning that this institution should 'do its own thing'.

The goal of last month's visit was to further improve QUT's fund raising, alumni and external relations activities through comparison with the latest American practices and principles.

The tour embraced Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University, both in New York State, and participation in the USA's foremost fund raising school run by Indiana University's Centre for Philanthropy.

Mr Miller said every point of contact during the trip had reinforced his view that the most effective university development (including fund raising) involved as many key groups as possible, from staff, to alumni, to community leaders.

He said the visit had also underlined the need for long-term strategic planning: Rensselaer Polytechnic, an institution similar in many ways to QUT, was committed to planning and fund raising to achieve its vision of itself in the 21st century. But, he cautioned: "It is vital to recognise that QUT is different from institutions overseas and it would be inappropriate to directly transplant any US system."

Mr Miller has recommended, among other things, that QUT publish a strategic plan for the university up to the year 2000. He has suggested it be ready for release at the university's in- auguration in September.

On return from the USA, Mr Miller addressed the Australasian Institute of Fund Raising Convention held on the Gold Coast. His topic for the gathering on 21 February was Getting better fund raising results from public relations, newsletters and proposals.

Any witnesses?

A man was injured in an ac- cident involving a panel van between '0' and 'L' Blocks on campus at about 10.15arn on Monday 20 February. Any witnesses should contact the Mechanical Engineering Of- fice on ext. 2638.