eensland iversity of Technology
Newspaper
p
378.9431 103
Issue No 92 Gardens Point, Kelvin Grove, Kedron Park, Carseldine campuses and Sunshine Coast centre 22 September - 5 October 1992
Aca emic au. dit a ·:· first
BHP scholarship winner civil engineering student Jason Machin. (Photo: Leon Frainey)
Jason wins BHP grant
Jason Machin, a second-year civil engineering student at QUT has been awarded a $20 000 scholarship from mining giant BHP.
The award is one of two given annually by BHP Aus- tralia Coal Ltd to engineering undergraduates.
Jason, 19, of Westlake, studied at Bremer High School in Ipswich before commencing his course at QUT.
He was chosen ahead of several hundred applicants
for the award.
Although he was selected on academic ability and career aspirations, Jason believes a practical knowl- edge of mining handed down by his father, a mine manager at Collinsville, gave him an advantage.
The BHP scholarship provides valuable work expe- rience as well as financial assistance.
Jason hopes to work with BHP after he graduates.
Specia _ l ANZAAS Report
• Pages 6 an~ 7
. QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone {07) 864 2999
U · K expert gives university· advice
Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson has welcomed the findings of QUT's academic audit, the first to be conducted in an Australian university.
Carried out last month by UK expert Professor George Gordon, the audit-re- views a wide range of quality assurance mechanisms already in place across the university.
Professor Gibson said the audit pro- vided a unique and critical review of QUT' s systems which in turn would help appraise the university's teaching goals.
"The challenge for the university is to analyse the findings and determine what actions are required," Professor Gibson said.
An advisory group will meet this month to further discuss the audit's find-
Professor Gordon, the Director of the Centre for Academic Practice at the Uni- versity of Strathclyde in Scotland, con- ducted the QUT audit between 6-12 Au- gust. He is one of the original auditors attached to the Committee of Vice-Chan- cellors' Academic Audit Unit in Britain and has audited several UK universities including Cambridge University.
Professor Gibson said QUT's audit should be viewed in the context of the growing support for a national quality assurance authority in Australia.
The quality issue was set high on the national tertiary education agenda last year in Federal Higher Education Min- ister Mr Peter Baldwin's Quality and Diversity paper.
As of 1994, universities will vie for a share in a $75 million fund earmarked for quality assurance and enhancement programs.
To be successful in its bid for this funding, Professor Gibson said QUT must address the quality assurance is- sue as a university-wide initiative ..
In the audit's conclusion, Professor Gordon commended QUT for its vari- ous measures but warned the university of the dangers in aiming to do too much with too few resources.
"Unless considerable care is exer- cised, the need to attract additional in- come from non-governmental sources could place some activities and key in- dividuals under strain and might preju- dice the achievement of certain goals and objectives," he wrote.
Professor Gibson agreed this "dan- gerous triangle" of ambitious goals, lim- ited resources and fundraising pressure needed careful examination.
"The institution is starting to realise that its plans and its resources do not match. So one solution might have to be accepting that we are trying to do too much," he said.
"This is difficult because universities are full of very innovative people. What they like to do most in life is do new things all the time.
"That's what makes universities dif-
Professor George Gordon ferent from other organisations."
Professor Gibson said the audit also areal>
These were issues of overcrowding and space, inter-campus communication and facilities, PhD supervision, more thorough integration of student feed- back, and an overall coordination of various staff development initiatives.
Professor Gibson said he was im- pressed with the openness of staff and students interviewed.
"We asked people to say it as it was, and they did," he said.
In general, the audit focused on four main aspects of university life:
• the design and approval of courses and subjects
• teaching and communication meth- ods including assessment and supervi- sion
• selection, development and promo- tion of teaching staff
• feedback from students, employers, accrediting bodies and other professional groups.
Professor Gordon spoke to more than 150 staff, students and members ofQUT Council during the audit process.
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Aca- demic) Professor Ron Gardiner and au- dit secretary Dr John Sharwood worked to support Professor Gordon's audit visit.
Dr Sharwood has been seconded to QUT for three months from the State Educa- tion Department.
The audit commended the univer- sity for:
• the development of detailed proce- dures for the approval of courses andre- accreditation of existing courses
• the role of external members on Faculty Advisory Committees
• the development of the teaching and learning strategy and annual teaching and learning management plans
• the introduction of grants to pro- mote innovation in teaching and pro- mote effective learning
• the program of review of faculties, schools and divisions
• the new booklet outlining informa- tion for applicants for doctoral programs
• Continued page 2
Registered by Au~tralia Pos~ :-_P,uplicaJioo Np, QBF 4778
Vice-chancellor's comment
Funding hangs on decision
A key outcome of the green/white paper changes in higher education in Australia was the freeing up of research funding across the higher education sector
tQ.
enabJe-a move to a more competitive system.Over a num!Jer of r.ears. tbe.Connnopwe;alth clawed back funds from institutional operatnJggr.aiitS
ind
combined these funds with new money to finance the research system to a total of $200 million a year, distrib- uted by the Australian Research Council through grants, fellowships, research scholarships and an infrastructure sche'me. The infrastructure scheme, whicl't has been very successful, is allocated $50 million of the total annual ARC budg~t.. . , ~r
Universities have accepted
a
·duaJ•afrangement for research support where half the funding comes from. institutional operating grants and the other half comes· from the ARC funds. This system has worked well fot higher education institutions. For established universities, it has meant increased funding available overall for research. For new univer- sities, it has provided opportunities to kick-start research in selected areas.For QUT, research infrastructure funding has enabled us to set up university, faculty and school centres. Library holdings have been Much needed research equipment has been purchased.
The downside of the Com- monwealth's system has always been that the $50 million in~
frastructure funding is 1not locked into operating grants and is only guaranteed until 1994. The Commonwealth has recently set up a working party to consider the future of infra- structure funding and decide whether the $50 million will continue or not.
If infrastructure funding is discontinued, it will be a severe blow to an already underfunded Australian research system. For QUT it will significantly slow down development of a research profile at a critical time in the institution.!sJife._
Professor Dennis Gibson
.•. . OUR CoNcERN
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I~ 11115 Docvt'1EN1" ••. HE~,
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MEDIA ROOM
.Ihe.ANZAAS media centre waged a most successful paper war to spread the congress message wide.
Repnrts·on·p;:tge-s 6 anti?.
• From page 1
• strong links with industry, profes- sional and other groups which underpin its academic activities
New : postgrad - .. Fund raising expert
courses boost joins '93 campaign
• -- ·-· ~· International fundraising consultant
• the academic progress made since amalgamation
• the practice of student representa- tion on committees and boards
• the adoption of formal means of stu- dent evaluation of courses and teaching
• the explicit commitment to teaching and the quality of learning in its goals and objectives
• the strengthening of its policies for and support of the development of aca- demic and general staff
• the use of new technologies in teach- ing and learning in some courses and classes
• the Manual of Policies and Proce- dures.
The audit recommends that the uni- versity may wish to:
• review the accreditation process in an effort to achieve some streamlining and greater incisiveness
• consider experimenting more widely with .the use of external examiners
op:pertun~tieS
M<Pe<-.r•oo•.•.. -·-· ___ Jeton has been appointed to assist the QUT.L Foundation with a major appeal in 1Y93.
.\ Mr Castleton directed QIT's first capital campaign for I $3 million in 1987. Since then, more than $9 mil- lion has been committed by organisa- tions and individuals through the QUT Foundation.
QUT wil'l offer six new postgradu- ate courses next year in line with the university's increasing focus on higher
degrees. •
t
The new courses wilT boost QUT's postgraduate program to more than 100 courses ranging from honours to gradu- ate diploma, master<and doctoral lev- els.
The new courses are:
• Graduate Diploma in Educ!ltion (Educational Management)
• Master of Engineering Science (En- gineering Management)
• Master of Health Science
• Master of Quality
• Doctorate of Education (course work and research)
aimed to attract $4.5 million in research funding from competitive grant schemes next year.
Applied research, consulting, testing and continuing education activities were expected to generate a further $15 million, he said.
Applications for postgraduate study at QUT close at the end of this month.
A late fee of $25 will be charged after 30 September.
A wide range of scholarships are available to students undertaking post- graduate study either within Australia or overseas.
Students accepted into full-time re- search masters and PhDs generally can expect to receive scholarship support.
Mr Castleton's fundraising exploits have included the Australian Farmers' Fighting Fund; Horton General Hos- pital, Banbury, UK; and Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge, UK.
"We are engaging in some prelimi- nary planning at this stage," he said.
"I have begun meeting people on all QUT campuses to discuss ideas which need funding support and which will be of benefit to organisations and the community.
"QUT has come a long way since I was here last. Its reputation and diver- sity, following amalgamation, will lead
l
to even greater fundraising success.
"It is also obvious that many re- source needs are not being met by gov- ernment funding."
Mr Castleton is working closely with QUT's Development Office and can be contacted through that office.
• review the operation of its policies relating to the acceptance and supervi- sion of doctoral students
• review the provision for part-time undergraduates and postgraduates
• Professional Doctorate in Law (Ju- ridical Science)
Vice-Chancellor P-rofessor Dennis Gibson said QUT' s tradition of profes- sional education and training was cen- tral to the university's evolving post- graduate activities.
Applications for four major govern- ment-sponsored awards close on 31 October. They are the Australian Post- graduate Research Awards, QUT Post- graduate Research A wards, Australian Postgraduate Coursework A wards and the Owen J Wo_rdsworth Memorial Scholarship (Masters).
Museu_ m Board appointment
• examine ways of ensuring that poli- cies relating to equity and self-directed learning are integrated into the processes of course development and review
• ensure that feedback from students on courses and teaching is available to schools and faculties
• seek diagnostic information to be in- corporated in the annual reports on courses
"Our research strengths will continue to be in areas which meet community needs," Professor Gibson said.
"Research which answers questions relevant to the community will and should remain our primary research focus."
Professor Gibson said the university
More than 400 privately-funded scholarships are on offer throughout the year. For more information contact the Research Students' Office at the Gar- dens Point campus on (07) 864 2932.
For more information on postgradu- ate studies at QUT telephone 356 1195.
QUT's Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Aca- demic) Professor Jan Reid has been appointed to the Queensland Museum Board.
Professor Reid will serve a four-year term as an academic representative on the eight-member board.
A specialist in the health science field, Professor Reid co-edited the first textbook on Aboriginal health last year.
Entitled The Health of Aboriginal
• consider developing a charter of stu- dent rights
• resolve the relationship between forthcoming annual reviews of staff and the process of staff development
Scheme promotes Asian ties
• review the quality assurance roles of deans, heads of schools, course coor- dinators ·and other coordinators
• review and clarify the quality assur- ance roles of all committees.
• review mechanisms for co-ordina- tion and monitoring at each level within the organisation, particularly given the scale and range of recent developments
• attach priority to resolving inter- campus communications and to the pro- vision of corresponding appropriate and adequate facilities on each campus.
The Federal Government en- dorsed the Australian Vice-Chan- cellors' Committee's University Mo- bility in the Asia-Pacific scheme this month.
UMAP is an A VCC-sponsored scheme to encourage student and staff exchanges between more than 20 countries at university level.
It was endorsed earlier this month in Melbourne by Minister for Em- ployment, Education and Training Mr Kim Beazley.
P,a.ge
4
}I)JSID,EOWJ",
;24 S~ptember. ..-5 Octo.ber 1992International Relations Unit spokesperson Ms Jennie Lang said QUT fully backed the scheme which enhanced the internationalisation of tertiary education.
"This encourages our own students to take up study in another overseas university and gain full credit towards their QUT degrees," Ms Lang said.
The first UMAP-sponsored ex- changes are expected to begin next year.
"It will open up a range of options
for Australian students," she said.
"Students can only benefit from experiencing a completely different culture, acquiring a second lan- guage, and establishing a good in- ternational network as part of their degree."
QUT students now have increas- ing opportunities to go abroad for 6- 12 months under exchange agree- ments which have been signed with a number of north American and Asian universities.
Australia, the book stands as a com- panion to Professor Reid's previous co-edited work The Health of Immi- grant Australia: A Social Perspec- tive.
Professor Reid has also been ap- pointed as a member of the Public Health Research and Development Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council until De- cember 1993.
Professor Jan Reid
Drama students Noeleen Antella (top left), Sarah Neal (left) and Penny Moore team to form Plenty Productions. (Photo: Suzanne Burow)
Li· ghts, camera, action~ ..
QUT drama students, Sarah Neal and Penny Moore and their colleague, Noeleen Antella, have taken the first steps towards establishing careers in film.
They have formed their own com- pany, Plenty Productions, and are cur- rently in the pre-production phase for their first venture-a short film which they will start shooting in October.
The women are hoping their debut film receives wide exposure in the community. It will be distributed to film festivals throughout Australia, in- cluding the Queensland Young Film Makers Awards in 1993.
Lecturers at QUT have also agreed to accept it as the students' independ- ent study, a 24-credit point unit in their Bachelor of Arts degree.
At the moment, the fledgling film makers are chasing money and re- sources, looking for locations and as- sembling cast and crew.
A benefit night at the Pump Club at the Brunswick Hotej in the Valley this month netted some funds and practical support has been offered by local film makers, actors, musicians and QUT staff, who are allowing the team to ac- cess equipment at the Gardens Point campus.
"We are also applying for funding from the Australian Film Council and working out a proposal for corporate sponsorship, "says Penny.
She said actors and crew were pro- viding their services free of charge but film and distribution costs were high.
Sarah said the film would be shot on l6mm film, copied for use at film fes- tivals and transferred to video.
The film originated from a story by Penny which all · three girls
"brainstormed" into a script. Set in Bris- bane and Gympie, it is a contemporary story which looks at the re-kindling of a friendship between three women.
Penny and Sarah will co-direct, Noeleen is in charge of marketing and promotion.
The drama students say their deci- sion to make a film rather than con- centrate on theatre for their final year assignment raised ,a few eyebrows at first, but their teachers have been very supportive of the project.
"Sarah and I wanted to make the film because we fee) it's a better me- dium to use to develop your own work," says Penny ..
"Film has more rele'vance in the general commu'nity.. _
"In the theatre, yow: work is in an artistic box, you're relying on other people'& interpretation and perform- ing to the same people all the time."
Sarah also likes the permanency of
film. ' ·
"When you ~ork i,n the theatre all you're left with are photographs and memories.': ' ·
Two-week Asian trip on offer now
Students and staff at QUT who would like to explore the intricacies of an Asian culture should check out the cultural experience program on offer at International Student Serv- ices.
A two-week trip to Malaysia and Singapore in early December has all the attractions of a tourist destination - including the opportunity to binge on bargain shopping-but offers much more than the average packaged holi- day.
The tour will provide a first-hand look at an Asian culture, including a four-day home-stay with a Malaysian family in a kampong (traditional vil- lage), visits to tertiary institutions in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and meetings with QUT alumni.
Before departure, ISS will present cultural and language orientations so that travellers can appreciate the finer points of the culture they visit.
The trip is run on a non-profit ba- sis. The $1600 cost covers air fare,
transport and accommodation.
Ms Sue Stuart, who is organising the excursion for ISS, is hoping to arrange future trips to south-east Asia.
"We would be visiting the areas many of our overseas students come from and where our future business contacts are," she said.
Dates for the trip have not been finalised. For more information, con- tact Sue Stuart in the Department of Counselling and Health, Y Block, Gardens Point. Telephone: 864 1595.
Ferei· gn: debt worry queried
by ~ Professo~
It
would
be''most unfortunate"
ifthe latest current account figures re- sulted in another tightening of mon- etary policy according
to the new headof QUT's School
of Economics andPublic
Policy, ProfessorAllan Layton.
A specialist in macro-economic policy, Professor Layton believes Aus- tralia's present economic problems are largely the result of misguided public policy which "inal?propriately" targeted the mid-' 80s current account deficits as an economic problem.
His view is that the current account deficit - or exports of goods and serv- ices, less imports, plus net interest and dividends to foreign investors- jumped between 1986 and 1988 primarily be- cause Australians were "investing strongly so as to augment the nation's capital stock".
Formerly Associate Professor of Eco- nomics at the University of Queensland, Professor Layton said the rationale be- hind the introduction of tight monetary policies in the late 1980s was that the current account deficit would "at some future time" scare off foreign investors and demand ~·costly adjustments".
"But I think it's a moot point whether those vague future costs would have been anywhere near as large as the very certain and very large actual costs of bankruptcies, hundreds of thousands more people out of work and lost eco- nomic output," he argues.
As far as Professor Layton is con- cerned the current account deficit sim- ply represents the sum total of choices that Australians make about how much of their income they want to save at present versus how much they want to consume or jnvest.
"I.( Australians as a group are invest-
ing strongly in plant and equipment, and if the sum total of that investment is greater than the sum total of our national savings, the extra investment will be pro- vided by an inflow of goods, like com- puters, transport equipment, machinery and the like, through the current account,"
he explained.
"And that net inflow of goods would be fmanced through an increase in the level of investment foreigners have in this country.
"If a business wants to buy a piece of
equipment and doesn't have sufficient retained earnings, shareholders are asked to invest funds, or funds are borrowed.
'Therefore, the only issue is whether that piece of equipment is going to be sufficiently productive to give a good dividend to the shareholder, or to serv- ice the loan."
Professor Layton believes that a suf- ficiently strong case was never made about the "uncertain future costs" asso- ciated with the increased current account deficits of the 1980s and the associated higher foreign debt.
The "costs" would only result if serv- icing payments associated with the in- crease in foreign debt could not be made.
'There was never any strong case put for why those servicing payments could not be maoe," he said.
"If they were made there would never have been any problem. In my view the increased foreign debt that came about
· because of those current account defi-
Professor Allan Layton
cits would have been self-financing."
Professor Layton says Federal Treas- ury economists who advised the tight monetary policy of 1988-90 appear to have been "stuck in a mindset" more relevant to the pre-financial deregula- tion days before the Australian dollar was floated.
Under foreign exchange controls and a pegged exchange rate current account deficits, if they persisted, would result in a run on the currency. The Reserve Bank in an effort to keep the currency pegged would find itself running out of foreign exchange.
"And that would precipitate a so- called balance-of-payments crisis with a threat of devaluation," he explained.
"From 1983 foreign exchange mar- kets were supposed to determine the most appropriate value for the Austral- ian dollar. Any imbalance between de- mand and supply of the dollar or foreign
currencies should simply be reflected in - ~
an incremental adjustment of the cur- rency so the c~ woWd Dever occur."
Professor Layton said some of the factors which attracted him to QUT were the linking of economics and public policy and the institution's raised re- search profile.
"While economic considerations are often very important inputs into the policy process, the final policy decision will be the result of a complete array of institutional, sociological, ethical, cul- tural and political factors," he said.
'This is the essence and vitality of public policy."
Given the impact of economic policy on citizens' lives, one of Professor Layton's more recent contributions to the literature debate has been the con- struction of a "macro-economic misery"
index.
'The research attempts to measure the fluctuations in the macro-economic wel- fare of the community using a number of indicators such as unemployment, interest rates, real wages and inflation,"
he said.
The work appeared in June this year in The Economic Record, the journal published quarterly by the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand.
One economic policy area Professor Layton sees as having potential for re- search at the school is Queensland's move to corporatisation, particularly balancing the need to provide an ad- equate return on assets with efficiently and effectively delivering community service obligations.
Campus quickies
When Doug and Tom (Planning and Budget Director Mr Doug Brown, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Tom Dixon) visit the Law Fac- ulty to discuss action planning and money, the staff there are said to have an attack of the DTs.
0 0 0
ln his keynote address to delegates, ANZAAS president Robyn Williams made a light-hearted mention of the latest in Japanese technology - the paperless loo. It not only sprays warm water like a bidet, it blows warm air to dry and dispenses a perfume. No joke ... how could 5 million happy, smiling customers be wrong.
Page 3 tNSIDE QU'f, 22-9eptembet~-s-~etober 1'992'·
Qld IJteracy
review will
help regions
Adult literacy programs in re- gional Queensland will be reviewed for the first time in an ambitious project led by QUT's School of Lan- guage and Literacy Education.
The $148 000 study will focus on programs based around Nambour and the nearby Burnett district from Maryborough, Gayndah to Kingaroy.
The aim is to better co-ordinate adult literacy services within this r egion, pinpoint unmet needs and thus establish a model for regional Australia.
Above all, it seeks to support a state-wide push to help people break out of the trap of poor literacy which too often renders them hidden and vulnerable within a community.
Head of School and chief investi- gator Associate Professor Bill Corcoran said adult literacy needs in non-metropolitan areas were of- ten neglected. Programs, when of- fered, tended to be delivered in an
"ad hoc" fashion without proper co- ordination.
He said the study would help pro- vide a broad oversight and establish a well-coordinated training strategy linking QUT and T AFE initiatives.
It
would also embrace CES and SkiiiShare programs tackling lit- eracy needs of the unemployed.
Private literacy consultant Mr Bert Morris has been appointed re- gional project co-ordinator.
His review last year of adult lit- eracy in Queensland, through the Queensland Department of Voca- tional Education, Training and In- dustrial Relations, isolated the par- ticular needs of regional Queens- land.
Mr Morris said the current study was therefore vital in establishing an effective network and infrastruc- ture co-ordinating adult literacy programs in the target region.
"Nobody knows whether these programs meet the overall needs of
the region and no-one knows whether there are other needs which are still unmet," he said.
Mr Morris said a growing empha- sis on "workplace" literacy would drive adult literacy programs and training in the future.
"Without advanced literacy skills, or at least well-developed skills, work- ers will naturally find training and retraining more difficult," he said.
" Workplace literacy seeks to iden- tify specific tasks which might be causing problems for workers and to address them as part of workplace training.
" With award restructuring, peo- ple are volunteering for training in order to get ahead.
" This is providing a stimulus for many people to volunteer for help when they would never have done before."
The data-gathering project will also inform training course devel- opment in the future.
In particular, it will assist further
development of the new QUTGraduate Diploma in Curriculum (Adult Literacy) to
beintroduced next year.
Lecturer in language and literacy education Ms Geraldine Castleton, who has led course development for the new graduate diploma, will act as academic course co-ordinator for
training programs developedthrough the study.
Other researchers are Academic Staff Development Unit director As- sociate Professor Phil Candy and senior lecturer in language and lit- eracy Mr Jack Talty.
The study also involves three part- time literacy teachers who will work in the region.
According to government statis- tics, 10 percent of the Australian adult population face "substantial difficulties" in literacy.
• Continued page 5
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GlAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHYPage 4 INSIDE OUT, ·22 September- 5 October 1992
Industrial design award winner Colin Robertson. (Photo:. Suzanne Burow)
Dental laser wins design award
Two QUT design students have won honours in Australian design awards.
Colin Robertson, oflndooroopilly, who completed a Graduate Diploma in Industrial Design last year, has taken out a student award in the 1991 Australian Design Awards.
Colin also has a Bachelor of Ap- plied Science (Industrial Design) from QUT.
Andrew Volp, of Fairfield, who also completed a graduate diploma last year, won the 1991 Queensland chapter award of the Design Institute of Australia. The honour carries $250 in prize money. Both received their awards at the annual Industrial De- sign Exhibition at the Queensland Museum on 14 September.
Colin, who now works in the fabri- cation division ofEGR Plastics at Salisc bury, won recognition for an argon fluo- ride excimer laser.
It optically drills hard tissue by a process called photoablution. The proc- ess is non-thermal and therefore does not damage the delicate structure of tooth pulp.
Colin's design details the integration of argon fluoride excimer laser tech- nology into a dental workstation. To achieve a practical solution he worked with his father, who is a dentist, the sales manager for a dental instrument di stributor, MrTerry Day, and Univer- sity of Queensland dentistry lecturer, Dr Laurie Walsh.
Andrew Volp's award-winni ng de-
sign wasthe Dimas, a system that of-
fers a new approach to maintaining blood glucose levels in diabetics.
Insulin dependent diabetes requires lifelong treatment involving regular glucose monitoring and insulin in- jections, combined with controlled diet and exercise, to successfully maintain blood glucose levels.
The Dimas system promises to be more effective than existing treat- ments, with improved glycaemic con- trol and a much simplified user re- gime.
This is achieved through the appli- cation of two technologies - near- infrared quantitative chemical analy- sis for glucose testing and ionto- phoretic insulin delivery -currently under developme nt but not commer- cially availabl e.
New Student profile system explained
This year, Year 12 students throughout Queensland face new criteria for entry to tertiary edu- cation. The much-maligned TE score has been dumped and stu- dents are now required to comply with new entry standards drawn up after recommendations by Pro- fessor Nancy Viviani in her 1990 Review of Tertiary Entrance in
Queensland.
·How knowledgeable are educa- tors about the new system? Inside QUT has a sneaking suspicion there is still some confusion in the corridors of academe.
Tertiary Entrance Procedures Authority writer Barton Green presents a timely update.
For the first time, Year 12 stu- dents will receive a Student Educa-
tion Profile which comprises of twodocuments- a Senior Certificate for use by potential employers and a Tertiary Entrance Statement for use by universities.
"Uni versities are look ing for high quality students suitable for their courses, " said Barry Cameron, di- rector of Queensland
'sTerti ary En- trance Proced ures Authority.
"They also want to ensure they meet
theirequity targets, drawing from particular groups of appli cants, and student profiles will help them
make appropriate decisions.
"This 'horses for courses' notion means that a broader range of infor- mation is required and the SEP al- lows institutions to use the informa- tion they need to make their selec- tions," Mr Cameron said.
The SEP's Tertiary Entrance Statement is made up of two compo- nents:
I) A student's overall position (OP) in the State when ranked with other tertiary-eligible students. The OP will be represented by a band number between One (highest) and 25 (lowest).
2) A student's field position (FP) ranked from Band One (highest) to Band
I0 (lowest) in up to five fields:
Field A - extended written expres- sion, Field B - short, written com- munication, Fi eld C - basic nu- meracy, Field D
-solving complex problems, and Field E
-practical performance.
The number of fields for which a student is eligible will depend on the
subjects studied in Years
IIand 1 2.
When Professor Viviani prese nted her Review of Tertiary Ent rance
inQueensland
in July1 990,
shepro- posed that help should be given to universities to facilitate good selec- tion decisions.
This co uld be achieved
"by pro-viding them with as much informa- tion as we can, so that they can use all or some of it in a variety of com - binations relating to their selection criteria.
"We can do this by putting all the reliable information we have on a student profile within a portfolio con- taining other information about the student."
For many general courses at uni- versities the OP result, which ranks students broadly, will be the princi- pal measure used to select students.
But for high-demand courses with strictly limited quotas, the OP band- ing may not be sufficient to choose among students and this is where FPs can be used.
" Field Positions tell us how well a student did, relative to others, in that set of subjects that emphasises these particular skill s," wrote Professor Viv iani
.For example, if more inform ation was needed to
select between stu-dents of equal OP rank who had ap- plied for an engineeri ng course, re-
sults inFi elds C and D would be the relevant indicators.
"Field Positions need to differen-
tiate among students who are other-
wise of eq ual calibre when meas ured
on overall achi evement (OP)," Pro-
fessor Viviani wrote.
N ·ew·- st · a · rt ·~ f ·o ,r-~·· m :·i ·g ~ rant:s B . us. iR ess
'donation
When the Iron Curtain came down and the map of eastern
Eu-rope disintegrated into a blur, many highly qualified professionals from the region
embarkedon a trek to the West to make a new start.
Some of them have travelled to Australia, armed with impeccable cre- dentials in a variety of fields, but a limited knowledge about Australian business and social life.
Two of the new wave of Russian migrants to this country, Serge Smolin, an electrical and electronics engineer, and Marina Karyagina, a computer sys- tems engineer, are being helped through the integration process at the Migrant Professionals Program at
QUT's Kelvin Grove campus.
They are among a group of quali- fied professionals from many overseas countries attending the program, which is funded by the Department of Immi- gration.
sup : po,rts PASS
Brisbane-based investment com- pany Y eoh Tiong Yong has handed over $2000 to QUT Foundation to
supportthe university's Peer As-
sisted Study Scheme.Managing director
MrPeter Yeoh,
aprominent businessman in Brisbane's
Chinesecommunity, agreed to support the project
afteran approach made by School of Life Science lecturer Mr Henry Loh.
The PASS program was used in a number of schools as part of a pilot Total Quality
Management studywhich
endedlast
semester. Itin-
volves selectedfinal-year
students working aspaid
study-grouplead-
ers helping first-year students.Course coordinators, Ms Marion Whittaker and Mrs Libi Burman, have helped more than 800 people from 35 different countries through the pro- gram since it was put in place in 1985.
"They already have the skills - we help them with their language and aculturation," says Mrs Burman.
(Left to right) Mrs Libi Burman, Marina Karyagina and Serge Smolin. (Photo: Suzanne Burow)
The
$2000donation will go to- wards furthering the program and paying
study leaders in undergradu-ate nursing.
The program offers two courses - English For Overseas Trained Profes- sionals (designed to prepare new ar- rivals for the workforce) and English for Academic Purposes (for people who wish to undertake tertiary study in Australia). Both are offered as full- time and pait-time programs.
Migrants need to have a competent level of English before they are ac- cepted into the program. Course teach- ers polish basic language skills, intro- duce them to "Australian" English and train them in interview skills and workplace etiquette. Their introduc- tion to the Australian way of life even includes a visit to the pub.
The most crucial component in the
18-week course is a work experience placement. Some placements have been so successful they have led to full-time employment.
But the transition is not always easy.
Some migrants arrive traumatised by violence in their homelands, others need time to make the smooth adjust- ment to life in a new culture.
Serge, his wife lrene, a dentist and their son, Anton, J I, come from Krasnodar in a region near the Black Sea in southern Russia, between Ukraine and Georgia. He applied to migrate to Australia two years ago and arrived seven months ago.
"There were lots of reasons for com- ing. I was in a dead-end job, I had no hope for promotion."
Why Australia?
"I did my research in the library and Australia seemed like the best place for me, although many Russian engi- neers go to America - 40 percent of the engineers in California's 'silicon valley' are Russian."
Marina's story is similar. She lived in Moscow for 10 years before mi- grating here with her husband, Eugen, and four-year-old daugllter, Marilr,'"six months ago. Both are graduates of Moscow's Engineering and Physics Institute.
"It was my husband's idea to mi- grate. He is a physicist and he felt he couldn't go any further in Russia.
"Soviet science is being ruined by a lack of funds. Almost all research has stopped."
It took Marina's family two years
Adult literacy regional review
• From page 3
The often
well-disguisedphenomenon gained prominence in 1990 with the Interna- tional Year of Literacy and has since attracted
substantial government funding.Education and Training in its Nbvem ber 1991 report,
Come in Cinderella, which identified the important butunarticulated contribution the adult and
community education sector was making to the delivery of adult literacy programsin Australia.
before they were accepted as migrants.
The process is demanding and expen- sive, particularly when most Russians face a constant battle against exorbi- tant prices and food shortages.
"It is even worse than what you see on television here. It is very hard for Australians to understand because you don't have the same system," says Marina. · - f t _ _
Serge says it is difficult to make a new start in a foreign country and hard to leave parents and friends.
"But it's much better than just sur- viving."
The move has paid off for Marina's husband Eugen-he has been awarded a scholarship to QUT to study for his PhD and starts work at the School of Physics in October.
Mr Loh said the PASS program produced dramatic results in the anatomy for nurses subject taught by the School of Life Science.
At the end of last semester, fail- ure rates had dropped to 13.6 per- cent from 22.8 percent the previous year.
He said the scheme not only gave first-year
students valuablepeer
sii'iij)ort,but heiped improved study skills and provided a feedback loopto lecturing staff.
Seminars on peer tutoring will be held today
(22September) at Kel- vin Grove
campusin the C Block
specialfunctions room between 1- 2pm and at Gardens Point campus on 24 September in the library, room V771, 1-2.30pm.
FLASH YOUR STUDENT C ARD O N FRIDA Y & SATU R D AY NIGHTS
In that year, $18 million was spent on adult literacy initiatives by the Federal Govern- ment. This year that expenditure has swelled to $39.4 million.
Atotal of $52.6 million is
earmarked for 1993-1994.Funding for the QUT project was an- nounced
earlierthis month by the Depart- ment of Employment, Education and Train- ing (DEET).
FOR $ 2.00 A D MISSION BEFORE 10.00P.M.
Mr Morris said the Commonwealth often
tended to throw money at problems like adult literacy without researching in the first place
and identifying needs."So often
the money
is spentindiscrimi- nately and
a great amount of it is wasted,"Mr Morris said.
However, the growing recognition of adult literacy needs in Australia is reflected in the 1991 Federal Government White Paper,
The Australian Language and Literacy Policy,which points to the economic and
social heart-ache surrounding the problem.
It
is also highlighted by the Senate Standing Committee on Employment,
Up, up and away
Queensland's first aerospace avionics degree students are set for some stomach-churning thrills on a field trip to Caloundra Airport on 3 October.
As well as taking a normal flight in a light aircraft they will also experience the highs and lows of helicopter flight, including the art of low-hovering and auto-rotate during a forced landing demonstration.
"And some of them have never even been in a plane before," said Mr Des Robinson, who is coordinating the trip for 26 first-year students.
The group will travel by bus to Caloundra Airport for the study tour. Their schedule will also include some classroom work and a trip to the local air museum.
Mr Robinson, a former commercial airline pilot and senior technologist with the aerospace avionics course, said he had organised the Caloundra trip with the assistance of the man- ager of Chopper Line, Mr Warren Mciver and the manager of Sky Fox Aviation, Mr Graham Day.
The national reserve fund allocation is
for
a12-month period starting this month.
By
the end of this year,the project team
aims tohave mapped existing
servicesand commenced a regional needs assessment.
In addition, training programs for
volun- teer tutors will have begun along with a pro- fessional development course forT AFE adultliteracy teachers and SkiiiShare literacy co- ordinators in the area. Extra adult literacy programs will also start.
Ultimately, a regional committee will be
formed to continue monitoring community lit- eracy needs and forwarding that informationback to QUT and TAFE sectors.
George St closure
This year's Colonial George Street Festival on Saturday, 3 October, will affect traffic to and from QUT, Gardens Point.
From midnight on Friday, 2 October until midnight on Saturday, 3 October, the Margaret Street exit from the Riverside Expressway will be closed.
Inbound access to QUT will be along Queens Wharf Road from North Quay (near the Victoria Bridge), into William Street and Alice Street, before turning into Gardens Point Road.
Vehicles exiting from the Gardens Point cam- pus will be via Gardens Point Road and right into Margaret Street.
QUT's Security and Traffic administration of- ficer, Mr Bernie Daniels, said he did not expect major parking problems on the day.
Festival stallholders and entertainP-rs will use the main QUT carpark but Mr Daniels said uni- versity staff and students should have no diffi- culty finding spaces for their cars.
He said paying areas would also be set aside for vehicles, either in the short-term carpark or in one of the campus' underground spaces.
123 Eagle Street
OFFER VALID UNTIL DEC 1ST 1992
Page 5 INSIDE OUT, 22 September- 5 October 1992
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ANZAAS conference
Genetic test 'Soft' science can · for diseaSes · play economic role
I. S
·, n ··QW
· .faSter c1phnes had an Important but as yet .~umanitiesa~dsocialsciencedis- !ll . l
.~-11
._ ; ,
A
testing procedure whichcan fast-track the early detection of ge- netic diseases, including some can- cers, was outlined by QUT molecu- lar biologist Dr Terry Walsh at the conference.
Dr Walsh presented a paper which highlighted the work conducted by QUT's molecular biotechnology team.
They have developed a simple and rapid test wnich will allow scientists to
"read" genetic messages and determine whether a person has the potential to pass on a genetic disease to their children.
A campaign to market the procedure world-wide is under way and the tech- nology is now undergoing patent ex- amination in the United States.
The process, known as the Geneco technology, was developed in the Cen- tre for Molecular Biotechnology un- der the research direction of Associ- ate Professor James Dale, together with Dr Peter Timms and Dr Terry Walsh.
The model to evaluate the disease
.
was cystic fibrosis, Australia's most common life-threatening disease.
Genetic diseases, sometimes called hereditary diseases, are caused by an irregularity of the genetic structure of chromosomes.
The process works on the basis of first recognising the DNA "instruc- tions" stored in the hucl.ei of human body cells. The' instructions, written in the chemical DNA, are called "genes".
Using the Geneco technology scien- tists can easily learn whether the in- structions have been altered or mutated.
New developments in the team's re- search are the development of a multi- ple-testing component and non-radio- active measurement.
Multiple-testing has the potential for large-scale screening of people with potential genetic disorders. The devel- opment of an enzyme-driven detection system instead of radioactive labels makes the technology safer for use by laboratory personnel and more adapt- able to automation.
-In brief- Food purity
Problems associated in creating a
"quality culture" in Australian or- ganisations were highlighted by sen- ior research fellow Dr Mark Shadur.
Attached to the Key Centre in Strategic Management, Dr Shadur said establishing a culture which genuinely embraced quality was "ex- ceedingly difficult".
He said quality systems and pro- cedures needed to be extensive and . highly-formalised to provide clear guidelines to employees as to what constituted quaJity s
.tandards.The experience of a Japanese- owned car assembly plant in Aus- tralia was used as an example.
0 0 0
QUT telecommunications expert Dr Roy Lundin outlined strate,gies for na- tional development in distance educa- tion through telelearning, teleworking and telecottages.
A senior lecturer in the School of Curriculum and Professional Studies, Dr Lundin presented his paper with Mr Tom Cass, a strategic planner for the Australian and Overseas Telecom- munications Commission.
They highlighted the achievements and future directions of open distance educa- tion in Australia and internationally.
Dr Lundin said telecommunications had provided a modern avenue for the relatively small population of Australia to overcome the tyranny of distance and to look at extending overseas.
0 0 0
Urban studies expert
Professor Bob Stimson discussed the question of how Australian cities can meet the challenges of change in an increas- ingly competitive world.
Professor Stimson, who holds the Brisbane City Council Chair in Urban Studies, said processes of internation- alisation in production, capital flows, trade and tourism had profoundly changed the functions, performance and potential fortune of cities.
He identified a clear shift in the pattern of population distribution and investment in economic activi- ties from the traditionally dominant Sydney-Melbourne axis to a Sydney- Brisbane-Cairns east coast axis.
Professor Stimson said these changes presented challenges of a magnitude not fully appreciated by policy makers.
''They appear to be largely beyond
the ability ofthe public sector to both understand and control," he said.
is . p . ut under microscope
Can our food be too pure? QUT's Public Health Professor Conor Reilly says it can and argued the case at the conference.
Professor Reilly said essential trace elements vital to good nutrition could be lost if the public continued to de- mand absolute food purity.
· "There is no' need to have an exces- sive fear of all non-food components of our diet Indeed, some are valuable additions to• our irttake," he said.
Despite advances in nutrition and health care, iron deficiency remained an intractable problem in Australia and other advanced technolqgical countries, particularly in women and children, he said.
Reduction in red meat consumption and the rise of vegetarianism were ma- jor contributing factors, he said.
"It is a sad reflection on our ability to manage our nutrition correctly that major causes of this persistence are two supposedly health-promoting lifestyle changes," he said.
Professor Reilly said meat was one of the best sources of the most readily absorbed form of the nutrient, haeme iron. Vegetables, which contain far lower concentrations, provided a much less-easily absorbed inorganic form of iron.
However, studies had shown that many people, particularly in devel- oping countries, had sufficient iron in their diet, not from the food they ate, but from the traditional cast iron cooking pots they used in food preparation.
Professor Reilly also warned that this form of intake could lead to trace ele- ment overload.
Chromium from stainless steel cook- ing pots was another good example of beneficial non-food intake, he said.
"Chromium is a metal which is prob- ably more often associated in our minds with the polished strips and fixtures of chrome steel on car bodies than with health," he said.
"However, it is also an essential nu- trient necessary for carbohydrate me- tabolism and especially insulin func- tion in the human body.
"If we do not get enough of the metal in our diet, a deficiency can develop which could lead to impaired glucose tolerance and even heart disease."
INStD~ OUT,?.? §eptember-5 October 1992
·~ .'!.. ~ :v. ~ • ..-~
unrecognised role to play in Aus- traiia's economic recovery, QUT's Pro- Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Millicent Poole said in a keynote address to delegates.
Professor Poole said that although.
links had developed between science and technology, the role of the hu- manities/social science culture had been overlooked.
She argued that some national research
sch~emeshad deliberately excluded humanities and social science on the grounds that the areas were unrelated to contem- porary national concerns and not aligned closely enough with eco- nomic imperatives.
"Given the contribution to r
e-search by
social scientistsin areas of national
concernsuch as social justice, public policy, AIDS research and occupational health and safety, this assertion has little basis in fact,"
Professor Poole said.
"Scientists need to take greater
account of socialissues if techno-
logica~change
is
t~lead-toeconorriic
success.
"Social sciences, too often re- garded as peripheral to technologi- cal change, are in fact integral to its successful implication."
Professor Poole based her paper on the controversial work of C.P.
Snow who outlined the two oppos-
ing research cultures in 1959.
Professor PooleHe argued that: "This polarisa-
tion is sheer loss to us all. To us as people and to our society.lt is at the same time, practical and intellectual and creative loss".
1Professor Poole said Snow's claims were still pertinent today and urged that the so-called "hard"
and "soft" sciences interact more closely.
"Together they must affirm uni- versities' connectedness to national social, economic and cultural sys- tems but at the same time they must safe-guard the integrity of universities as systems of high-or-
der research, scholarship andtraining.
"To achieve this, social and natu-
N o th ing before ' Big Ba ng - sayS Davies
One of the special events at the ANZAAS Congress was the public lecture given at QPAC by the re- nowned theoretical physicist, Profes- sor Paul Davies, of the University of Adelaide.
Professor Davies said he called his lecture What Happened Before the Big Bang because he wants people to stop asking the question.
"It is a meaningless question that
doesn't really have an answer because it is now possible to bring the origin of the universe within the scope of science."
Professor Davies said in the past the instant of creation could be put within the scope of science or regarded as a supernatural event outside of science.
But during the last I 0 years, it had been possible to provide a scientific explanation for how the universe came to exist from nothing.
"Its origin is not the explosion of a lump of something in a pre-existing void. It is the origin of space and time and in particular it is the origin of time.
"This is possible because quantum physics, the branch of physics which applies to the micro world of atoms and molecules, allows for events to occur that have no prior cause.
"We see these events in the labora- tory and if we enlarge the theory to include the universe as a whole it's possible to conceive of space-time as an entity coming into existence en- tirely spontaneously, without any prior cause.
"We now have this image of a uni-
Professor Paul Davies
verse which is not of infinite duration, which came into being about 15 bil- lion years ago in this big explosion but in a manner which is entirely law- like and has no singular or supernatu- ral first moment attached to it."
Professor Davies said the "peg" for his lecture was the discovery five months ago of ripples in the cosmic background heat radiation. The rip- ples were discovered by the COBE satellite (cosmic background explorer) which was looking at the heat radia- tion left over from the big bang.
"When you study the detai Is of these COBE ripples you find it exactly fits into this picture of a universe originat- ing in a spontaneous quantum event, providing good evidence that these basic ideas are correct"
