Q u e e n s l a n d U n i v e r s i t y o f T e c h n o l o g y N e w s p a p e r ■ I s s u e 164 ■ July 22-August 4 , 1 9 9 7
QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3864 2111 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778
Fiji a ‘two-way’
experience for Katherine
Page 4
More about Course and Careers Day
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Soccer star juggles sport, work and study
Page 12
QUT has confirmed that a senior research scientist failed to comply with required levels of containment in relation to the handling of a virus known as Japanese encephalitis (JEV) and has been suspended for six months, severely reprimanded and demoted.
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson said the researcher had admitted that he’d used a virus which should only have been used in a Level 3 containment area in a Level 2 containment area. (QUT does have laboratories built to Level 3 specifications.)
When researchers apply to undertake tests on animals, they are required to agree in writing to observe university, National Health and Medical Research Council and other State and Commonwealth standards. In this case, such research was required to be conducted in a Level 3 containment area.
While access to the Level 2 containment area in question was by security card only, the researcher’s actions could have exposed those people who entered this facility to the virus.
For a person to have been directly exposed to the virus, a mosquito would
Scientist ‘breached safety standards’
have had to enter the area, draw up serum containing the virus from an infected research animal (mice) and then bite a human (probably several times to actually infect the individual).
When advised of the potential exposure in the facility, QUT stopped all relevant research in the facility and moved immediately to identify and screen all people who had been in the area. This included the principal researchers, postgraduate students, maintenance personnel and a small number of external contractors.
The likelihood of infection of any of these people is extremely remote. The limited number of people involved are being tested.
While mice were injected with JEV in the Level 2 facility, the mice were only handled in “biohazard hoods” (a contained receptacle for handling infectious materials), they were housed in mini-isolator cages which would not allow the virus to get in or out and live animals were only directly handled by the researcher (who had been vaccinated against JEV).
The university ordered the Level 2 area to be immediately fumigated, all non-essential research animals
h a v e b e e n d e s t r o y e d a n d t h e university is awaiting Australian Quarantine Inspection Service advice on whether essential research animals also present in the facility (but not c o n n e c t e d t o t h e r e s e a r c h i n question) will need to be destroyed.
In the meantime, those animals are being housed in isolation.
As soon as the presence of JEV in the Level 2 facility was confirmed by the researcher, his research project was suspended, the researcher was immediately banned from the facility and he was suspended from the university.
Professor Gibson said the researcher’s admission of his actions in this instance constituted “serious misconduct” under the university’s academic industrial award and that he had moved to severely reprimand the researcher, demote him from senior lecturer to lecturer, suspend him for six months without pay and exclude him from the research facility where the incident took place for a period of 12 months.
“We expect our senior staff, especially, to demonstrate leadership to students and other staff at all times,”
Professor Gibson said.
“My decision (to demote the researcher) was influenced by the facts that the researcher had conceded what had happened and the subsequent public airing of the matter has already been a severe professional penalty to him.”
Professor Gibson said he had also convened an expert panel to review the incident and make recommendations to QUT about any necessity to alter current notification or other procedures. Findings from the review will be forwarded to the Health Minister.
The panel will include a nominee of the Queensland Health Minister as well as representatives of the Division of Workplace Health and Safety, the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, the National Tertiary Education Union, the School of Life Sciences, the Division of Research and Advancement and the workplace health and safety manager.
Professor Gibson welcomed the suggestion by Queensland Health Minister Mike Horan that research practices at all laboratories in the State be reviewed.
When 450 new international students attended orientation at QUT last week, two messages they received had a sad but extremely potent warning — be careful on Australian roads and please ensure your visitors are aware of the dangerous combination of unfamiliar roads and long distances.
The students heard how two recent but separate accidents, one in Queensland and the other in Victoria, have irrevocably altered the lives of five QUT students from Singapore over the break between semesters one and two.
In the first accident, three first- year female students from the Faculty of Business were travelling north to Airlie Beach on Sunday, June 29, for a holiday with five friends from Singapore.
They were around 250km north of Brisbane at 6.45am when their Toyota Tarago collided head-on with a car-transporter semi-trailer near the tiny township of Tiaro, just north of Maryborough, killing a passenger in their van, Jeffrey Soh, 26.
The remaining seven passengers received varying degrees of injury, the worst being student Grace (Lay Hoon) Tan, Mr Soh’s girlfriend, who
Accidents shatter students’
holidays
Continued Page 3 Thousands of visitors to QUT’s
Gardens Point campus made the most of Course and Careers Day last Sunday (July 20).
The action was centred around the recently redeveloped Main Drive and Kidney Lawn as well as nearby lecture theatres.
Staff and students from all eight faculties and many support areas were on hand to answer questions and give career advice to prospective students. A number of employers, organisations and professional bodies were also represented.
Crowds were entertained by roving musicians and street theatre, were invited to “pan for gold” with the School of Natural Resource Sciences and were treated
Zelda and Co. capture colourful spirit
to a lively debate — on whether higher education should be free — by the Queensland Schools’ Debating Team.
Visitors to QUT’s Course and Careers Day had a chance to win a mobile phone, a portable stereo or a stack of CDs in the Faculty of Business’
competition which was sponsored by the Securities Institute and the Queensland Government. First prize was taken out by Peta Partridge of Stuartholme School.
And, thanks to deft performances by students from the Academy of the Arts, QUT’s colourful cartoon characters Zelda and Hard-to-Get were brought to life and raised more than a few laughs with their zany antics.
The characters — who feature in QUT’s current animated television and print advertisements aimed to recruit new students — included gorgeous gypsy girl, Zelda, who dispensed the odd word of wisdom as well as wrapped sweets, while Hard-to-Get was chased along Main Drive by a bevy of “potential employers”.
Pictured below, players toured the city in an open-top Saab to drum up business for Course and Careers Day.
While the Academy’s 11-piece jazz- fusion band The Soya Kings brightened up the lunch break, two local bands, The Toothfaeries and Mall Fantasy, helped bring the day to a close with a Kidney Lawn concert.
— Noel Gentner
From the Inside… by David Hawke
A word from the Vice-Chancellor
by Dr Cherrell Hirst, Chancellor Recent discriminatory remarks — made in the broader community and directed at Asian and indigenous Australians —
␣ have been borne of ignorance and are un-Australian.
While QUT supports the notions of free speech and people’s rights to express a view, the university’s governing council has noted that, in debates which take place in a university environment, minority views are almost always balanced by majority views.
Regrettably, this is not necessarily the case in the Australian media.
What educated Australians — who are quite racially tolerant — think on this issue is the norm and that, by definition, is not particularly newsworthy. However, because minority racial views are so extraordinary, they are “news” and, hence, predominate in the news media.
In such an environment, what happens is that — if you’re going to make news as a racially tolerant Australian — you’ve really got to become divisive and say nasty things about those who are saying even nastier things about people who are hurt by racially intolerant remarks.
Therefore, Council has endorsed the following Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee (AVCC) resolution which, on May 22, condemned the politics of divisiveness and racial prejudice while supporting reconciliation with indigenous Australians: “The AVCC strongly condemns
the politics of divisiveness, and looks upon with grave concern and distaste, the rise within the community of racially discriminatory views directed against Aboriginal and Asian Australians, and other racial and cultural groups generally. The AVCC regards these views as morally repugnant and contrary to Australia’s traditions of equality of opportunity, social inclusiveness and multiculturalism.”
Here at QUT, we are supporting and encouraging the reconciliation process.
Indeed, the Council — on the
A special message to all students and staff
Pictured above: QUT Chancellor Dr Cherrell Hirst, right, welcomes former Wimbledon tennis champ Evonne Cawley, whose daughter
studies at QUT
A QUT science lecturer has acted as mediator in the first conference c a l l e d u n d e r t h e S t a t e ’ s Environmental Protection Act.
The Queensland Government’s Department of Environment called on Dr Neville Bofinger to act as mediator in a conference between industry and the public.
(Under the Act, proclaimed in 1994, the Department can call a c o n f e r e n c e b e t w e e n i n t e r e s t e d parties in order to assist in bringing
Bofinger breaks new ground as first EPA mediator
A new women’s task group set up by the Catholic Church includes three members who have links to QUT.
Head of the School of Social Science, Professor Mary Sheehan, will chair the task group which has a mandate to
“examine and promote the participation
QUT trio named on task group
of women in all levels of archdiocesan administration and Church life”.
Also in the group are QUT Council member Julie-Anne Schafer and recent organisational communication graduate Jan McGrath who is the archdiocesan media officer.
A dozen overseas-qualified professionals were put through their paces in a recent round of mock job interviews which formed part of QUT’s Open-Door Program.
QUT’s Continuing Professional Education Unit gained DEETYA funding through the Indooroopilly CES to run the program, which consisted of a two-week training course and a four- week placement in a work environment related to their profession.
CPE Employment Programs co- ordinator Laurel Bright said the program equipped participants with the skills to identify employment opportunities, practise job-seeking strategies, learn about Australian workplaces, network and acquire confidence in charting an employment path.
She said the program attracted representatives from high-profile
organisations including GEC Alsthom, Morgan & Banks, The VM Training Group, Nicholas Mandikos & Associates as well as State and Federal Government departments.
CPE project manager Libi Burman said the Open-Door Program was one of many employment-focused courses provided by CPE.
“I feel that programs relating to employment services will play an increasingly important role,” Ms Burman said.
“And, due to our record of success in reintegrating professionals into employment, I feel QUT is in a strong position to continue as an active player in this field.”
For more information about the program, contact Ms Burman on (07) 3864 3291.
— Tony Wilson
CPE program opens new doors
“Graduate Salaries increase for the first time since 1988” — this was a welcomed and hopefully motivational outcome of a report released last week entitled Graduate Starting Salaries, 1996.
Released by the Graduate Careers Council of Australia, the report showed the 1996 median annual starting salary for bachelor-degree graduates aged less than 25 and in their first full-time employment was
$28,000, the first rise in graduate salaries, compared to average weekly earnings, since 1988.
Even though the salary rise is of itself encouraging news, this median salary is really only modest remuneration for students who have spent three to six years studying at university.
With only a marginal improvement in the relative earning power of graduates, compared to non-graduates, it again raises the issue of whether the nation truly values its best and brightest.
It also calls into question the country’s supposed transformation into an economy centred around intelligence-based industries.
Importantly, it also brings some reality to the discussion about the capacity of graduates to repay debts associated with their study.
The report also examined the placement of graduates into the workforce, and showed that QUT is still providing the largest number of Australian bachelor-degree graduates to the full-time workforce.
Of QUT’s graduates available for full-time employment (about 80 per cent of our graduating students) almost 86 per cent were successful, compared to 80.6 per cent nationally.
It is most gratifying to see that those 2,770 graduates were in full-time employment within a few months of completing their courses. Of those people, around two-thirds are aged under 25.
While there is room for us to do even better, for some years now, we’ve maintained our position as Australia’s number one university for bachelor- degree graduates joining the workforce.
Reports such as these illustrate that employers really do consider QUT a university for the real world.
On a much more serious note, over the semester break there have been at least two serious road accidents involving international students and visitors from their home country. Of course our thoughts are with these students, their families and their friends.
Even though we warn new international students about road safety at several points, accidents like these can occur when driving long distances on unfamiliar roads of varying conditions.
While holidays are an obvious time for such exploration, I would remind all students and staff — particularly those from overseas — that Australian road conditions vary significantly and that great care and planning before setting off can make the difference between a wonderful holiday or serious injury.
Please take extra care out there.
— Professor Dennis Gibson
Survey brings good news
university’s behalf — sent a message of acknowledgment and support to the recent Reconciliation Conference.
Indigenous people form one of our largest social equity groups and — through the Oodgeroo Unit (QUT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit) — we continue to progress towards ensuring equity at this institution. So, as we head into the second half of the academic year, I encourage all students and staff to cherish and nurture the culturally diverse environment in which we study and work.
down a decision on an issue. Once the Department calls a conference it takes no other role, and it is up to the mediator to ensure the meeting achieves results which will assist the decision process.)
At the conference on July 10, Dr Bofinger acted as mediator on an issue between a company — which defended its draft Environment Management Program concerning prevention of possible emission of odour — and local residents, who
pressed their complaints about the effect of the emissions on their quality of life.
The conference concluded with the company agreeing to rectify matters.
Dr Bofinger, a lecturer in the School of Natural Resource Sciences, said he believed his appointment showed that the Department had recognised the expertise of QUT in air-quality issues.
— Noel Gentner
was air-lifted to the Royal Brisbane Hospital where she remains, recovering from serious head injuries.
It is expected that Ms Tan will return to Singapore when she is well enough to travel.
The two other QUT students involved were Edna (Li Ling) Tan, who sustained head injuries and was released from the Maryborough hospital a few days later, and Adeline (Yoke Lan) Chong who was treated and released from the hospital on the day of the accident.
Their friends Allan Foo, Ricki Chang and Sean Lim were also treated for minor injuries, as were the driver and two passengers from the semi- trailer.
Meanwhile, around 3am on Friday, July 11, two first-year Faculty of Information Technology students were among five people hurt when their rented Toyota Tarago slid on the gravel shoulder of a country road 300km north-east of Melbourne and rolled.
Eric (Chee Keong) Ting and Raphael (Chee Koon) Lim had been on their way from Sydney to the Great Ocean Road area west of Melbourne with three friends from Singapore when the single- vehicle accident occurred on Salt Creek Hill near the north-east Victorian township of Bairnsdale.
Mr Ting, the driver, was flown to the Austin Spinal Hospital in Melbourne where he remains with serious spinal and head injuries.
Doctors who operated on Mr Ting have confirmed he sustained one broken vertebra and another was signficantly damaged.
Doctors have said Mr Ting would be paralysed from his injuries but the extent of his paralysis was not yet known.
Mr Lim — who sustained a serious hip fracture when he was thrown from the back seat of the van where he was resting — was transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne where he has been operated on and is reported to be recovering from his injuries.
The pair were with three friends from Singapore, two women — who were transferred to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, one with head injuries and the other with a fractured leg — and a male friend who was treated for minor cuts and released the day of the accident.
In the wake of both accidents, families have flown out from Singapore to be with their injured children and their friends.
And, in Singapore, concerned friends of Mr Ting have set up a special home page on the Internet — at http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~hppls3/
— to report daily on his condition.
From Page 1 by Noel Gentner
Faced with having to raise childcare fees
—␣ in some cases around 100 per cent — childcare staff at QUT are concerned about the impact this year’s Federal Budget will have on parents using the centres, particularly those who are students.
As a result of the May Budget, the Federal Government removed an operational subsidy for community-based childcare centres (worth about $1,000 a child per year), causing the fees to increase, across the board, at QUT’s three centres run by the Student Guild from July 1.
The director of QUT’s Gardens Point Childcare Centre, Glyn Bevan, said fees for casual, daily and weekly childcare had risen sharply, affecting parents who were university students, staff and community members.
“A typical example is that a family that earlier this year received no childcare assistance would have then been charged
$130 a week (per child) and is now being charged $160,” Mr Bevan said.
Rising fees had impacted harder on some groups, he said, particularly student parents, who had to pay almost double what they were paying last semester.
“Where a full-time student parent was previously paying $34 a week, the student is now looking at $64 a week, so there has been a heavy burden placed on students.”
Mr Bevan said the fallout from the fee hike had been immediate, with some
Fee hike hits student parents
. . . Accidents shatter students’ holidays
parents reducing the number of days their children come to the centre.
“We are finding that, when people make inquiries now about fees and you tell them what they are, there is obvious disappointment,” Mr Bevan said.
“The most worrying point is that students are basically being priced out of the use of the centres which are partly funded by the Student Guild.
“Student parents are really feeling it and they are the ones suffering the most from these decisions.”
And Mr Bevan warned of the potential for a “snowballing effect”, where student parents could not afford childcare and, therefore, could not continue their studies.
“It’s already starting to happen,” he said.
“Some mothers are dropping days to see if they can afford to study or they are dropping subjects and extending their courses.
“They are trying to cling on to their study and still have their childcare, because they need their childcare to study and that’s the unfortunate position for student parents.
“There are people saying ‘it’s just the world in which we live, it’s a user-pays system’, but that’s very easily said when you are not in their position.”
He said students with young children were most affected, having been priced out of childcare.
Mr Bevan also said he doubted whether the Family Services Minister, Judi Moylan, was aware of the impact the withdrawal of the operational subsidy
would have on community centres and their clients.
Private-sector centres had never received the subsidy which was removed by the Federal Government from community-based childcare centres, he said, but he believed private centres had lobbied the Government hard to be put on a “level playing field”.
“What it basically means is that private centres are saying ‘we’re struggling to make ends meet, so why shouldn’t everyone be struggling’ which, I think, is very narrow- minded,” Mr Bevan said.
“The (community-based) centres have now lost that (subsidy) income and there are now only two real sources available —
␣ directly from parents or from fund raising
— and fund raising is very limited.
“Centres could look at staffing, but the situation here is that we have a very good staff-child ratio providing good quality care.”
Mr Bevan said the rising cost of childcare had already impacted on the number of student parents putting their names on waiting lists for places.
“They are saying they’re not bothering to put their names down because they just can’t afford it,” he said.
Ultimately, Mr Bevan said, single parents — who are berated by a portion of the general public — would be the ones hardest hit by the fee hikes.
“Here they are, they want to study, they can get into a course, but they can’t afford the childcare,” Mr Bevan said.
by Tony Wilson
Recent changes to Queensland’s sentencing laws will dramatically increase the cost of the State’s prison system, according to QUT School of Economics and Finance lecturer Glyn Edwards.
“The new legislation will not only put more offenders into prison for a longer period, but it will also ensure that all prisoners remain behind bars for a greater proportion of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole,” Mr Edwards said.
“Assuming that at least some offenders will receive the maximum sentence, the increases in costs will be very significant.
Prison costs set to spiral dramatically – economist
QUT’s International Student Services provided assistance to the students, their families and their injured friends following both accidents.
ISS spokesperson Peter Gatbonton said that, while students from Singapore and Malaysia were given clear warnings about driving long distances on Australia’s varying road systems before they even left their home countries — and again at orientation
— the attractions of coming to a foreign country were there to be enjoyed and explored safely if students and their friends took particular care.
“It is especially important that the safety messages we give our international students, indeed all our students, is relayed to their visitors as well,” Mr Gatbonton said.
“And, in the wake of what has happened recently, the messages are pretty clear.
“Don’t head off before dawn if at all possible. If you must, take a break at daybreak so that you’re not driving into the bright morning sunshine.
“Especially try to drive on unfamiliar or country roads only during the daytime and don’t underestimate the time needed to travel significant distances.
“When travelling long distances, plan sufficient breaks.
“Take your time to see the sights and, where you can, stay overnight rather than drive on after a big day.”
“For example, the maximum penalty for stealing will increase from three years to five at an increased cost of $83,000 per person.
“Damage to an educational institution will increase from two to seven years, the cost rising by $153,000, while graffiti will cost us an extra $100,000 per offender.”
Mr Edwards questioned the usefulness of prisons as a deterrent to crime or a means of rehabilitation.
“Research has shown that the deterrence effect of prison, particularly within some categories of crime, is weak at best,” Mr Edwards said.
“Evidence of this can be seen in Victoria, where a low rate of imprisonment is not accompanied by a higher rate of crime than in other Australian states.
“As for the rehabilitative function, we can conclude from the persistently high rates of re-offence and readmission nationwide, particularly among younger age groups, that prisons are, by and large, failing,” he said.
“However, what can be said of prison is that it is an effective means of taking retribution.”
Mr Edwards said Queenslanders needed to ask themselves just how much
they were prepared to pay for punishment.
“The high cost of imprisonment does prompt some of us to question its efficacy as a form of punishment or as a means of tackling a social problem,” he said.
“If, for example, we realise that the people we are punishing are largely young, poorly educated, unemployed and come from economically disadvantaged groups, including large numbers of Aborigines, we may be tempted to say ‘there must be a better way’.
“A better way may be to allocate this expenditure to crime prevention.
“Alternatively, we might devote this money to creating a more ‘level playing field’.
“This would include employment programs, education programs and the creation of much-needed social capital in poorer communities.
“In other words, we should be thinking more seriously about narrowing the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ and thereby reducing the temptation for one section of society to inflict harm on another.”
Earlier this year, Mr Edwards completed research looking at factors which influence the success or failure of prisoners on parole.
What life is all about at university, particularly at QUT, will be beamed into rural and isolated school rooms scattered throughout the State later this month.
QUT will be hosting a live, interactive satellite broadcast for students in Years 10 to12 on July 30.
To be directed at more than 60 schools as far north as Weipa, west to Mt Isa and Goondiwindi in the south, Going to University is part of an Equity Initiatives Grant Project aimed at increasing the participation rate at QUT of students from rural and isolated areas.
Statistics gathered by QUT’s Equity Section show people from these areas are under-represented in the university’s student population.
Headed by QUT Counselling Service’s Robert Taylor, the Going to University project team also includes Q-Step Project officer Derek Bland, film and television lecturer Ian Stocks, senior Education Faculty lecturer Dr Roy Lundin and Admission’s schools recruitment officer Carlee Hay.
Mr Taylor said the project was expected to raise awareness among rural and isolated people that tertiary education was an option.
QUT reaches out to remote schools
He said it would address some common misconceptions and fears about university and city life, while portraying higher education as achievable.
“The interactive satellite television broadcast will feature a panel of QUT students from rural areas describing their experiences and answering questions,” Mr Taylor said. “Video footage shot and edited by QUT’s School of Media and Journalism students — showing a student’s perspective of university life —␣ will also be included in the broadcast.”
Mr Taylor said that, during the broadcast, school groups could contact the panel in the Brisbane studio by fax or on a free 1800 telephone line to ask questions or discuss issues.
The program, which will run for one hour, will be broadcast from the studios of CITEC Corporate Television at South Brisbane from Noon on Wednesday, July 30.
For further information about the broadcast, contact Robert Taylor on [email protected] or (07) 3864 2382.
— Noel Gentner
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Respiratory program ‘a winner’
While most of their colleagues are heading back to class this week for the beginning of second semester, 10 School of Media and Journalism students are in the thick of a defence forces exercise in Townsville.
Following the signing of a formal agreement last week, a group of 10 QUT student reporters will participate in a challenging Australian defence force exercise, Silicon Safari 1997, which begins in Townsville next week.
The third-year QUT journalism students flew to Townsville last Friday
with the Brisbane-based Deployable Joint Force Headquarters and established a media operations centre for the exercise.
Students are role-playing members of an accredited media pool which is covering the military operations being practised by the defence forces.
They will conduct media interviews with key personnel and produce newspaper reports and television news bulletins throughout the activity.
Major Robert Barnes from the Deployable Joint Force Headquarters
QUT’s Registrar Ken Baumber and chief-of-staff of the Deployable Joint Forces Headquarters’ Colonel Mike O’Brien with School of Media and Journalism’s Cratis Hippocrates and Leo Bowman at the signing
of a memorandum of understanding documenting student involvement in Silicon Safari ’97
said the deployment of the media pool would help military commanders learn to understand the requirements and impact of media operations, while at the same time giving the QUT students a unique opportunity to practise media skills in a challenging environment.
QUT journalism lecturer Leo Bowman said the exercise would be a valuable learning experience for the students, putting them under the pressure of reporting and producing news as it breaks to the demands of strict deadlines.
Students to report on joint exercise
by Noel Gentner
A practicuum placement in Fiji earlier this year for QUT student Katherine Cullerton has resulted in benefits for the island nation and the nutrition and dietetics student.
Ms Cullerton spent three weeks in Fiji last April as part of her Graduate Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics course. (A former QUT student, Ms Jane Patterson, who works for UNICEF in Fiji was M s C u l l e r t o n ’ s p l a c e m e n t supervisor.)
“ W o r k i n g i n F i j i w a s a wonderful experience because it allowed me to see the difficulties a Third-World country faces and h o w i t b e s t c o p e s w i t h i t s problems,” Ms Cullerton said.
Fiji a ‘two-way’ experience for nutrition and dietetics student
“I spent a week in the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva on clinical work and two weeks with the Fijian Ministry of Health and UNICEF,” Ms Cullerton said.
“My Ministry of Health work i n v o l v e d v i s i t i n g r u r a l communities, diabetic clinics and I a l s o w o r k e d w i t h U N I C E F reviewing data on breast-feeding which I collated into a report on P a c i f i c I s l a n d b r e a s t - f e e d i n g practices.”
Ms Cullerton admitted her first i m p r e s s i o n s w e r e “ a b i t o f a shock” and said she believed she had looked at “too many tourist brochures” before she went to Fiji.
“It’s like that in the tourist places but, in reality, that’s not
what Fiji is like. It’s actually a very poor country,” Ms Cullerton said.
She said a typical example of the problems was reflected in the kitchen area of Suva’s major hospital.
“ W h e n I a r r i v e d , h y g i e n e practices at the hospital were very poor, with no ventilation in the kitchen and water droplets falling down from a mouldy ceiling onto t h e f l o o r a n d t h e f o o d , ” M s Cullerton said.
She said she was fortunate to discuss the situation with some politically influential people and, since her return, had received a report from Fiji that an inquiry had been conducted and that funds w o u l d b e d i r e c t e d t o t h e redevelopment of the hospital’s kitchen.
Ms Cullerton said she saw patients in the hospital with extreme levels of under- and over-nutrition, malnutrition in children and some adults ( p a r t i c u l a r l y I n d i a n s ) a n d o v e r n u t r i t i o n ( m a i n l y i n Fijians).
She said similar nutrition problems were evident in the re mote towns and vil l ages w h e n s h e w a s d o i n g w o r k with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF.
Armed with her graduate diploma, Ms Cullerton said s h e h o p e d t o e x p a n d h e r c l i n i c a l w o r k s k i l l s a n d concentrate on nutrition in ethnic communities.
She said her ultimate goal would be to work with an organisation such as UNICEF o r t h e W o r l d H e a l t h Organisation.
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With concerns mounting across Australia that rural nurses, on average, are growing older, student nurses at QUT are being actively encouraged to experience a rural posting before they graduate.
QUT’s School of Nursing this year placed dozens of final-year student nurses in a wide variety of non-metropolitan clinical placements.
Head of the School of Nursing, Professor Michael Clinton, said that, of the 360 final- year nursing students at QUT this year, around 80 had elected to have a rural, interstate or overseas hospital placement.
Rural program co-ordinator and School of Nursing lecturer Sheree Smith said the greatest proportion of students who had chosen a non-metropolitan placement would work in rural and regional centres around Queensland.
“This year these centres include Augathella, Biloela, Bundaberg, Cairns, Charleville, Chinchilla, Goondiwindi, Gympie, Longreach, Mackay, Maryborough, Miles, Moura, Mt Isa, Murgon, Nambour, Proserpine, Roma, St George, Toowoomba, Weipa and Yeppoon as well as the Royal Flying Doctor
Final-year nurses head outback for first-hand
taste of rural nursing
Service’s retrieval centre in Brisbane,” Ms Smith said.
She said interstate postings would see QUT student nurses in Alice Springs (NT), Kalgoorlie (WA), Manly (Sydney, NSW), Murwillumbah (NSW), North-West Regional (Tas), the Peter MacCallum Institute of Cancer Care (Melbourne, Vic), Prince of Wales/Prince Henry group (Sydney, NSW), Renmark (SA), Royal North Shore (Sydney, NSW), St George (Kogarah, NSW) and Swan Hill (Vic).
Ms Smith said the School of Nursing also regularly arranged overseas placements in the South Pacific nations of New Zealand, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Solomons as well as occasional placements in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
“Our student nurses spend up to four weeks — as part of their final-year practicuum — in their rural, interstate or overseas placements, with their remaining two rotations usually in acute wards of metropolitan hospitals,” she explained.
Ms Smith said those students who chose a rural, interstate or overseas clinical placement would fund their own travel.
— Trina McLellan Getting ready for a stint in the bush . . . QUT nursing student Rebecca Greenway is packed and ready to head home to Auguthella
In the first program of its kind in Australia, a dozen clinical nurses recently completed their initial intensive respiratory nursing workshop at QUT.
Thoracic nurse consultant and School of Nursing lecturer Sheree Smith is the co- ordinator of the Respiratory Nursing Program.
Ms Smith said the program was divided into two, 12-credit-point continuing professional education subjects, each run as intensive, five-day workshops with a two- month break in between.
“Our first subject, Fundamentals of Respiratory Nursing, ran last month and we’re pleased that we had a 100 per cent uptake from the initial group of 12 for our second subject, Advanced Practice in Respiratory Nursing,” Ms Smith.
Ms Smith said the subjects were designed for registered nurses and — drawing on multi- mode lifelong learning techniques —␣ featured
small group work, lectures from invited experts and interactive learning experiences.
“Our guest lecturers included specialist respiratory nurses, respiratory scientists and medical specialists,” Ms Smith explained.
“And those students who have participated in the first subject are all registered nurses who have a range of interests, including the establishment of a pulmonary rehabilitation program, paediatric respiratory nursing and acute adult care.”
“We’ve found students have come not only from the metropolitan areas of Brisbane but from the Gold Coast, Toowoomba and as far away as Maryborough because they could attend over a concentrated period,”
Ms Smith said. “Long-term, we have plans to develop a distance education version of the program which will incorporate multi- media teaching methods.”
— Trina McLellan Sheree Smith goes through a masking procedure with
students of Fundamentals of Respiratory Nursing
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Letters to the Editor
News in Brief
Gibson to chair ATN
VICE-CHANCELLORS of the five universities in the Australian Technology Network (ATN) have agreed to expand co-operation and to formalise arrangements for meetings of the group, electing QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson as the inaugural convenor of the group.
The ATN comprises universities which share a common tradition of technological and vocational education and a commitment to broadening access to higher education.
QUT is a member of ATN, as are Curtin University of Technology, RMIT University, the University of South Australia and the University of Technology, Sydney.
Ethics specialist to speak
CALIFORNIAN ethicist Professor Terry Cooper will speak on Building An Ethical Community and whether there are too many voices and too many values in the present-day debate at QUT’s Annual Ethics and Public Life Lecture on Wednesday July 30.
Professor Cooper, a Professor of Public Administration at the University of Southern California and a world authority on public-sector ethics, will also look at how the public sector can contribute to cementing an ethical community.
The lecture will be held in the Conference Room, 5th floor Parliamentary Annexe, opposite the corner of William and Alice Streets (parking is available under the freeway off Alice Street) from 7.30pm.
Admission is free.
A discussion period will follow the lecture. Enquiries should be directed to Margaret Miles — email [email protected] — or call (07) 3864 4563.
RAN students graduate
THE Royal Australian Navy held the first round of graduation ceremonies for officers graduating from QUT’s Graduate Certificate in Management last month.
A total of 28 officers graduated from the four-subject certificate course which was conducted at the Navy’s on-site training base at HMAS Penguin, Sydney.
QUT’s Faculty of Business won a tender to provide postgraduate management instruction to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from four other Australian universities in May, 1996.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson, who attended the inaugural graduation ceremony, told graduating students that QUT hoped to make further arrangements with the navy to give officers a chance to upgrade their certificate to a QUT Graduate Diploma or MBA.
“QUT’s involvement in this program is recognition of the common issues which cut across management in the business and military environments, issues such as human resource management, financial management and communication,” Professor Gibson said.
“The university has a tradition of adapting theoretical knowledge to the practical needs of students in professional and vocational courses: I hope that today’s (RAN) graduates will realise the benefits of their training in the careers that lie ahead of them.”
Parliamentary delegation visits
THE South African Portfolio Committee on Education made its final official Australian visit at QUT recently as part of a short study tour being undertaken by a delegation of nine members of the South African Parliament.
Headed by the ANC’s Dr B.E. (Blade) Nzimande and including eight other MPs — Professor S.S.
Rapinga, Mrs M. Mokgalong, Mr T.D. Lee, Mr A.M. Mpontshane, Mr L. Louw, Mr L.M. Green, Mr T. Kulati and Mr M.J. Ellis — the delegation met the Vice-Chancellor and other senior managers during their July 2 visit.
The delegation is examining higher education models and gaining an insight into how the relationship between the State and higher education institutions is managed in Australia. Experience gained from this exercise will help the committee to make informed inputs into the White Paper on Education which is being compiled in South Africa.
Specific areas of interest for the committee included:
areas of vision and principles, system (growth and structure), governance, funding, transformation, policy implementation and legislation.
Chinese educators tour QUT
ALSO during the break, Chinese education television personnel and high school principals visited QUT.
The group was welcomed by QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson and met with the Faculty of Education’s head of Early Childhood Education Professor Gerald Ashby and the head of the university’s bridging programs, Dr Alan Savige, before touring and filming at the Gardens Point campus.
Zonta scholarship announced
ZONTA’s Brisbane East club has awarded film and television masters student Debra Beattie with its annual QUT Postgraduate Scholarship.
The former president of the Women in Film and Television in Queensland and vice-president of
QDox, Ms Beattie is completing a full-length documentary as part of her study and the $1,000 scholarship will assist Ms Beattie to commute from Sydney where she is now living.
President of Zonta’s Brisbane East club, QUT School of Management’s Denise Conroy, said the club was accepting nominations for next year’s women’s postgraduate scholarship up until July 25.
For further details, contact Ms Conroy on [email protected] or call (07) 3864 2746.
Caelli on ‘Influential 50’
INFORMATION Age has included QUT’s head of the School of Data Communications, Professor Bill Caelli, on its annual list of “Influential 50”
players in the information technology and telecommunications industry.
The magazine described Professor Caelli as the immediate past-president of the International Federation of Information Processing’s TCII (Computer Security) and one of the nation’s foremost experts on data security and cryptography.
ATSI health scholarships
RESEARCHERS working in areas related to the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will be eligible for scholarships to be provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
To provide funding for research training or training leading to research, the scholarships are to be offered to Australian citizens or permanent residents.
Applicants must enrol at an accredited university for a diploma, a certificate, an undergraduate degree or a postgraduate research degree which will enable the applicant to pursue research relevant to indigenous health.
For further details of the scholarship program, contact Stephan Gapsa in QUT’s Office of Research on [email protected] or (07) 3864 2932.
Interior introspective
INTERIOR design: what is it? Who does it?
And what is good interior design? The identity of interior design is unclear in the minds of the public, consultants and many of those who do it
— interior designers, architects, interior architects, designers, interior decorators and others.
QUT’s School of Architecture, Interior and Industrial Design will hold a forum to address
Continued Page 11
I AM an international student from Fiji. It was the first time I got out of my country. I reached Brisbane only a day before the first semester commenced in February this year.
Coming from a distinct educational and cultural background, first few days were shocking and full of bewilderment but soon I found that QUT was able to fulfil almost all my requirements. Its services are just superb and the staff are very friendly.
I congratulate the university for such high standards. It’s certainly a university for the real world.
Hitesh Kumar, Sunnybank
I REFER to your article titled “Budget Holds ‘Few Surprises’” (Inside QUT May 20-July 2 1997).
I would like to correct some misleading comments in relation to the higher education funding arrangements mentioned in your report on the 1997 Budget.
operating grant funding of $210 million in 1999.
As you mention, the Federal Government has set aside $26 million in the 1997 Budget as part of a restructuring package aimed at assisting institutions facilitate structural adjustment in the light of increased competition and deregulation for the sector from 1998.
Institutions, in applying for this special assistance, will be expected to demonstrate that their proposal would enhance the effectiveness of higher education provision, would achieve long-term efficiencies and be beyond their capacity to fund from their own resources.
Amanda Vanstone, Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Parliament House, Canberra
Uni lives up to its slogan
What the
Minister says
The article claims that “overall expenditure in the sector will fall from
$4.58 billion in the current financial year . . . to around $3.74 billion by 2000-01”. This is not the case.
The figures which you quoted relate only to one aspect of higher education expenditure and does not include Commonwealth payments provided to higher education institutions as part of their operating grants to cover the loans provided to students through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme.
The facts are that total Commonwealth funding to universities in 1997 is $5.48 billion, up by $33 million from 1996 levels.
The figure for 2000 is $5.29 billion, not the $3.74 billion quoted in your report.
As for the operating grants of universities, the Budget shows a decline of just $46 million between 1996 and 2000 — less than 1 per cent over four years.
The level of public funding for each full time equivalent student place at university, expressed in constant prices, has been maintained above the 1996 figure of $11,100 per equivalent full time student place.
In the case of QUT, there will be some 2,575 more undergraduate places in 1999 than in 1996, and total
Letters to the Editor should be brief (ideally less than 200 words), signed and dated, with contact details for verification. The Editor reserves the right to decline letters and will do so if they are not in good taste or do not contain fair comment. Letters should be sent to:
The Editor, Inside QUT GPO Box 2434 BRISBANE QLD 4001
these issues on Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26.
To be held at the Queensland Art Gallery at Southbank and the Queensland Cultural Centre Auditorium, the Arts Queensland-sponsored forum has attracted several high-profile speakers, including London’s John Pawson, Marc Newson from Paris, Sue Carr (of CARR DCMI), Peter Geyer of Geyer Design, Harry Stephens from the University of New South Wales, Lindsay Clare of Clare Design and Davina Jackson of Architecture Australia.
For further details about the forum, contact Dianne Smith on [email protected] or (07) 3864 2538.
by Noel Gentner
Industrial design exhibits from former QUT students received favourable reaction at a recent international showing in Japan.
QUT exhibits formed part of the exhibition Design: The Next Generation organised by the International Design Centre in Nagoya, Japan.
The 12-day exhibition — which included displays from Taiwan, Korea, Slovakia, Ireland and Germany — attracted more than 7,000 visitors.
Nine exhibits were products developed during the past three years by students completing their Graduate Diploma in Industrial Design at QUT.
Associate Professor in Industrial Design Vesna Popovic said QUT had the distinction of being the only Australian organisation to be invited to participate in the exhibition.
Professor Popovic said the aim of the exhibition was to promote young professionals as the next generation of designers for the 21st century.
“QUT’s industrial design course is seen internationally, and nationally, as one of the best, with its emphasis on intensive research to product design,”
Professor Popovic said.
Professor Popovic said Australia could successfully compete on the international market.
“Design education can be of a high standard regardless of the size and economic might of a country,” Professor Popovic said.
Industrial design exhibitors wow Japanese
She said student education in industrial design at QUT was directed t o w a r d s s m a l l b u s i n e s s w h i c h provided generic skills and knowledge that could help students enter any working environment in Australia or overseas.
Professor Popovic said a number of graduates now had successful careers in the United Kingdom, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and the United States as well as in Australia.
The exhibits shown in Nagoya were:
• Multiple User Net Terminal, by Leon McIntyre and Paul Sheehy;
• “Firecom”, a Fire-Fighter’s Communication Device, by Scott Sampson;
• A Portable Oxygen Therapy Unit by Tiina Roppola;
• “Cubit TMS”, a Tubular Measuring System, by James Stuart;
• “Cerviscan”, a Cervical Cancer Detection Unit, by Eva Marie Bury;
• A Convertible Passenger Seat for Toddlers by Emilia Mok;
• An Interactive Game by Philippe Vipathkun and Geoff Poon;
• Sonar-Underwater Location Device by Daniel Thomas; and
• A Magnetic Resonance Imaging System by Tracy Furwood.
Professor Popovic said the exhibits were now back in Brisbane and that some of the work would be on show a t Q U T ’ s I n d u s t r i a l D e s i g n Exhibition which is planned for December.
Three of the nine industrial design exhibits by QUT postgraduate students which featured in Design: The Next Generation in Nagoya, Japan, recently TOP:
“Interactive Game”
was designed by Philippe Vipathkun and Geoff Poon BOTTOM LEFT:
“Tubular Measuring System”
was designed by James Stuart BOTTOM RIGHT:
“Underwater Location Device”
by Daniel Thomas
Design on show
Artists demonstrate their wares
FOR the Academy of the Arts, the break between semesters was hardly quiet.
Hot dance all-rounder John O’Connell spent a week loosening up dance students like never before.
Best known as film director Baz Luhrmann’s dance sequence genius, Mr O’Connell has worked
on Romeo and Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. In 1993, he won the Australian Dance Award for Contribution to the Art of Dance and he recently stamped his distinctive style on the Australian Fashion Week, producing for Collette Dinnegan. He has worked as a choreographer, performer, producer and writer for film, television, theatre and opera.
His message to students was that simply being a good dancer was now not enough:
“You really have to have skills in singing and acting, and that’s not just for musical theatre, it’s for contemporary dance companies too.”
MEANWHILE, Academy of the Arts artist- in-residence Paul Brown, freshly returned from judging the 1997 Computer Animation Festival Awards at the Disney Studios in Los Angeles, looked cool, calm and collected when his Alien Spaces exhibition opened at the eMedia Festival.
The Gilchrist Galleries-based exhibition at New Farm ran from May 23 to June 22.
AND visual arts graduate Catherine Bell drew on mediaeval torture and sexual identity for a disturbing and challenging exhibition that featured, among other things, sculptures resembling amputated limbs from a battalion of mediaeval knights, at Bellas Gallery in Fortitude Valley last month.
Ms Bell stuffed and decorated dozens of eels, draped the two-room gallery in thick black nets and showed a video of herself sitting, swimming and crying and in a tub of writhing live eels as part of the exhibition sponsored by Arts Queensland. Ms Bell has since moved to London where she hopes to continue her studies.
LEFT: Computer art specialist Paul Brown with a piece from his Alien Spaces exhibition.
BELOW: Musical comedy theatre genius John O’Connell puts QUT dance students at ease as he teases out of them exhuberant performances during his week-long visit.
RIGHT: Visual arts graduate Catherine Bell with her challenging eels exhibition.
by Tony Wilson
Studying at QUT has become a genuine family affair for Built Environment &
Engineering administration officer Coral Hyde and her three daughters.
When Ms Hyde’s youngest daughter Tiffany Stubbs enrolled in an Arts’ degree at QUT this year, it completed a quartet which now includes sisters Rebecca and Amelia Stubbs.
Rebecca is also completing an Arts’ degree, with a major in film and television, while Amelia is undertaking a Law degree part- time, having just polished off a Bachelor of Business in industrial relations.
Add to this mix Ms Hyde’s own ongoing BA in Australian studies, and you have a recipe for domestic bedlam.
“It is incredibly difficult with us all studying in the one household — we all scream and yell at one another,” Ms Hyde joked.
“It always seems everybody needs the computer at the same time and there are ongoing battles over whose assignment is due first or whatever.
“Two of the girls live with me, while Amelia lives in a flat, but she doesn’t have a computer of her own so she comes over to use ours.”
Ms Hyde said some of the skills learned in her position as administration officer in the Built Environment and Engineering faculty have been put to good use at home.
This family finds plenty of reasons to be at QUT
“I have had to draw up a roster for computer usage and the girls have to make a booking.”
While there had been conflicts to sort out, Ms Hyde said having a household of resident proof readers and critics was certainly an advantage.
Ms Hyde said she came to work at QUT almost 10 years ago following the break-up of her marriage. She has raised the girls on her own ever since.
She said her economic circumstances were the impetus to start her own degree.
“I wanted to get on and get a higher position — I needed the money to raise the girls and I thought the best way to do that was to further my education,” she said.
She said both Rebecca and Amelia had started their degrees at the University of Queensland but switched to QUT to take advantage of the university’s practical approach.
“Amelia did two years of an Arts degree at UQ, with a major in government, and that’s when she decided she wanted to change to industrial relations at QUT,” Ms Hyde said.
“Rebecca was also doing a BA part-time at UQ because she had a full-time job at Westpac. She did that for a year and then quit so she could do the BA in film and television full-time at QUT. The film and TV course is very highly recognised.”
Tiffany, Coral, Rebecca and Amelia . . . a family with strong university connections Rebecca Stubbs took on the role of
producer in an 11-member team of QUT film and TV students whose short film Stomping Ground recently garnered an impressive six nominations in the Queensland Young Filmmakers Awards.
Ms Hyde said she thought it had been positive for her youngest daughter Tiffany to grow up in a household of scholars.
“I think it certainly had an influence on Tiffany seeing her mum and sisters
all studying although it probably placed a bit of pressure on her,” she said.
“In the end though it was what she wanted to do.”
The Queensland Schools’ Debating Team had its final public “work out” at QUT last Sunday (July 20) as part of the university’s Course and Careers Day at the Gardens Point campus. The team debated the topic That higher education should be free.
Pictured above, the team includes Devaang Kevat from Brisbane Grammar, Erin O’Brien (Somerville House), Kateena O’Gorman (All Hallows), and Simon Quinn (St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace).
Queensland Debating Union’s spokesperson, Blake O’Brien, said the debate at QUT played an important role for the team so that it would have a public debate under its belt before the national finals in Perth at the end of the month.
Debate team tackles hot topic More sights at Course and Careers Day 1997
Mr O’Brien said the debate at QUT was
“a great learning experience”.
He said the final four members of the State team had been chosen during elimination rounds over the past four months. Two reserves had also been named, James Fisher (Brisbane Grammar) and Luke Lawton (Marist Brothers Ashgrove).
“During the National Championship in Perth, the Queensland team will debate various topics including medical ethics, China and the media,” he said.
Mr O’Brien said the team had been advised their opening debate area would be concerned with Pauline Hanson, while the grand final topic was associated with Aboriginal affairs.
— Noel Gentner Bringing QUT’s zany cartoon character Zelda to life proved lots of fun for Academy of the Arts
student Emma Tonkin . . . ‘I see big things for you, dahlink’ was her favourite line
A steady stream of visitors enjoyed the colourful carnival atmosphere of QUT’s 1997 Course and Careers Day on Main Drive
