Queensland University of Technology Newspaper Issue No 151
August 13-26, 1996
INSIDE…
by Andrea Hammond
Australian tertiary students were graduating without the ability to apply mathematics to real-life situations, QUT maths lecturer Ruth Hubbard said this week.
Rapidly-increasing student numbers and outdated teaching strategies had combined to produce graduates who were experts in rote learning, but not in thinking for themselves, she said.
Ms Hubbard said her theory and teaching strategies created a stir when she delivered them at the Australian Engineering Mathematics Conference at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in mid-July.
She said a similar buzz of excitement went around the room when she delivered a paper on an identical theme at the Statistics Education Workshop at UTS a week earlier.
Feedback from industry, Government, fellow academics – and her own observations at QUT where she has taught for 21 years – indicated that standard teaching tasks given to students needed reconsideration, she said.
“The kind of exercises we set the students do positively reinforce a surface learning approach – that means rote learning without much understanding,” she said.
“Lecturers universally claim to be committed to teaching students to understand the subject matter, but the exercises that they give students to practice actually encourages them to rote learn, because that’s the easiest way of answering the questions, getting them right and getting good marks in the exam.
“What we are not doing – where we are letting our students down – is that we
Rote learning no use in real world – mathematician
are not training them to understand so that they can make use of this learning later.
“If you just memorise the routines or the procedures that you think are going to be in the exam without understanding them, what happens afterwards is you can’t actually make use of that knowledge, except in that exam.
“It’s useful (procedure) for passing the exam – it’s painless and many students can succeed in getting good marks doing it that way – but it’s often not even useful for studying the next subject that follows on. And it’s certainly not useful for applying maths in any situation whatsoever.”
Ms Hubbard has written two manuals on improving maths teaching: 53 Interesting Ways to Teach Mathematics, published in 1993, and 53 Ways to Ask Questions in Maths and Statistics, published in 1995.
Her research work was assisted by QUT Small Teaching and Learning grants in 1993 and in 1994.
Many maths academics were already responding to widely-recognised deficiencies in present teaching methods and were setting projects designed to help students apply their knowledge, Ms Hubbard said.
“My way is to still set them practice exercises, which is the conventional thing to do, but to make up exercises that require students to think, not just to reproduce memorised procedures,” she said.
“It is (also) important to avoid using a replica of a question you have set as an exercise in an exam, but (rather) questions that require the student to think about what they have learned.”
Continued page 2
Dr McGrath calls it a day
• Page 11
Examining seclusion sensitivies
• Page 8
Kelvin Grove wins award for
landscape
• Page 4
Mathematician Ruth Hubbard
by Trina McLellan
With the Federal Government set to drive reform and user-pays principles – including full fees – further into the higher education sector, all eyes will be trained on Canberra next Tuesday (August 20) as the Federal Budget is brought down, confirming the changes to be wrought on the higher education sector.
The sector has been active on several fronts over the past few months in an attempt to minimise the size and impact of funding cuts to universities and other institutions.
However, last Friday, the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, confirmed the key points of the Government’s policy and funding package in a pre-Budget briefing for the higher education sector (see key points at left).
Following the package’s release, QUT Vice-Chancellor Dennis Gibson said that while the Government was professing a 1 per cent cut in operational funding for 1997, the impact would more likely be 6 per cent or even 13 per cent, given the already promised pay rise for sector employees remained unfunded.
“If the sector is to get an unfunded pay rise of 5.6 per cent – given that was what we promised and that 80 per cent of funding is staff costs – it will produce the equivalent of a 4.5 per cent cut in universities’ operating grants,” he said.
“Of course, the unions have claimed a 15 per cent pay rise and the delivery of a rise of that magnitude, unfunded, would equate to a 13 per cent cut to our funding grant next year.”
Over the past few months, in unprecedented scenes of solidarity, university administrators have joined with unions covering students as well as Last Friday, the Minister for
Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, confirmed the key points of the Government’s policy and funding package would be that:
• by 1999, total annual funding for the sector will be $22 million below current levels, with already agreed increases for the coming triennium to fall 1 per cent in 1997, 3 per cent in 1998 and a further 1 per cent in 1999 to achieve this;
• there will be no increase in HECS charges or debt levels for existing HECS debtors or HECS-liable students in their current courses, with deferred-payment, income-contingent, interest-free features retained for current and future students;
• existing and new HECS debts will be repaid faster, with threshold being lowered to $20,701 and the sliding scale of repayments adjusted proportionately;
• from next year, students commencing tertiary courses will face differential Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) payments – three separate tiers, based on the actual cost of the course undertaken and likely future benefits to the individual, with base annual charge to rise from $2,487 to $3,300, with those studying middle- tier disciplines paying $4,700 a year and those in the top tier $5,500;
• a limited number of HECS exemption scholarships – 1,000 a year to a total of 4,000 (or less than 1 per cent of undergraduate places Australia-wide) – will be awarded by universities to students within equity target groups (worth $36 million over three years), with this amount to rise to $16 million a year from 1999;
• funds for targeted research programs will rise $90 million over three years, with premiums over 1996 levels next year of $22.4 million, $50 million in 1998 and $40 million in 1999;
• additional funding for research infrastructure over the three years will
amount to $90 million, with $39.3 million being put aside for additional Australian Postgraduate Awards and Collaborative research grants;
• from 1998, in all courses except medicine, institutions will be allowed to offer fee-paying places to Australian undergraduates once fee-free quotas are full, with the number of fee-paying Australian undergraduates to be limited to 25 per cent of the total enrolment of Australian undergraduates in any course with a minimum fee for additional places to be set at the equivalent to the relevant HECS charge for each course;
• from 1998, universities will be paid the equivalent of the minimum up-front HECS payment for each undergraduate student over-enrolled (above the Commonwealth target on a fee-free basis);
• funds for new campus developments will flow as previously announced for 1997 and 1998, with 1999 allocations to be negotiated;
• an independent agency, the Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development – with a budget of $20 million – is to be created to identify and promote good teaching, learning and staff development;
• existing higher education equity programs will be maintained and $72 million over the next three years will be put towards improved access and outcomes for indigenous students;
• the Higher Education Council and the Australian Research Council will be made independent bodies with an increased range of responsibilities;
• there will be an immediate review of all reporting requirements to ensure necessary accountability requirements are met without unwarranted complexity, frequency or duplication; and
• a major, independent review of higher education policy is to be undertaken which will focus on the future of higher education over a 10-20 year vista, however full details of the review’s terms of reference are not expected to be released until after the Budget.
Sector digests Vanstone’s plan
academic and general staff to criticise a range of options proposed by Senator Vanstone and her Cabinet colleagues.
The sector’s not insubstantial wrath has been unleashed on several occasions in public, culminating in two separate national days of action which saw noisy rallies around the nation, including here in Brisbane.
These coincided with one-day campus- wide strikes, one last Wednesday and the other on May 30.
Police have confirmed that eight people were arrested at last week’s Brisbane rally and will appear in court next week. A further three faced court after the earlier rally in Brisbane.
In Adelaide, Senator Vanstone’s home city, students chained themselves to a desk in her office and stayed put for almost a full working day. Elsewhere, the Prime Minister has been confronted by angry tertiary students and higher education sector employees on a number of occasions.
The reasons for their anger and disillusionment are understandable.
During the run up to this year’s Federal election, the Coalition released a policy document called For all of us which promised to support “high-quality universities for the intellectual, cultural, economic and social benefit of the nation”.
While acknowledging that the higher education sector was an important public resource, the Coalition also admitted the expansion of the sector since 1989 had not been matched by a commensurate increase in per capita funding.
“In fact,” said the policy, “universities have experienced a 13 per cent equivalent, full-time student unit (EFTSU) decline in Commonwealth funding.”
Continued page 6 HECS’ tiered charges, page 3
Photo by Sharyn Rosewarne
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Page 2 INSIDE QUT August 13-26, 1996
Vice-Chancellor’s comment
From the Inside… by David Hawke
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Continued from page 1 Ms Hubbard said that, while there would always be a small core of gifted young mathematicians who did not need any assistance in understanding mathematics and in applying it, increased student numbers meant new teaching strategies were needed.
“Now we’ve got large numbers of students who are not great thinkers when they come to us and who need a lot more help from the university to develop the kind of thinking skills that they are going to need in industry,”
she said.
“When we used to get the cream of the school population coming to university, this wasn’t a problem. All we had to do was inspire them a bit and give them work to do and they were right, they didn’t need anymore.
“Now we are getting a large group of students who really need much more help learning how to learn effectively and they are the students that employers are complaining about.”
Ms Hubbard said she implemented her teaching ideas by running workshops at QUT and other universities throughout Australia.
. . . rote learning no use
■ After 21 years at QUT and its predecessor institution QIT, Ruth Hubbard continues to work out new ways that she believes will deliver excellence in education for some of Queensland’s finest students.
Her long-standing and steely commitment to force students to think about the meaning of complete abstractions rather sits at odds with her nursery-rhyme name and grandmotherly appearance.
She has seen a great many technological changes in her field over the years, but is especially thrilled by the arrival of media- equipped lecture theatres which make it possible to play classical music tapes (to assist the powers of concentration) to her maths and engineering students as they take their seats.
Many Brisbane residents are likely to also remember Ruth Hubbard from her years at the Hubbard Academy – another teaching centre of excellence – which was founded by her husband Godfrey.
by Noel Gentner
A national program for executive development for senior university women will be launched at QUT today (Tuesday, August 13).
According to its director, Ms Ann Morrow, the Australian Technology Network’s Executive Development Program targets women at senior levels in each of five participating universities – Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Victoria, the University of South Australia, University of Technology, Sydney and QUT.
Ms Morrow said the program, which will run until mid-1997, would address both organisational and personal issues in relation to women’s contribution to the leadership of universities.
“In some respects, women in ATN universities have made considerable employment gains,” Ms Morrow said.
“But, they are still under-represented in certain occupational categories and in senior and executive management, where – at levels of HEW 8 and above – men are recruited, appointed and reclassified in greater proportions than women.
“Significant systemic barriers to the career progress of women persist in ATN universities, as in other higher education institutions.
“Nevertheless, general and academic staff need appropriate qualifications and experience if they are to take advantage of opportunities for advancement, as these become available.”
Ms Morrow said the program would offer participants seminars on a range of issues in higher education m a n a g e m e n t a s w e l l a s i n t e r - i n s t i t u t i o n a l e x c h a n g e s a n d p l a c e m e n t s i n l a r g e , h i g h - performance corporations.
She said seminar topics would include: the value that women could
ATN program targets
opportunities for women
add to the productivity of universities;
the costs to institutions when women were under-represented at senior levels; and the ways in which universities could enhance the productive capacity of women.
She said the program also aimed to foster cross-institutional collaboration and tap into the strong links with business and industry to generate unique opportunities for senior executive women.
The five universities successfully collaborated to win funds for the program from the Commonwealth’s National Priority Reserve Funds, Ms Morrow said, and were supplementing these with contributions from each institution.
This new, national program complemented two internal programs – Quality Women In Leadership (QWIL) and Successful Women’s Advancement Program (SWAP) – which QUT was already implementing, Ms Morrow said.
F i n a l - y e a r s t u d e n t s f r o m t h e Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering will once again vie for the BHP Engineering Seminar prize, which will be awarded at the annual Dean’s Seminar at the Parkroyal on September 17.
According to the co-ordinator of the competition, Kate Gomm, the contest is designed to draw out the communication skills of students who must present their innovative concepts to non-technical audiences at the seminar.
“ I t i s t h e s o r t o f s i t u a t i o n graduates are likely to encounter
first woman to win the prize and the first student from the School of Architecture, Interior and Industrial Design to take out the prestigious award.
“Tiina made an outstanding presentation and sold well the benefits of her wheelchair which had been designed to help the disabled,” Ms Gomm said.
T h i s y e a r M s R o p p o l a i s completing a graduate diploma and tutoring in the School of A r c h i t e c t u r e , I n t e r i o r a n d Industrial Design.
— Trina McLellan i n t h e i r f i r s t f e w y e a r s o f
employment,” Ms Gomm said.
M s G o m m s a i d o n e s t u d e n t from each of the faculty’s six s c h o o l s w o u l d b e c h o s e n i n a p r e l i m i n a r y s e m i - f i n a l t o b e decided this month.
“Each of the semi-finalists will receive a $300 prize, a certificate and a coffee table book worth around $100,” Ms Gomm said.
“At the final, the winner will receive an additional cheque for
$300.”
L a s t y e a r , t h e p r i z e w a s awarded to Tiina Roppola, the
Students to vie for BHP prize
Campus quickies
One should be extremely careful when describing mathematical accomplishments, as one Inside QUT reporter found recently.
Said reporter was impressed by the large number of students a maths lecturer had taught over a period of two decades.
When drafting her story, she cheekily alluded to the fact that, should her interviewee decide to put
all her students end-to-end, they would stretch around the world several times.
The strategy had to be rethought, however, when the lecturer’s finely honed mathematical mind couldn’t resist running a quick check.
Sadly, there was just no getting around the fact that the number of students was well short of the 38,000km needed to circle the earth even once!
In the late 1980s, when the D a w k i n s ’ r e f o r m s o f Australian higher education were first announced, I was apprehensive.
Suddenly, it seemed every l e v e l o f g o v e r n m e n t a n d r e g u l a t o r y b o d y i n t h e nation was focused on higher e d u c a t i o n i n s t i t u t i o n s a n d what they should achieve for Australia.
T h e C o m m o n w e a l t h want ed amalgam at ions and p r o f i l e s e x e r c i s e s w h i c h c o u l d c o n t r o l t h e k i n d s o f c o u r s e s , s t u d e n t s a n d institutions we developed.
The State wanted to make s u r e w e p r o v i d e d e d u c a t i o n a l o p p o r t u n i t i e s for the right people in the right places.
W e c o u l d h a v e b e e n regulated to death.
In the event, universities w e r e f a i r l y s u c c e s s f u l i n
A letter from Amanda
d e a l i n g w i t h t h e d e m a n d s Government made of them.
T h e D a w k i n s ’ r e f o r m s helped create a high-quality mass education system which, by and large, meets community needs.
With the release last Friday of the Commonwealth’s higher education statement, we face a new era in higher education.
S e n a t o r V a n s t o n e h a s announced cuts to university operating grants cumulative to 5 per cent over the next three y e a r s ( o v e r e a r l i e r a g r e e d triennium funding), increased HECS for new students, and l e s s r e g u l a t i o n , i n c l u d i n g allowing institutions to take f e e - p a y i n g u n d e r g r a d u a t e students beyond the fee-free quota.
As in the early years of the Dawkins’ reforms, this is not a n e a s y t i m e f o r h i g h e r e d u c a t i o n . F o r t h e s t u d e n t , e d u c a t i o n w i l l c o m e a t a n i n c r e a s e d c o s t b e c a u s e o f higher HECS fees.
F o r t h e i n s t i t u t i o n , Government is saying it’s over to us to create our own future.
I n t h i s n e w e r a , c a r e f u l attention will need to be paid to finding ways of satisfying g e n u i n e s t a f f c l a i m s t o c o m p e t i t i v e s a l a r i e s i n t h e sector.
Our Government grant will be reduced, but we have been given more latitude to control o u r o w n a g e n d a w i t h f e w e r external restraints.
It will be up to individual i n s t i t u t i o n s t o s e i z e e v e r y o p p o r t u n i t y t o p r o v i d e t h e services our students and staff need.
Professor Dennis Gibson
■ New Information Technology rules passed recently by QUT Council spell out in detail expectations for students using university equipment and penalties for misuse.
They state in part: “All users of university IT facilities will only use an IT account for the purpose for which it was allocated.”
Furthermore, they state: “Users of the university’s IT facilities must respect other users’ rights to privacy and freedom from intimidation, harrasment and annoyance.”
Students who breach the IT rules may be:
made liable for damages arising from their conduct; fined by the university; have their access to IT facilities suspended; or reported to appropriate external authorities which may prosecute.
by Tony Wilson
Students who access pornographic material on the Internet in QUT’s computer labs risked drawing accusations of sexual harassment, according to the head of the university’s Equity Section.
Equity co-ordinator Nina Shatifan said there had been a recent increase in complaints about students using university facilities to access objectionable materials.
“With the World Wide Web, when someone accesses a site that is pornographic, it is very much in your face. If you are in a computer lab and someone is accessing a site where there are a lot of graphic images, then that is hard to ignore,” Ms Shatifan said.
“That can be very threatening and comes under our definition of sexual harassment – that is, the display of offensive material in public.”
Ms Shatifan said a number of students had felt sufficiently threatened by the images, and the accompanying offensive behaviour from those accessing them, that they had sought assistance from security staff.
“It’s not acceptable for women to feel that they have to leave because of the unacceptable behaviour of others,” she said.
“A lot of the incidences have been reported at night where there have been a
Porn ‘packs’ risk harassment charges
Ms Shatifan said that, in the first instance, the Equity Section wanted to encourage a policy of self-restraint. If this was not effective, however, then other solutions would have to be found, she said.
“While complaints so far at QUT have been about pornography, the experience of other universities shows problems can also develop with people accessing sites advocating racial violence and vilification and violence against women,” she said.
“We haven’t any reports of any people accessing those at QUT, but we want to be proactive about this issue.”
group of males in a computer lab and a couple of other students engaged in legitimate work.
“There’s nobody else around, it’s dark and people start to feel threatened. It is not only that the sites these students access are offensive, but that they tend to do it in groups.
“They tend to get very loud and, in a group, they can get carried away. It’s about the students being responsible in the labs and considering the consequences of their behaviour on others.”
Ms Shatifan said security staff were often hamstrung by the fact that students could cover their tracks with a quick keystroke.
“Security is empowered to take these complaints seriously and can be assisted if complainants are more assertive and stand their ground,” she said.
“Security has been excellent in regards to this issue. They are very supportive of students who feel threatened.”
In addition to being offensive, she said, the behaviour of students accessing objectionable materials was clearly in violation of the rules governing the use of university equipment.
“Warren Tealby from the Division of Information Services has been instrumental in developing a ‘login’ which outlines this issue,” she said.
“There has also been a poster developed by the Equity Section and visual arts students which will soon be posted in university labs regarding this issue.”
Questions from QUT students and queries from staff have formed the basis for 10 handy Enhancing Teaching and Learning booklets that have been published by the A c a d e m i c S t a f f D e v e l o p m e n t U n i t (ASDU).
ASDU senior lecturer Dr Jill Borthwick, who co-ordinated the project with the School of Professional Studies’ Associate Professor Roy Ballantyne said the response to the recently released booklets from QUT staff had already been “terrific”.
“This project is really a grassroots one.
The booklets have helpful hints, ideas and strategies based on what people at QUT have been doing – things that work and that people are now sharing with everybody else,” she said.
Based on a 1995 survey of staff and students which elicited 250 responses and
Concerns addressed by teaching booklets
identified major areas of concern, the project benefited from a cross-faculty team of 30 staff and three students who worked on strategies to address the issues.
T h e s e r i e s o f b o o k l e t s i n c l u d e : Introduction to the Enhancing Teaching a n d L e a r n i n g S e r i e s ; T e a c h i n g f o r Learning; Promoting Lifelong Learning Skills; Responding to Diversity; Interactive Teaching Strategies; Evaluating the Quality of Teaching; Structuring Course Units;
Assessment; Using Teaching Technologies;
and Resourcing Teaching for Learning.
Dr Borthwick said the project had been supported by a $22,167 QUT Teaching and Learning Development Scheme Large Grant.
The booklets are being distributed by ASDU. For further information, email e.volling@qut.edu.au or call (07) 3864 2697.
– Andrea Hammond by Tony Wilson
Intrepid QUT student and associate lecturer Tina Hancock will brave the perils of the shark tank at Mooloolaba’s Underwater World later this week in her bid to raise money for the Queensland Spastic Welfare League.
An entrant in the Miss Australia Awards, Ms Hancock will spend all day in the tank on Sunday, August 18, surfacing only for meals and to replenish her air supplies.
A keen diver, Ms Hancock said the dive was a good way to overcome her shark phobia while raising money for people with cerebral palsy.
“I have been diving for a number of years and, whenever I saw a shark in the wild, my first instinct was to get out of the water as fast as possible,” she said.
Tina has already been in the tank once for a practice dive and said she was less frightened than she had imagined she would be.
“Once I was in there, it didn’t seem so bad,” she recalled.
“I just kept still, which was not easy to do when the sharks started swimming by close enough to touch me!
“It was fascinating to be in the tank looking out at the people. It gave you an idea what it is like from the fish’s perspective.”
Ms Hancock said her fundraising goals were being supported by Underwater World which, in addition to letting her use the tank, was donating part of the day’s admission takings.
“Scuba World Mooloolaba, which runs shark dives at Underwater World, is also donating $10 from each shark dive on Saturday and Sunday,”
she said.
Swimming with the sharks doesn’t scare Tina
The shark dive will coincide with the Mooloolaba Food Festival to be held at The Wharf Mooloolaba, adjacent to Underwater World, on August 17 and 18.
“The food festival is set to be a big deal,” she said. “There will be food from around the world as well as cooking demonstration and other exhibits.
“Hopefully having the festival going on simultaneously will bring more people in to Underwater World, helping us to raise more money.”
Ms Hancock said she was also planning to have a number of celebrities on hand to swim with Underwater World’s playful seals.
“Swimmer Julie McDonald is a definite starter and she is trying to
shanghai a few of her high-profile sporting buddies as well as other media and entertainment celebrities,”
she said.
Ms Hancock is a QUT graduate with degrees in diagnostic radiography and medical ultrasound.
In addition, she is due to complete a QUT maths degree later this year. She works as a radiographer with
Brisbane’s Mater Hospital and lectures part-time in physics at QUT.
She said the Miss Australia Awards were conducted by the Queensland Spastic Welfare League to raise money to bridge the gap between available Government funding and the actual costs of providing services for people with cerebral palsy.
Intrepid Miss Australia entrant Tina Hancock keeps an eye on a new acquaintance at Mooloolaba’s Underwater World
Dr Jill Borthwick
HECS Charges for new students from 1997 Band Discipline Group HECS (p/a) 1 Arts, Humanities; Social studies/ $3,300
Behavioural Science; Visual/
Performing Arts; Education; Nursing
2 Mathematics, computing; $4,700
other Health sciences; Agriculture, Renewable Resources;
Built Environment/Architecture;
Sciences; Engineering, Processing;
Administration, Business, Economics
3 Law, Justice, Legal studies; $5,500 Medicine, Medical Science; Dentistry,
Dental Services; Veterinary Science
96151X1
96151SR2
Page 4 INSIDE QUT August 13-26, 1996 Over the past 25 years, more
than 1,500 Education students from QUT have experienced practical teaching in classes at Brisbane State High School.
With the school celebrating its 7 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y , Q U T ’ s Professional Experience Unit
by Andrea Hammond
A new Q-Step program has 16 young QUT student “mentors” ready to help new students cope with the academic and personal challenges presented by university life.
The new Q-Step program – which began at QUT this semester – gives support to students from low socio- economic backgrounds and helps them fully integrate into the university’s community.
Co-ordinator of the program Susan Hopkins said the overall Q-Step program demonstrated the univeristy’s on-going commitment to social justice and, in particular, supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“This program focuses not just on the academic side of life at QUT, but also the qualitative side,” she said.
“The scheme emerges from a base of empathy and goodwill, as students who have ‘been there’ pass on advice, knowledge and encouragement to peers from similar backgrounds.
“Benefits from the new scheme flow both ways, as new students receive support to make the transition to university life smoother, while their mentors will have a chance to add to their teaching skills.
“For many students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the first year of university can be especially daunting.
“Q-Step mentors provide a friendly face and will share advice and help lay the foundations for success in tertiary study.
“The program ensures disadvantaged students are fully supported in their course and is part of QUT’s overall plan for equity and social justice.”
A Faculty of Education equity grant has been awarded to support the Q-Step peer mentoring scheme.
For more information, contact Susan Hopkins, School of Cultural and Policy Studies, Kelvin Grove campus on (07) 3864 5962.
With refurbishment work starting on the George Street entrance to QUT’s Gardens Point campus last week, pedestrians are now using a temporary entrance over the next few months that takes them into the campus proper behind A Block, between A and D Blocks.
The temporary relocation of the entrance is expected to last until work on the campus entrance is completed, according to Campus Registrar Paul Abernethy.
“People coming here from the City during the daytime might prefer to use one of the Botanic Gardens entrances while this work is being done,” Mr Abernethy said.
Mr Abernethy said the onset of the works at the George Street entrance also marked the permanent closure of Main Drive to vehicular traffic as well as new arrangements for deliveries and the limitation of parking in certain areas of the Gardens Point campus.
“All vehicular traffic coming to the campus will now enter and leave via Gardens Point Road.
“We’ve already relocated the taxi and bus drop zones to the covered area between M Block and Z Block,” he added. “This will mean those staff who use the daytime inter-campus shuttle services as well as the staff and students who use the evening security bus will be able to wait for those services in a covered area with seating.
“The campus mail room was recently relocated to level 1 of M Block, so most administrative deliveries will go there,” Mr Abernethy said, “and mail room staff can arrange couriers for clients if they need assistance.”
Mr Abernethy confirmed other traffic changes on the Gardens Point campus would include the permanent restriction of vehicle access between B Block and U Block (which previously provided a link to Main Drive); the ending of the laneway between Q and R/J Blocks at the corner of G and E Blocks (restricting vehicles from entering the courtyard in front of E Block);
and the provision of visitor parking areas for essential external service contractors and repairers.
Temporary entrance
change at City campus
Q-Step sponsors mentor scheme
Innovative landscaping solutions to the problems posed by the terrain of the O Block precinct have won a major industry award
An American professor will take up his position as Dean of the Faculty o f B u i l t E n v i r o n m e n t a n d Engineering at QUT next January.
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor D e n n i s G i b s o n a n n o u n c e d t h e appointment of Professor Weilin Chang earlier this month.
Professor Chang is currently a professor in building construction at the University of Florida and a visiting professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Recognised as having a broad international experience of the built e n v i r o n m e n t a n d e n g i n e e r i n g disciplines, Professor Chang has a distinguished record as an educator and leader in university research and development.
H i s a r e a s o f t e c h n i c a l specialisation are in construction management, fire-safe building design and solid mechanics.
As Director of the Rinker School of Building Construction at the University of Florida, Professor Chang has established centres for Affordable Housing, Construction and Environment, and Construction Safety and Loss Control.
Professor Chang graduated from the National Taiwan University in 1969 and was awarded a PhD in Engineering Science by the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 1973.
A f t e r g r a d u a t i o n , P r o f e s s o r Chang worked for seven years as general manager and chief engineer o f c o n s t r u c t i o n c o m p a n i e s o p e r a t i n g i n S a u d i A r a b i a a n d Taiwan.
Since 1993, Professor Chang has been an education adviser to the Chinese Ministry of Construction in Beijing.
He was named as Educator of the Year by the American Institute of Construction in 1994 and has also received the University of F l o r i d a T e a c h e r o f t h e Y e a r award.
Professor Chang will take the Faculty reins from Professor Keith Wallace who has been Dean of Built Environment and Engineering since December 1995.
He is to settle in Brisbane with his wife, Lily, and their teenage children.
— Noel Gentner
New dean named for BE&E faculty
Practical assistance honoured with plaque
decided to express its gratitude for the school’s continued support and the quality of its supervision of QUT student teachers in the shape of a memorial plaque.
Pictured above are , left to right, QUT's secondary practicuum co- o r d i n t o r R o s s M u l l e r , t h e
Brisbane State High School’s d e p u t y p r i n c i p a l a n d practicuum co-ordinator Trish Underwood, QUT's secondary placements officer Mary Lou Spratt and QUT Professional Experience Unit director Allan Yarrow.
by Tony Wilson
The quality of landscape architecture work undertaken at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus has been recognised with a major industry award.
Principal architect in QUT’s Capital Works Section Ron Goward said the merit award – conferred by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (Queensland Group) – had been awarded to Tract Consultants.
“The merit award was for landscape design within a building or infrastructure setting,” Mr Goward said.
“It was awarded to Tract for the landscaping of the O Block precinct at Kelvin Grove.”
Mr Goward said a member of Tract Consultants’ Brisbane team was QUT graduate Dennis Eiszele.
“Dennis has graduate diplomas in landscape architecture and urban and regional planning from QUT,” Mr Goward said.
Kelvin Grove takes out AILA award
“He has taken the plan from its conceptual stage and turned it into the three-dimensional product we have today.”
Mr Goward said both the built structures and landscaping of the O Block precinct had been designed to complement the Kelvin Grove campus site.
“In handling the steeply sloping terrain of the site, Tract has designed a stepped link with a number of turfed, terraced areas off the link to provide some green spaces in an otherwise hard, urban campus,” he said.
“The link terminates in a large courtyard which services a number of wings of the building.
“The landscaping in the internal courtyards reflects the strong geometry of the building and is very formalised, moving to less formal plantings as you move away from the buildings.
“At the rear of the campus some native eucalypt forest has been
retained which, over time, has been encouraged to move along the boundary and meet up with the Westpac Rainforest.
“The native eucalypt area links up with the large, informally landscaped area which marks the transition from the buildings to the playing fields.
“A boulder-lined creek assists in controlling storm water run- off in a natural and sensitive way.”
Mr Goward said the work on the O Block precinct was an excellent complement to the overall campus landscape plan.
“The landscape design of the O Block precinct assists the easy and efficient movement of pedestrians through the area and has developed useable spaces for students and staff.”
Mr Goward said Tract Consultants had also developed the master landscaping plan for the Gardens Point campus.
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by Tony Wilson
Access to resources and equipment has been extended for QUT students and staff with disabilities with the establishment of two electronic access centres.
QUT’s Equity co-ordinator Nina Shatifan said that the centres, located in the Gardens Point and Carseldine campus libraries, featured modern, low-cost, large-text and speech- production tools.
“ T h e c e n t r e s a r e t o e n a b l e s t u d e n t s w i t h d i s a b i l i t i e s , particularly visual impairments, to access resources that sighted people take for granted – such as the QUT library’s on-line catalogues,” Ms Shatifan said.
“There are also facilities to braille lecture notes and scan and braille readings and courses. This is really important because before we had to send those materials outside, sometimes interstate, to be brailled.
Having facilities on campus speeds up the time for getting the materials to students.
“The equipment in the centres provides the latest technology and our intention is to keep these items up to date so that students can have the best available tools.”
Ms Shatifan said people accessing the centres could receive support from centre assistants who were experts in using the available equipment.
“As well as the equipment in the centres, we have established a support mechanism for users. There are centre
Centres expand access for disabled students
assistants who can provide one-on-one instruction to students and staff with disabilities and ongoing support for a period of time,” she said.
“This service can be accessed through the Disability Officers in Counselling and Health.”
One user of the Carseldine centre is second-year social science student Nadine Riches who has a visual impairment.
Ms Riches said the centre provided a good service, principally due to the efforts of the centre assistant at Carseldine.
“The system itself is excellent and I h o p e t h a t h i g h s t a n d a r d w i l l continue into the future,” Ms Riches said.
“I use the equipment to type assignments and prepare presentation notes which I can braille.
“We are also about to finish braille production of a text book for one of my subjects. The production has taken about four weeks where, in the past, it could have taken up to three months if we had sent it out externally.”
Ms Shatifan said there had been dramatic increases in the number of QUT students with disabilities over recent times, making service provision to this group an imperative.
“We now have almost 500 students enrolled who identify as having a disability. In addition, QUT has doubled the number of new enrolments (in this category). In 1995, we had 80 new students identifying as having a disability. This year, we had 170 new students,” she said.
“This is an area in which QUT has to be responsive and the electronic access centres go part of the way to providing the critical support that students need.”
Ms Shatifan said having such resources available would encourage other potential students with disabilities to consider coming to QUT.
She said the development of the centres was a joint initiative of the Equity Section, Disability Officers, the Library, some academic staff and Computing Services.
In addition, staff from the School of Optometry provided advice on the most suitable large-text machines.
Initial funding for the centres came from 1994 quality funds. The centres have also received a QUT Community Service Grant, enabling access to be extended to the broader community in the near future, Ms Shatifan said.
Social Science student Nadine Riches … ‘I use the equipment to type assignments and notes.’
Wooden figurines with smiling faces are helping PhD student Vanessa Green determine young children’s knowledge of co-operation strategies.
Interviews with 268 children – using one box of figurines – was the basis for phase one of Ms Green’s PhD research into the influence of gender on peer interactions and children’s knowledge of social problem-solving strategies.
“Young children draw on their knowledge of co-operation strategies countless times during day-to-day play,” Ms Green said.
“I became interested in this area because, as teenagers and adults, we are always vying for limited resources whether it’s the last computer in the lab or the only parking space left at the supermarket.
“Males and females interact differently and they often change their style of interaction, depending on the gender of the person with whom they are interacting.
“I am particularly interested in seeing whether these differences are evident in young children. That is, what are the strategies children learn in order to negotiate equal access to resources and do these strategies change as a result of a change in the gender mix of the group.”
The wooden figures were used as hypothetical problem-solvers, with the child using them to show how they would enter the game or gain access to the toy, Ms Green said.
“I found that girls tended to use more pro-social strategies, turn-taking and asking for a loan,” she said.
“I also found that girls tended to appeal to adults for help, particularly when there were boys around.”
Ms Green presented her phase one findings to the Creche and Kindergarten Association National conference in Brisbane in June.
Phase two of Ms Green’s research involved 160 children who were video taped in groups of four using a
“viewing box”.
The box required two children to co-operate by pulling pulleys and pushing switches so a third child could view Disney cartoons inside. The video data will be analysed later this year.
“It was a competitive and a co- operative situation that gave me a chance to document children’s actual behaviour – for example, how does the onlooker negotiate a turn,” Ms Green said.
Ms Green said she wanted to thank the numerous families who brought children to Kelvin Grove on weekends and after school to be part of her research.
She is doing her PhD in developmental psychology through QUT’s Centre of Applied Studies in Early Childhood under the supervision of Dr Kym Irving and Dr Di Catherwood.
Research targets gender difference in children
PhD student Vanessa Green with seven-year old Elise Worthington … ‘Girls tended to use more pro-social strategies, turn-taking and asking for a loan.’
Internationally renowned sign language and deaf studies expert Professor Bencie Woll visited QUT earlier this month from the United Kingdom.
Professor Woll spoke at the Centre of Applied Studies in Early Childhood on her study of the language development of (hearing) twins with Down Syndrome born to deaf parents.
Centre director Associate Professor Heather Mohay said the family constellation was a particularly unusual and interesting one.
“Theoretically, it is interesting because Down Syndrome children have atypical language development, even when they and their parents can hear,” Professor Mohay said.
International sign language shares expertise with staff
“Some people believe that, when you use sign language, you are using the other side of brain – so this study is interesting on that level too.”
Professor Woll is Britain’s first Professor of Sign Language and teaches at London’s City University.
P r o f e s s o r W o l l i s a l s o researching ways of assessing the development of signing in deaf children through the university’s D e p a r t m e n t o f C l i n i c a l Communication Studies.
While in Brisbane – the last leg in an Australia-wide lecture tour – Professor Woll also addressed teachers in remote areas through a teleconference organised by the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf.
Lessons that South-East Queensland can glean from the collapse and subsequent rejuvenation of Silicon Valley in California will be on the agenda at a high-powered seminar this weekend that has been organised by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).
Two of the major players behind Silicon Valley’s economic recovery, Doug Henton and Kim Walsh, will speak at the Brisbane seminar Networks and Partnerships for Economic Development this Saturday (August 17).
Another two experts based at the QUT office of the institute, Professor Bob Stimson and Maurice Daly, will also address the seminar at the Parkroyal Hotel which is expected to attract the
Silicon Valley lessons for Qld
cream of Queensland’s private and public sector policy makers.
AHURI was formed in 1993 by a consortium which includes QUT, Monash University, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and the Building and Engineering Division of CSIRO.
As Australia’s principal urban research organisation, AHURI undertakes a wide range of investigations into socio-economic and environmental subjects related to housing and urban development.
For further information about the Networks and Partnerships for Economic Development seminar, contact Brian Roberts or Kerry Beaumont at AHURI via e-mail at k.beaumont@qut.edu.au or call (07) 3864 1749.
T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l F i s c a l Association has awarded its annual prize to former QUT associate lecturer Peter Harris who has been completing his P h D t h e s i s a t C a m b r i d g e U n i v e r s i t y i n t h e U n i t e d Kingdom.
Prize for Cambridge scholar
Mr Harris, who has been on leave without pay during his studies, will travel to Geneva early next month to accept the
$1,500 award before heading back to Australia and a new position at the University of Sydney.
by Andrea Hammond
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Page 6 INSIDE QUT August 13-26, 1996
Staff, students protest
Thousands of students and staff joined in activities during the two national days of action to protest the Howard Government’s plans to dramatically cut higher education sector spending.
Groups of disgruntled students and staff are pictured at left during the earlier rally at Emma Miller Place in Roma Street and later at a picket line at QUT’s front gate.
Their placards and vocal enthusiasm showed plainly what they felt about further cuts to tertiary spending in this country.
Backed by several unions – including the National Tertiary Education Union, the Australian Services Union, the Commonwealth and Public Sector Union, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, the National Union of Students, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Students Association and individual campus student bodies – the meetings sent a number of resolutions to the offices of the Prime Minister and Senator Vanstone.
Firstly, these condemned the Commonwealth Government for failing to honour its pre-election promises to maintain funding to universities and to speedily resolve the pay claim.
They also opposed cuts to university funding, job losses, any reduction in student places, any increases in HECS and called on unions, students organisations and vice-chancellors to campaign in support of proper funding, fully funded pay rises and maintenance of new campuses in Queensland.
One bright note from the first national day of action, according to Dr Yoni Ryan of QUT’s Academic Staff Development Unit, was the successful lamington stall held at the front gate which made a “profit” of
$56 which has subsequently been put towards purchasing a timely addition to QUT’s library collection, the book Staff Development in Higher Education.
The book was presented to the head librarian at Gardens Point, Gaynor Austen, last week.
Continued from page 1
The policy specifically noted that the Coalition, in Government, was determined to maintain the level of funding at pre-election levels.
According to vice-chancellors across Australia, universities are already struggling with tight budgets, as is evidenced by overcrowded lectures, unworkable tutorials and under-funded essential student services such as libraries.
As the Cabinet and Senator Vanstone had been debating the extent of further funding cuts, universities had already begun bracing themselves for the inevitable by finding ways to save more dollars.
Faculties have let go of a number of respected casual tutors and guest lecturers, many of whom had brought invaluable and current experience in their fields to campus classrooms and, in due course, employed or mentored the brightest graduates. Teaching staff without tenure – mostly younger staff – are uncertain whether their existing contracts will be renewed.
In some cases, arbitrary minimum class sizes have already been nominated, with elective and even core subjects that “cannot pay their own way” being dropped or at least “reviewed”.
In a sector where long-promised pay rises for academics are yet to materialise, academic staff are increasingly becoming distressed – privately and occasionally publicly – at the growing pressures of rising student numbers, sharply increased teaching, marking and supervisory workloads, the removal of vital academic structures and resources, diminishing support systems, topped off by rising academic and staff development expectations.
Senator Vanstone’s statement said the Government expected that the current higher education salary claim would be resolved through productivity gains at the enterprise level, especially given the additional freedom provided to universities to generate non- Government income.
Senator Vanstone also said the Government saw a need for each institution to “take unambiguous responsibility for its own management and workplace practices and to have the capacity to make the best possible arrangements for its own individual circumstances”.
Institutions would be assisted in achieving this by the passage of the Government’s Workplace Relations Bill, which is currently before the Parliament, the statement said.
“Correspondingly, it needs to be clearly understood that the Government is not, nor does it seek to be, a direct party in industrial relations matters in the sector. The Government is not the employer, nor is it the sole source of funding.
“The Government acknowledges that the current higher education salary claim merits consideration but, as is in all sectors of the economy, sustainable salary increases can only be achieved through genuine productivity improvements at the enterprise level,” Senator said.
“For this reason, the Government does not intend to provide any across-the-board supplementation for salary increases in the higher education sector.
“The Government does note, however, that there are some significant barriers to effective and genuine enterprise bargaining in the higher education sector relating to existing national agreements and the history of centralised wage determination.
“Therefore, the Government will be prepared to examine proposals for one-off reform packages for individual institutions where major workplace practice breakthroughs at the enterprise level can be secured.”
Additionally, the statement said amendments would be made to the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 to “allow limited advances of operating grants to help institutions with the cash-flow implications of restructuring”.
Professor Gibson also said he had concerns about whether the new arrangements would meet employment market demands in the medium- to long-term.
“Many students today enrol in law courses as a general degree option with no intention to practice and, quite often, they combine these studies with other disciplines such as business or science.
“The spectacular rises in HECS fees for law students (they will almost be doubled) will mean that those students may well reconsider their study plans and opt for an arts degree instead. However, this may not meet with what industry has grown to demand from talented graduates.
“It is also possible that high HECS payments may have a negative – or, at least, a suppressive – effect on low-demand/high-cost courses which, in turn, may affect the numbers of students moving on to research areas in years to come,”
he said.
The depth of sentiment from normally reserved vice-chancellors was reflected last Wednesday in a half-page national advertisement in The Australian placed by the Australian Vice- Chancellors’ Committee and a full-page advertisement placed in The Courier-Mail by the vice-chancellors of Griffith University, the University of Queensland and QUT.
“Universities produce the leaders and innovators who will create Australia’s future,”
said the advertisements.
“Commonwealth funding per student has fallen. University productivity has increased substantially. University wages have fallen in comparison with every other sector in Australia.
Students already contribute to their education through HECS.
“This is the breaking point. Don’t cut higher education further. The Government should honour its election commitments.”
Ahead of last week’s sector briefing, Senator Vanstone met the man at the head of a sector- wide review of higher education in the United Kingdom, Sir Ronald Dearing.
In the meantime, the pickets and the rallies protested the already parlous state of the sector and pleaded for careful consideration about both the extent of funding cuts and the long-term impact of other changes mooted by Cabinet.
Academic and financial planners locked themselves away to take another long, hard look at where to slash dollars from already seriously depleted budgets without jeopardising hard-won quality gains and international reputations for excellence in teaching.
. . . sector digests Vanstone plan
Photographs by Sharyn Rosewarne
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by Noel Gentner
After an initial limited pilot of a passenger commuter security system developed with the assistance of QUT electronics experts, Queensland Rail has decided to conduct a broader trial of an extended version of the system.
L e c t u r e r i n t h e S c h o o l o f Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering Ken Curwen said an approach in conjunction with private enterprise was made to Queensland Rail about a year ago.
Mr Curwen said that, after the initial one-station trial of the system, Queensland Rail now proposed to install a version with extended features on its stations at Wynnum C e n t r a l , O x l e y , E b b w V a l e , Toombul and Bald Hills within the next month.
The Park Road Station trial ran for more than six months from last November and Mr Curwen said that, prior to the trial, there had been many incidents, including violence, at the station. None was reported during the trial, he said.
The system – known as Safety Zones – operates with the use of a key-ring button which, when pressed, activates a beacon transmitter to alert authorities of problems.
Mr Curwen said the new trials would see the key-rings identify p r e c i s e l y w h i c h s t a t i o n w a s involved and which key-ring had b e e n u s e d , w h e r e a s t h e i n i t i a l version purely alerted a central control area that a key-ring holder had a problem.
He said the extended QR trials would also involve the distribution of key-ring transmitters to rail commuters at each station.
Mr Curwen said the originator of the key-ring security concept first came to QUT about five years ago, seeking assistance to develop a similar system for the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
by Noel Gentner
Two British academics visiting QUT are investigating how Australia is coping with change in the country’s employer-employee relationship structure.
Dr Adrian Wilkinson, who comes from the University of Manchester I n s t i t u t e o f S c i e n c e a n d T e c h n o l o g y ’ s S c h o o l o f Management, is on a QUT fellowship and is carrying out research into the quality of Australian human resource management with colleague John Berridge.
Mr Berridge is a specialist in personnel policy and is researching employee assistance programs, while Dr Wilkinson is a leading researcher in human resource management and quality management.
While based at the Australian Centre in Strategic Management at QUT, both academics are conducting separate and joint seminars.
Dr Wilkinson noted that, when it c a m e t o h u m a n r e s o u r c e management, what appeared to be happening in Australia was similar to what had occurred in the UK.
He said there seemed to be moves in both the private and public sectors to drive down costs and that was having an effect on human resources.
“It’s happening at the Australian B r o a d c a s t i n g C o r p o r a t i o n a n d u n i v e r s i t i e s a s w e l l , a n d t h a t becomes a whole new area for managing change,” Dr Wilkinson said.
“In the UK, one of the main problems is that everything is driven by the finance function, which tends to have rather a narrow view of human resources – people being a cost on the balance sheet.
“ W e h a v e h a d 1 6 y e a r s o f Conservative Government in the UK, which has led to industrial r e l a t i o n s b e i n g v e r y m u c h downgraded.”
Dr Wilkinson said one of the main problems in the UK – and to a degree in the United States – was that corporations and organisations were n o l o n g e r w i l l i n g t o t a k e responsibility for staff as they did in the past, he said.
This, he predicted, could be a continuing trend.
“People will have to become more self-reliant and can no longer look to organisations to provide their security,” Dr Wilkinson said.
“The whole emphasis is now o n e m p l o y e e s a c q u i r i n g s k i l l s a n d n o t j u s t s k i l l s w i t h i n t h e organisations they work in, but s k i l l s t h a t a r e t r a n s f e r a b l e t o other organisations.
“It is a difficult phase for people, because people like security and there is no real security now.
“You are very much reliant on what you can fall back on in respect to your skills, your contacts and your flexibility.”
Mr Berridge predicted a change in the provision of employee assistance programs in Australia.
He said such programs were seen by managers around the world as playing a growing role in keeping organisations operating at a high level of efficiency, quality and competitiveness.
These programs were designed to assist organisations identify and solve stress-related productivity issues, while assisting employees in t h e i r p e r s o n a l c o n c e r n s , h e explained.
Employee programs
‘moving into new phase’
M r B e r r i d g e s a i d e m p l o y e e assistance programs in the US were very much dominated by programs for alcoholism and other forms of substance abuse. In the UK, he said, the largest category was individual emotional adjustments, such as depression and stress.
He said practitioners had noted that more intense use of technology had increased stress levels rather than reduced them. This contributed to increased stress, he said.
“I have not been here (in Australia) l o n g e n o u g h t o m a k e a l o t o f judgments and I certainly don’t want to make judgments,” Mr Berridge said.
“I’m trying to learn rather than to judge, but I get the impression that the Australian scene on employee assistance programs is moving into a new phase.
“It is moving out of the State- supported phase and into a new phase w h e r e i n d i v i d u a l e m p l o y e e assistance program contract provider firms are operating entrepreneurially.
“It will remain to be seen whether this is satisfactory, particularly in large areas of the public service.”
Mr Berridge said he had no doubt there were opportunities in Australia for considerable development of a s m a l l - b u t - d i s t i n c t i v e s e r v i c e i n d u s t r y w h i c h w o u l d p r o v i d e various forms of employee assistance p r o g r a m s a s w e l l a s e m p l o y e e counselling support to organisations on a contracted basis.
“ U p u n t i l n o w , o c c u p a t i o n a l psychology has been very much the Cinderella of that discipline and it is very interesting now the way it is spreading out,” Mr Berridge noted.
Safety device gets extended trial
Owing to the tight timetable involved, Mr Curwen said, QUT was not able to become involved.
However, he said, QUT had been associated in the development and design of an individually keyed security system for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney during the past two and a half years.
The hospital’s system cost about
$150,000 and involved about 1,000
user key-rings and 25 transmitter beacons, he said.
M r C u r w e n s a i d , i n i t i a l l y , Queensland Rail had shown only minor interest in the system, having already spent a considerable amount of money on security guards, closed- circuit television monitoring and panic buttons on stations.
He said that closed-circuit television had proved a mixed blessing for QR,
“as it tends to tell you after the event that something has happened”.
Mr Curwen said QR had spent about $22 million over the past five years on various security measures which had included closed-circuit television systems.
He said that, following the Park Road trial, railway security were convinced that the key-ring system was a “goer”.
He said he hoped the extended trial of the system would lead to its installation in every suburban station, each with up to three beacons..
Along with QUT colleague and senior lecturer John Edwards, Mr Curwen has an agreement with the company which would produce the system.
He said QUT would benefit from the agreement which includes a contract for more design work.
Lecturer Ken Curwen demonstrates his personal security key-ring at a Brisbane railyway station
Deep cuts to the ABC’s budget are expected to directly impact on future employment opportunities for a range of tertiary students across the nation, including those studying at QUT, according to a senior university academic.
Professor Stuart Cunningham, the head of the School of Media and Journalism, said it was “self-evident”
a $66 million cut in the ABC’s Budget would impact significantly on the employment prospects of tertiary media students all over Australia.
“The ABC certainly has been a major ground for recruitment of QUT’s graduates,” Professor Cunningham explained. “They have taken our journalism and production graduates over the years and the opportunity to continue doing so will be significantly curtailed with such extensive funding cuts which, after the (external) review that is being done of the ABC, may even be of a greater magnitude.”
QUT’s journalism, film and television and media graduates had been prime candidates for the nation’s public broadcaster in the past and the ABC had proven a rich training ground for graduates before they moved on to work for commercial stations, Professor Cunningham noted.
“The ABC has always operated as an R&D factory for the broader media in Australia and the high number of ABC people who move on to work for commercial stations underlines the fact that this support role in the industry is a very significant underwriter of the health of Australia’s commercial television.
“What is sad to see in the debate so far is that there has been no guarantee that the ABC’s distinctive service to regional and remote Australia and the BAPH cities (Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart) outside the golden triangle (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra) won’t be heavily affected by these cuts.”
Professor Cunningham said the National Party had let down its heartland country supporters by failing to achieve adequate protection for the ABC, a vital part of rural communities.
“Nor has the review made any provisions to quarantine the regional ABC, reserve its services and protect it in any way,” he noted. “This has a special significance for Queensland and, obviously, QUT is concerned for the future employment opportunities of students across this State.”
Journalism lecturer Leo Bowman said that, over the years, the ABC had also taken on QUT graduates that had worked elsewhere first.
Mr Bowman confirmed that, either way, today’s ABC employed a number of high-profile graduates as reporters, presenters, producers and researchers as well as behind the scenes.
These include Ellen Fanning (host of the national AM radio current affairs program), 4QR producer Melanie Stewart and Queensland-based radio news personnel Maree Hawthorne and Kirsten Aiken. On ABC TV, Kathy Bell is presenting The World at Noon, Leigh Sales is national arts reporter, Amarita Kinoo is reading news, Fiona Crawford is a news producer and reader, while Leanne O’Connor and Caitlin Shea are reporters.
Friends of the ABC’s Helen Killen said the work opportunities for other Arts students – including those studying creative writing, drama, music, visual arts and performance – could also be affected if the ABC cuts see the downgrading or removal of programs drawing on these talents.
Ms Killen said a review of the role and functions of the ABC being undertaken on behalf of the Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, was accepting public submissions until August 31. For further details, call (07) 3371 5562.
– Trina McLellan
Opportunities for media graduates under threat
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