Students want more from Net

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Page 1 INSIDE QUT April 20, 1999

VSU issue sparks protest

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QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3864 2111 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778

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Mummy’s secrets unwrapped

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Sending eggs into space

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Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue 188 • April 20, 1999

By Andrea Hammond

Students want more services available on-line and improved access to computer laboratories, a 1998 Student Focus Survey has found.

More than 1,700 new, continuing and postgraduate students responded to the survey, which was drafted by SDS Consultants Pty Ltd and mailed out to 5,000 students last year.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Academic Committee in March endorsed three key recommendations: that student access to on-line information continue to be expanded and enhanced, that interfaculty double degrees be improved, and that research into student needs be continued and acted upon.

Student Administration Department director Ray Morley said the majority of survey replies had indicated that QUT’s enrolment, timetabling and orientation procedures had improved since a pilot (qualitative) survey of undergraduates in 1996.

“This 1998 survey took a new quantitative approach and has given us valuable, quantifiable, baseline data for future surveys,” Mr Morley said.

“We asked students to rank on a seven-point scale how they felt we were delivering these services, and on every question answers ranged between mid- fours to fives, so it was certainly on the positive side.”

The survey found that:

• students would like to choose their tutorials on-line via computers connected to the Data Warehouse (now QUT Virtual);

• students would like easier access to computers at QUT and improved swipe-card access to 24-hour computer laboratories;

• students would like firm class timetables to be available when enrolling for first semester. A majority of students favoured firm class

Students

want more from Net

timetables available in October for the whole year ahead;

• students said they wanted class-free days, classes held over a few days and tutorials close to lectures;

• commencing students wanted technology skills training during and after orientation;

• all students would like detailed course summary information sheets to help them in unit selection decisions;

• students would like the Student Administration Department to be a

“one-stop shop” experience; and

• they would like to be advised of how and when a matter will be resolved if it can’t be resolved immediately.

Mr Morley said “one-stop” student centres had been established at Kelvin Grove and Carseldine in response to student needs identified by the survey.

A third centre will be opened at Gardens Point campus later this year.

The Student Administration Department was also planning to extend its online enrolment procedures to include online “change of enrolment”

options, he said.

Another student focus survey, to assess student reactions to improvements and to investigate needs of target groups, will be conducted later in the year.

By Amanda O’Chee

Students will be able to pay their fees, download exam results and receive personalised walking routes to lectures, via high-tech information stations being trialled at QUT.

The information stations, an Australian first, act as one-stop student centres which make it faster and easier for students to access vital university information.

They will be equipped with a touch- screen and bar code and magnetic smart card reader, enabling students to securely access personal profiles, pay university fees, check their personalised timetables, and conduct cashless transactions via EFTPOS. Timetables for local buses, ferries and trains will be on-line, and

Cyberspace information kiosks an Australian first

local and national businesses will join the new service by offering special student deals and discounts for pubs, clubs, computers, cars, shops and cinemas.

The full range of services will be phased in over a12-month trial period of 10 stations, will be located at strategic points throughout the university’s three campuses.

The information stations have been developed with iTV (interactive Television Productions), which created the software. The company is responsible for the long-term running of the information stations. NEC has provided the hardware and is responsible for maintenance.

QUT will be the first of a series of universities to use the system.

QUT Teaching and Learning Support Services senior policy advisor Rob Care-Wickham said the stations would enable students to access up-to- date information quickly and easily.

“This is the first university in Australia to provide an information station intranet, but a lot of other universities will be sure to follow,” Mr Care-Wickham said.

“It’s an information retrieval system specifically designed for student information,” he said.

Students will be able to telephone student administration or security directly from the stations. Later, students will conduct real-time conversations with administration staff via a two-way video or will be able to call security for assistance while under video surveillance.

Ray Morley ... survey shows big demand for on-line information.

QUT student and part-time staff member Holly Robertson tries out a new information station at Gardens Point campus designed to provide easier access to vital information.

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From the Inside

QUT is celebrating 10 years as a university. Of course we’ve been around for a lot longer under other names going right back to 1849.

A word fr om the Vice-Chancellor

QUT is at your service

This edition of Inside QUT features several stories about the continuing steps we are taking to improve services to students.

Some years ago now, the university undertook a major student focus project to ask students to identify the areas where the university could improve its service provision.

The project resulted in such concrete improvements as the new orientation program, the use of the QUT web site to offer a number of services electronically, and the simplification of the enrolment process.

But the provision of up-to-date services to students requires constant vigilance to respond both to student perceptions and to the ever-changing possibilities of technology. We are now taking initiatives on both these fronts.

Through the student survey completed last year, QUT has more information on the kinds of things that students would like to see. We will continue to administer such surveys periodically.

In an ongoing way, the Student Complaints Hotline and the Student

Ombudsman will provide students with mechanisms to rectify shortcomings in processes and systems.

From the technological point of view, the new information kiosks use the latest in information technology to provide information to students and visitors to the campuses.

The university will need to continue to keep in touch with both its student- clients and the possibilities of technology to maintain its commitment to student services.

Professor Dennis Gibson

QUT is mourning the passing of its first Chancellor, Vic Pullar, who died of a heart attack on March 26.

Mr Pullar was a successful consultant engineer and former executive chairman of South Bank Corporation.

He was appointed chairman of the Queensland Institute of Technology Council in 1987 and became Chancellor when QUT was formed in 1989. He served as Chancellor until 1994.

Current QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson said Mr Pullar was “a great Queenslander who made an outstanding contribution to the development of QUT”.

“His term as Chancellor saw the formation of the University and the amalgamation with the former Brisbane College of Advanced Education.

“Vic’s management and negotiation abilities were hugely important for the university during this time,” Professor Gibson said.

When Mr Pullar retired as Chancellor five years ago, he told Inside QUT his greatest achievement at QUT had been overseeing the institute’s transformation into a university.

Mr Pullar, who was 69 when he died, was widely known as the man who

QUT remembers its first Chancellor

“built” the Gateway Bridge. He became Foundation Chairman of the Gateway Bridge Company in 1989.

He graduated from the University of Queensland in 1950 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) majoring in civil engineering. From 1982 to 1989 he was group chairman of the Macdonald Wagner Group, one of Australia’s largest consulting engineering companies.

On retirement he served on the University Art Collection Committee.

He received an AO for service to engineering and education and in 1995 was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Mr Pullar is survived by his wife, Jean, and their five children.

The late Mr Vic Pullar.

Professor Paul Burnett’s nationally and internationally recognised work on self- concept, self-esteem and self-talk in children, has been recognised by QUT with an Outstanding Academic Contribution award.

His research and scholarship during his 10-year career at the university were recognised at the Education (Pre-service Primary and Early Childhood) graduation ceremony in April.

Professor Burnett left QUT in January to join Charles Sturt University as Professor of Education as head of its School of Teacher Education. He said he was thrilled with the award.

Professor Burnett’s leadership in this research area is evident in his large number of presentations at national and international conferences, as well as appearances on radio and television.

A widely-acclaimed interview series on self-esteem in children aired twice on national radio in the United States in 1993 and 1994.

Professor Burnett is the second most prolific published academic in his field in Australia, with more than 20 publications and 20 national and international conference presentations in the area of self-perception.

Since joining QUT in 1989 he has been associated with 18 research grants totalling more than $527,000.

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ive theatre was under no threat from the inroads digital technologies were making on people’s leisure time, Queensland Performing Arts Trust Director Tony Gould AM said.

Mr Gould was addressing students at QUT’s Arts graduation ceremony in April, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate for service to the community and to QUT.

Anyone who subscribed to the theory that various multi-media incarnations would compete for the leisure dollar in future years “hadn’t been to the theatre lately”, he said.

“A visit to the theatre is often remembered for a lifetime. Not only do people find entertainment from performance, but – on occasion – a life- enriching experience through challenge confrontation and provocation,” he said.

He said he believed the quality of the concert, or the quality of the production, must always be the most important element in any arts organisation.

Venues such as the Performing Arts Complex also existed, however, to challenge their audiences and address significant social issues.

“Effective arts centres and effective arts festivals must take risks with their arts programming,” he said.

Award for education academic

Gould upbeat about theatre

“Sometimes these new works will fail because we are sailing in uncharted waters. If that happens then one simply takes it on the chin and goes forward because a gleaming success makes up for all the problems and for all the failures too.”

Mr Gould has made a vital contribution to QUT.

He is currently Chair of the QUT Theatre Board and served on QUT Council from 1995 to 1998. He chaired the QUT Academy of the Arts Development Board from 1995 to 1997.

TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages – staff and graduates at a recent Education graduation ceremony at QUT. From left are Robert Standfast, Ed Burke, Penny McKay, Josie Miller, Adeline Clark, Bella Sandelin, Konio Pak, Mayumi Kato and Melitsa Apostos.

Tony Gould.

Physics professor Brian Thomas

Dr Jennifer Radbourne has become Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Business.

Faculty Dean Professor Sandra Harding said she welcomed Dr Radbourne’s appointment.

Dr Radbourne was previously Director of Graduate Studies in the faculty and senior lecturer in the School of Marketing and International Business.

New assistant dean

Associate Professor Brian Thomas, who retired from QUT at the end of 1994, passed away earlier this month.

The acting Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor Graeme George, said Professor Thomas had been a colleague and friend to many.

He was head of Physics and spent 23 years at QIT and QUT. He was instrumental in the development of programs, courses and research in medical and health physics and was the first director of the university’s Centre in Medical and Health Physics.

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ees at child care centres located on all three QUT campuses have been increased.

The new fees will rise $5 a day, from

$34 to $39 for children, and to $41 for babies, but will not apply to student parents.

QUT Student Guild president Makelita Cull said the fees had gone up for “non-ordinary members of the Guild”. It means students are not affected by the increase.

Ms Cull said the price increase was prompted by the Federal Government’s Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) Bill which seeks to end compulsory student membership of student unions.

“We need to get the child care centres in a position where they can financially support themselves, independent of the Guild,” Ms Cull said.

“By law, the Guild cannot discriminate and say child care centres

Fees increase at QUT child care centres

are only for the children of student.

They have to be open to everyone.”

Ms Cull said she believed the Guild should not be called upon to support people in employment.

QUT has three child-care centres, at Kelvin Grove, which is able to accommodate 64 children, at Carseldine, which is able to accommodate 55 children, and at Gardens Point, which has room for 27 . Ms Cull said the Guild had an obligation to begin planning strategies to maintain child care services.

“We must remember there are a lot of parents who cannot study without child care and these services must stay even if the Guild doesn’t,” Ms Cull said.

Ms Cull said child care centre managers advised the Guild that the $34 a day rate was below the average rate charged by centres off-campus.

Noel Gentner

The Faculty of Business has put out a call for donations of old manual typewriters which can be used “one last time” in a 50th birthday exhibition at the Queensland Museum.

More than 100,000 visitors – many of them school children – are expected to tour the Everyone’s Business exhibition and try the collection of typewriters the Faculty hopes to collect.

Faculty Dean Professor Sandra Harding said the exhibition, to run for three months from October 23, would illustrate business practice and culture over the last 50 years.

“Although we and our predecessor institutions have been providing business education to Queensland for most of this century, it was in 1949 that

a dedicated management education and evening class was established,” she said.

“It’s not just our own history we want to celebrate. The last 50 years have been full of change and development in business generally.

“We’ve seen the introduction of decimal currency, changing roles facilitated by Equal Employment Opportunity legislation, dramatic improvements in communications technology, the rise of the computer, the death of some industries and the arrival of new ones, and many other changes impacting on business practice and culture - and society in general.

“Everyone’s Business will be the State’s first business exhibition and a showcase for business over the last 50 years.

“We want to make the exhibition as interactive as possible so we are incorporating multimedia elements such as oral history, games and business simulations and we will give visitors the chance to use some of the pieces in the exhibition.”

Professor Harding said organisers were also looking for working examples of old typewriters with foreign language keyboards, as well as samples with specific symbols for industry use.

Anyone who thinks they can help should contact June Pearson via email on [email protected] or phone 3864 4010, or Cathy Stacey via email on [email protected] or phone 3864 2975.

Andrea Hammond

New, no-nonsense university-wide parking laws will see staff and students who park without permits at QUT’s Gardens Point campus fined up to $60.

The redrafted QUT Act which came into effect on November 20 last year, means parking penalties will be the same across all three campuses for the first time.

Gardens Point campus will replace a system of warning notices (and occasional fines) with fines of $30 for illegal parking and a hefty $60 for those who park in emergency vehicle access zones.

Gardens Point campus parking officer Ms Veronica O’Sullivan said the old system had been difficult to enforce and had done little to deter determined illegal parkers.

“We would write to the person if they had more than three infringement notices and say they were technically banned from parking on campus but nothing more – if the person returned and continued to park in the wrong spot nothing happened,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

“Occasionally we would issue $16 parking invoices – the equivalent of one

day’s parking in the QUT short-term car park – for frequent offenders or people who parked behind the X block (which is clearly signed). However we had no power to enforce payment and so some people paid and some people didn’t.”

Ms O’Sullivan said during the “worst times” Gardens Point parking officers had seen about 1,000 cars a month parking without permits on campus.

“These new laws are really just cleaning the situation up and making sure the people who should have access and who actually have permission to park on the campus, can do so.”

From semester one parking fines for non-permit holders at both Carseldine and Kelvin Grove will increase from $10 and $30.

By mid-1999 the university is hoping to hand the enforcement of paying parking fines over to the Justice Department’s existing Self-Enforcing Ticket Offence Notice System, where people who wish to contest parking fines can do so (in the first instance) in writing.

Until that time QUT will take action against non-payers through the Magistrates Court.

Forensic science students were thrust into a bloody, drug-littered crime scene during an innovative workshop last month on collecting physical evidence from the sene of the crime.

The mock scene, complete with a

“dead” mannequin, fake blood splatters and pseudo drugs, introduced students to the techniques in identifying, collecting, recording and analysing physical evidence.

The workshop was part of a new subject which focuses on physical evidence for students undertaking a forensic science co-major through the Faculty of Science.

Former Police scientific officer Cameron Mackay, who specialised in

Humble manual typewriters sought for birthday exhibition

Business Faculty Dean Professor Sandra Harding ... manual office machines a symbol of a bygone age.

No-nonsense fines for parking offenders

‘Crime scene’ brings subject to life

major crime scenes said the reality of murder, rape, arson and serious assaults was far more gruesome than ever shown on television or in movies.

“You need to be able to correctly identify, interpret and collect all the available physical evidence,” Mr Mackay said.

“The reality is that crime scene investigation is a team effort with a lot of organisations working together with specialists in different areas. It’s not like Quincy who does everything himself.

“The evidence will always be there and it will not lie. You just have to make sure that you collect, interpret and look after it so that it’s later admissible to a court.”

School of Physical Sciences senior lecturer Dr Serge Kokot said the forensic

science co-major was introduced in response to strong interest in the field from high school students.

It aimed to provide an exciting and diverse study program, which promoted the “application of the scientific method and systematic analysis” of crimes, Dr Kokot said.

“To a large extent, forensic science is science in the service of the law,” he said.

“Whoever is involved at the crime scene must apply those scientific procedures in ways that would ultimately comply with court presentation.”

Mr Mackay said the physical evidence subject was designed to introduce students to the reality of what crime scenes were all about.

Gardens Point staff and students have been alerted to an increase in criminal activity in the City Botanic Gardens.

QUT Security manager Fergus Ross said there had been an increase in security incidents in the Gardens this year, and a corresponding increase in calls for QUT Security assistance. The police were addressing the problem.

Warning on criminals in Botanic Gardens

“Staff and students (via the Student Guild) have been advised by email to take appropriate care.

“I don’t want to frighten anyone, it’s not a message of fear – it’s a message for people to be aware when they are out enjoying the Gardens.

“We have had a daylight assault that involved a gang of youths attacking a

visitor to the Gardens, a night time robbery with violence, and an armed robbery in the Main Drive by criminals who had come from the Gardens. “

Mr Ross asked people to note the personal security information on the new information kiosks. Any suspicious persons on campus can be reported to QUT Security by phoning 3864 5585.

Forensics science students Andrew Reid and Myra Hammond investigate “the crime scene” during a workshop.

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ifteen Academy of the Arts students have completed a whirlwind 30- day World tour that took them from Singapore to Coventry, New Jersey and Los Angeles in the US.

The group, which included acting and technical production students, received international attention for perfomances of acclaimed Australian comedy Cosi, by Louis Nowra.

Tour Manager Karen Willey (right) was there from beginning to end. This is her story:

The nine performances were received enthusiastically by the audiences, who even gave standing ovations. Some patrons, given free tickets to the show, came up to me at interval wanting to pay, because they were having such a great time.

The humour was only occasionally lost on the non-Australian audiences – the actors worked hard to make the

Brisbane students, including a contingent from the QUT Student Guild, staged a protest march in the city last month to voice opposition to the Federal Government’s Voluntary Student Union Bill. The Bill proposes to bring an end compulsory student union membership and payment of union fees nationwide. See story on Page 8.

Student union supporters make their point

Academy whirlwind world tour

performances accessible to everyone. I saw the show every time and laughed at every show. I will probably continue to laugh during the Brisbane season.

In addition to Cosi, the actors took a production of Shakespeare to colleges in Singapore. This received an enthusiastic

reception from students and teachers.

The actors sometimes did two shows of Shakespeare during the day and then Cosi at night. They did work very hard.

We invited QUT Alumni to the show and a few came great distances. We had graduates from chemistry, education and drama who were interested in seeing what their university had to offer.

Expatriots probably enjoyed the performances the most – they picked up some of the more-subtle images of Australia, such as the ABC News music introduction.

Everyone we met seemed to want to see the show, ranging from the hotel staff where we stayed, to the band in a blues bar in Los Angeles. Hollywood agents also came to see the shows in LA and a couple of the students had meetings before they returned home.

The students also took classes at UCLA and they met the head of acting

Mel Shapiro who is coming to direct them in a production of Angels in America at the QUT Theatre in September.

Travelling days were the hardest.

They tended to be long, with frustrating periods of waiting. Stressed staff who had to work out how to drive on the other side of the road!

I think the greatest accomplishment of the tour was performed by the technical students who set up and pulled down the set four times. They had differing deadlines to do this: three days in Singapore and only five hours in Los Angeles. It would be hard to find a harder-working crew. I can safely say the Cosi World Tour was a huge success but I am glad to be home.

• For up-coming events at the Academy of the Arts, please see http://

www.academy.qut.edu.au/ or call the What’s On Infoline on 3864 3800.

Students will be able to predict their academic success or potential difficulties using a unique Internet service developed by QUT.

Using the first program of its kind in Australia, students can assess their academic potential by completing a questionnaire through a new Achieving Academic Success web site.

The program generates an academic success profile and indicates positive feedback, potential difficulties and lists counselling support.

QUT Counselling Service head Dr Robert Schweitzer said the web site would provide help for students who otherwise might not seek counselling.

The suggestion for self-assessment had come from a student, he said.

“We would hope that our programme on the web site would help students self- identify and then approach us for assistance,” Dr Schweitzer said.

“The new web site provides an interactive and informative diagnostic tool for students to assess their readiness for academic success at university.”

Students are asked 36 questions to determine any difficulties with study, self-esteem, stress or anxiety levels, as well as previous academic successes.

The questionnaire explores the degree to which students can juggle study and work, their commitment to university, career goals and motivation.

Dr Schweitzer said research had shown that students were more likely to succeed at their studies if they had achieved good academic results in the past, if they were well-integrated in the university’s academic structures and if they had a positive self-concept.

“Self-concept is something which can be addressed,” he said

“We know for instance, that students who have doubts about whether they will be successful are likely to be less successful than students who think they will do well.”

The web site caters for undergraduate, postgraduate, domestic and international students, as well as those from non-English speaking backgrounds.

The Succeeding at University site can be located through the QUT Counselling Service web page at http://

www.qut.edu.au/pubs/counselling_serv/

counsel_home.html.

Achievers are a click away from success

Life is doubly confusing for a small number of QUT’s 2,685 full and part-time staff who share the same first and last names.

The library is an especially puzzling place to be following the appointment of Margaret Sparks as a secretary in the Carseldine library and a second Margaret Sparks as a secretary at Gardens Point library.

Ms Margaret Sparks (at the Gardens Point library) said having the same first name and surname did sometimes cause problems, particularly with email.

A quick check of the QUT internal telephone directory shows that there are two Robyn Richards, Carole Greens, David Greens, Helen Valentines, Sue Walkers, Susan Wilsons, Tony Smiths, Robyn Smiths, Cathy Camerons, Andrew Crowes and there is a Diane Collins and a Dianne Collins.

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Silly rumours that international students are being given free car parks, paid for by their university fees, have been quashed by QUT’s parking service.

Gardens Point campus parking officer Veronica O’Sullivan dismissed rumours that car parks – a scarce resource at the Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove campuses – were being offered as an incentive to attract international students.

All students and staff who received long-term car parks at Gardens Point needed to provide evidence that they had an extenuating need for a car park, she said.

“All students and staff can apply for parking, and it is issued on a needs basis,”

Ms O’Sullivan. “That includes a medical condition, parenting responsibilities, family responsibilities, serious needs, QUT or non-QUT work requirements.”

Successful Qdial service is celebrated

QUT last month celebrated the success of its Qdial Student Dial-in Service and launched the SNAP laptop leasing scheme for students and staff.

At a series of student barbecues, the university’s Department of Computing Services awarded free Qdial subscription to its 1000^thsubcriber on each campus.

Qdial enables students to access the QUT network and the Internet from home at a low cost.

The SNAP (Student/Staff Notebook Access Program) laptop leasing and rental scheme, which is run through Facilities Support Services (FSS), offers high quality laptops, low interest rates and technical support for the life of the rental.

Under the scheme, students will be able to lease a laptop at a low corporate interest rate for three years and then have the option to buy the computer outright for $1.

John Perkins

Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor of Information and Academic Services Gaynor Austen presented a cheque to engineering/information technology student Hoang Ngo at the Gardens Point campus.

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Traditional cash set to disappear

become available – particularly on the Internet,” Professor Dawson said.

“By the time this project is complete, smart card readers will be a common component of personal computers.

“One of the priorities is ensuring we protect people’s anonymity. We don’t want people tracking where you’re spending your cash – that’s a scenario of Big Brother and George Orwell’s 1984.

“Of course, there are some times when that anonymity will need to be revoked.

In extreme circumstances, such as blackmail or other illegal uses of cash, the customer identity will become available through use of secret parameters only revealed to authorised entities, probably under shared control.”

Professor Dawson said new smart card wallets may allow electronic cash to be passed between friends and relatives, and allow for sales tax to be collected automatically from transactions.

Tamper-resistant features to improve card security, would make transactions faster, cheaper and more flexible.

The research is funded through an Australian Research Council (ARC) Strategic Partnership with Industry Research and Training (SPIRT) grant.

Q

UT researchers are working with Telstra to develop faster and more secure smart cards to replace cash for everyday use.

Electronic cash stored on smart cards would eliminate the need for traditional cash in Australia within five to 10 years, QUT researchers have predicted.

But first the new cards need to be fraud-proof, clone-proof and offer iron clad guarantees that users’ identities will be protected.

Information Security Research Centre director Associate Professor Ed Dawson is leading the QUT team. School of Data Communications researchers Dr Colin Boyd and Dr Mark Looi are also part of the project, together with Telstra Research Laboratories researcher Dr Roland Seidl.

Professor Dawson said the growth in Internet commerce and broader e- commerce, would hasten the widespread use of electronic cash.

“Within the next few years electronic transactions will start to replace paper- based transactions, and at the same time new electronic commerce markets will

For the second year running, Brisbane- based visual theatre company Brink is working in partnership with the QUT Academy’s Centre for Innovation in the Arts.

The project is being co-ordinated by Professor Rod Wissler and lecturer Christine Comans.

Brink artistic directors, Jessica Wilson and Ainslie Burdell, who are QUT

Academy graduates, and their company of practising artists, are in the last phase of their three month residency.

Brink artists have been working on the theme of the millennium with QUT theatre studies students, pre-service drama teaching students, Brisbane drama teachers and drama academics.

The creative outcomes from this non- traditional working process will feed

directly into their major new work for 2000 After The World Had Not Come To An End.

This exciting collaboration between QUT and Brink has been made possible by the Australia Council’s innovative Partnership Scheme.

The object of the scheme is to link professional arts organisations with universities.

Millennium show on the Brink

Louise Terry, Brian Lucas and Leah Shelton (from left) rehearse for Brink’s new millennium show.

Registrars past and present celebrate new Garden

QUT’s past and present registrars celebrated the opening of the new Registrar’s Garden on the Gardens Point campus. From left to right: Brian Waters, John Nelson, Ken Baumber and Cec Anstey.

Dr Phillip Giffard presented a paper on gene detection at an Advances in Diagnostic Technologies conference held in Melbourne recently.

Dr Giffard, a senior scientist in the QUT arm of the Co-operative Research Centre for Diagnostic Technologies (CDT), joined some of the world’s leading Dr Stephen Hughes.

Physical Sciences lecturer Stephen Hughes delighted hundreds of high school students when he “electronically unwrapped” a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy during a series of lectures at the Queensland Museum.

Dr Hughes, whose work at the Guy’s and St Thomas’

hospitals in London has been reported in major publications on Egyptian mummies, uses a high-tech method to examine mummy remains without physically removing the shrouds.

By using a 3D CT scan, Dr Hughes was able to produce a 3D reproduction of 3,000-year-old “Jeni”, and provide intricate details of her bones, jewellery and internal organs.

Dr Hughes said he could see that Jeni’s organs had been extracted, inserted with four waxed figures of Egyptian Gods and then packaged back in her chest.

“We didn’t know if using scans would work or not. We didn’t know what we would see. It was quite spooky.”

By the size and shape of her molar teeth, forensic dentists determined that Jeni was aged between 19 and 23 years.

Mummy secrets

“unwrapped”

Library notices are now on-line

QUT students and staff are now receiving library notices via email.

Associate Director (Library Services) Carolyn Young said email notices would be sent under certain circumstances which included:

• when items on loan were needed by another borrower and the loan period had been reduced;

•when reservations and inter-campus loans were ready to be collected; and

•when an item was overdue.

She said students and staff could avoid overdue book fines by checking their borrower record in the library catalogue.

The self-service function allowed students and staff to check what they had borrowed and renew loans.

Diagnostics paper presented

experts in diagnostic technologies.

His paper, Gene Detection and Base Identification using Rolling Circle Amplification, outlined trials in new technologies designed to more easily amplify and detect gene mutations which form the basis of genetic diseases such as cancer.

Former Registrars made some 10/150 anniversary year revelations at the opening on March 29 of the newly landscaped Registrar's Garden behind the Administration building on QUT's Gardens Point campus.

One-time schools inspector, 89 year-old Cec Anstey, revealed that he may have received preference for his job as the first QIT Registrar (1967-75) through his shared interest in cricket with then Education Minister.

Former Brisbane CAE Registrar (1988-90) John Nelson recalled his trepidation as he watched the QUT Vice-Chancellor and Registrar approaching for the first meeting on amalgamation of the two institutions. In hindsight, he admitted, BCAE had been treated well in the process.

QIT/QUT Registrar 1975-96 Brian Waters, it appears, was instrumental in preserving the former T Block from demolition orders from the Vice-Chancellor. It was only after he left that T Block made way for what is now the Registrar's Garden.

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QUT researchers are hoping to bring down the high injury rate of lifesavers who use Inflatable Rescue Boats (IRBs).

The boats, modern-day symbols of the volunteer movement, have become a fast and indispensable rescue and beach patrol tool for two-man crews.

The boats are also raced during the winter season at surf lifesaving titles, sometimes in spectacular two to three- metre swells that see them plunge through waves which propel them into the air.

PhD student Justin Ludcke said in 80 per cent of cases it was the crew member – who sits at the front of the boat with both feet in footstraps bolted on the boat floor – who was injured.

Through research, Mr Ludcke hopes to create a state-of-the-art computer model of the IRB and its crew as they traverse the waves. He hopes to formulate solutions such as recommendations on the position of footstraps, new footstrap designs, correct inflation pressure of the boats, and new “crewing” techniques.

Project aims to prevent injuries

More than twenty authors have contributed to a new book which looks at how corporatisation, or privatisation, is progressing in Australia.

According to a broad cross section of leading Australian practitioners, academics and government officers, corporatisation and privatisation have become a critical part of reform for the Australian economy which will enable the nation to operate in a global market.

The book, Corporation and Privatisation in Australia, contains the observations of a range of experts in the field.

It is a collection of 17 essays sourced jointly by QUT’s Centre for Commercial and Property Law and leading Australian law firm Clayton Utz.

Jointly edited by QUT’s Professor of Commercial Law Berna Collier and a Clayton Utz senior partner Sally Pitkin, the book examines the key legal, economic and policy aspects of corporate reform.

The Dean of Law, Professor Malcolm Cope, said the book’s release on April 14 was “exquisite timing, given the months of speculation about the future of Queensland’s TAB and the national prominence of privatisation in every recent election”.

Topics covered in the new publication include legal techniques in

Book examines legal policy

privatisation, privatisation of primary industry, financing, government liability, accountability, regulation, taxation, economic reform and third party access.

“Reform through corporatisation or privatisation is complex and needs to be achieved within an appropriate regulatory and industry structure which aligns the goals of the business entity with the public interest and in a manner that deals positively with employment relations,” Ms Pitkin said.

Ms Pitkin – a graduate of QUT who specialises in structural reform and corporate governance – has advised a number of government agencies on structural reform matters.

Professor Collier said that “reforms through corporatisation and privatisation are being initiated or endorsed worldwide by governments, regardless of their political persuasion”.

Contributions for Corporation and Privatisation in Australia have come from 23 other authors.

Head of the School of Construction Management Professor Tony Sidwell has the international arena firmly in his sights as he charts a new strategic direction for the school.

Dr Sidwell took up the position at QUT in January after working at the University of South Australia for 15 years. He was head of school at UniSA before becoming operations director of a national industry-funded research centre called the Construction Industry Institute, Australia, a post he held for five years.

“After 37 years experience in the industry I have ideas on the directions I believe construction management education ought to be moving,” he said.

Dr Sidwell said the QUT School of Construction Management already had a strong Queensland reputation that could now be extended overseas.

By Noel Gentner

In the world of high finance, companies expect their senior staff to have a degree, according to Suncorp-Metway Corporate Finance manager Ros Harris Ms Harris is studying a Bachelor of Business (Banking and Finance) at QUT.

In her position with the banking and insurance giant, she manages a business portfolio valued at more than

$170million.

Ms Harris said she had climbed up the corporate ladder without the help of tertiary study after joining the industry as a junior bank clerk straight from school in 1972.

Companies increasingly want degrees

“I felt it was time for me to get more formal qualifications, to really back up what I have been doing for the past numbers of years,” Ms Harris said.

“I think it is good if you can have a balance between the two – practical experience and tertiary qualifications.

Today there is a need for people to study.”

Ms Harris said she had completed previous studies at TAFE, so university study had not come as a complete shock.

She said mature age study had opened her eyes to different ideas and attitudes and also increased her confidence.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re older or younger: you’re doing the same thing, having the same problems,” she said.

Testing times ... PhD student Justin Ludcke with an Inflatable Rescue Boat.

“Mostly it is the crew person who sustains right ankle sprains and breakages – if the boat goes up vertically in the air and comes down, the right ankle is the one directly underneath absorbing the impact,” Mr Ludcke said.

“The biggest problem with this is that the position of the right footstrap often places the the right foot at a precarious angle that causes the impact to damage the ankle structure.”

Mr Ludcke’s will also test how the inflation pressure of the boat itself affects absorption of the impact of large and small waves.

“There is no consensus on whether there’s an optimum pressure for the IRBs.

“The belief (within the surf lifesaving clubs) at the moment is to pump them up hard so that they go faster when they race them,” he said.

“One of my recommendations might be to reduce the pressure to a certain level to increase the impact absorption and reduce the impact stress on the crew members.”

Professor Tony Sidwell ... aiming to enhance the international research profile of the School of Construction Management.

Sidwell builds on firm foundations

“I must say this school has a strong reputation with well-qualified, experienced staff and it has excellent courses that meet the needs of industry,”

he said.

“There are two things that we need to do. The first is that we need to internationalise the reputation of the school. We do teach our project management course in Singapore but I intend to get international accreditation and recognition for other courses in the school.

“The second is that our research profile is modest but with tremendous potential, and I want to enhance that to an international level.”

“Queensland is predicted to have enormous population growth over the next decade. The opportunities for enhancing our student base are considerable: it’s a growth State and the construction industry is one of the engines of growth,” he said.

Queensland Rail has presented a one-year

$5,000 Information Technology scholarship to QUT student Michael Treschman.

Mr Treschman is a final-year IT student

Queensland Rail scholarship award

Professor Berna Collier and Clayton Utz senior partner Sally Pitkin ... co-editors of a new book on corporate Australia.

Ros Harris.

from Tingalpa.

The scholarship, which was awarded on March 29, was secured through the QUT Foundation.

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Q

UT researchers have made videotapes demonstrating normal child and baby development to help regional health workers spot developmental problems earlier.

The videos are part of a $28,000 Queensland Health program to train and equip medical and allied health professionals working in regional centres to assess child development.

The initiative has focused on Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Toowoomba.

QUT Centre for Applied Studies in Early Childhood director Associate Professor Heather Mohay said many children were at high risk of disorders in speech and language, motor, cognitive or social development. However regional and rural services were less well equipped to identify these problems than metropolitan services.

“Children may be at risk because of medical problems such as premature birth, or because they live in unstimulating environments,” Professor Mohay said.

“In many of the regional centres they have been fairly ill-equipped to identify these children – both in terms of equipment and in terms of training.

The university sector has given the thumbs up to the Government’s Copyright Amendment Bill which rejects the notion of “user pays”

when it comes to accessing digital material.

QUT Pro-Vice-Chancellor Tom Cochrane was one of a four-member panel that gave broad support to amendments which slide the traditional print-based concept of “fair dealing”

into the digital arena.

“Fair dealing is based on the idea that you can actually use and copy material, providing you are not intending to make any private profit or income, or in other ways materially injure the prospects of the original copyright owner in return for their work,” Mr Cochrane said.

“The big issue at the moment with the beginning of the information economy is whether the new technology means that social

By Noel Gentner

A Copyright Tribunal decision to charge universities slightly more for the right to photocopy teaching materials should ensure costs stabilised for some time, QUT copyright officer Mike Lean said this month.

Mr Lean said it was important for the Copyright Agency and copyright owners to realise that universities were not bottomless pits of money.

“The university is looking at considerably more than a half a million dollar bill a year for our CAL (Copyright Agency Ltd) licence, Screen rights licence and various other licences,” he said.

Under a Copyright Tribunal decision early in 1998, the cost of copying a page of written text is now four cents, or five cents in a course pack. The copyright on artistic works and print music will be 15c per page.

Copying artwork onto a slide will cost $1.

High school students will recreate the NASA Pathfinder mission to Mars, designing and launching rockets with “live” eggstronauts, as part of National Science Week.

The Eggs in Space competition is run by the Australian Students Space Association (ASSA), which was founded by, and is based at, QUT.

Students in Years 8 to 12 must build a rocket from a plastic soft drink bottle to launch a raw egg. Launch date is May 5.

They will have to design a cushioning system which ensures that the “live” eggstronauts survive the blast-off and landing with their shells intact.

ASSA project co-ordinator Neal Fennell said students needed to enter, design and test their rockets before April 27.

Mr Fennell said the creation of a cushioning system to protect the egg mirrored the process used by NASA engineers to protect the Sojourner Rover during the landing of the Pathfinder on Mars in 1997.

“With this project we can recreate something similar to the Sojourner Mission,” Mr Fennell.

Professor Heather Mohay and 19-month-old Elli Coutis with mum Clare.

Eggs in space give budding scientists a break

Videos help detect problems early

“The aim of the project has been twofold: firstly we actually purchased test kits for the regional centres that we’ve taken out to those areas and secondly, we held workshops to train people to assess children’s development.”

Professor Mohay said early identification of things such as delayed development, behavioural problems, vision or hearing impairment could sometimes be addressed through surgery or medical intervention or the use of aids such as glasses.

“Most often these conditions can’t be cured, but the earlier you identify developmental abnormalities the more likely you are to reduce the impact of the disability by appropriate intervention programs,” she said.

“Early accurate identification of children who’ve got some kind of delayed or abnormal development is important.”

Professor Mohay said developmental assessments were based on simple problem-solving skills, how babies manipulated objects and how they investigated things to learn about them, how they used and understood language and made use of their motor abilities.

She said the centre tried to chart the development of normal children in order to help identify children who have abnormal development.

Getting their eggstonauts ready ... 3rd Year Aerospace Avionics Engineer Neal Fennell (left), fellow student Aaron Chippendale (centre) and Year 11 Wellington Point State High School student Aaron Symonds.

University sector backs copyright Bill changes

Copying charges likely to stablise

principles which have taken many years to be developed are all to the changed.

“The Australian Government’s approach with its current reforms is to be technology neutral which the universities, through the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, support,” he said.

Earlier this month Mr Cochrane launched a broadside at the Copyright Agency Limited which had lobbied to charge universities a $5 access fee every time a student reads a digital article in a “reserve” collection.

Mr Cochrane maintained the scheme would have cost QUT more than $30million each year, almost six times its annual library expenditure of $5.5milllion.

“Nationally this meant that we were looking at a total digital copyright bill of $700million which could only be afforded by closing several smaller universities,” he said.

“The students have to build some sort of cushioner system around the egg so it survives, which is exactly how it happens in real-life space projects.

“That was basically how they landed their equipment on Mars.The equipment was just cushioned in a whole heap of balloons and then the landing vehicle physically bounced along Mars until it came to a stop, and out jumped the Sojourner rover which took photographs and collected rock samples.”

The students’ homemade rockets are expected to fly about 3m high and travel between 5m and 10m.

The launch will coincide with National Science Week, which runs from April 27 to May 9.

The individual or group of students whose rocket travels the greatest distance without breaking their eggstronaut will win a $250 first prize. Second prize is $100 and third prize is $50.

Rockets must meet competition specifications and comply with the national rocketry regulations.

Students who are interested in competing should visit the ASSA web site at http://

www.assa.bee.qut.edu.au or phone 3321 6950.

About your newspaper

May 6 Translating Culture: Examining the International Movements of Australian Literature. Seminar by May Lara Cain. 12.30 – 2.30pm. C319, Car.

HEALTH SERVICES

Apr 30 Well Woman Seminar Series.

Seminar discussing women in retirement, financial planning and superannuation, emotional health and menopause, and spirituality and health. 9am – 12.30pm. Owen J Wordsworth Room, S Block, GP. Contact Felicity on 3864 2321.

CENTRE FOR MEDIA POLICY &

PRACTICE

Apr 20 How the Media Killed the Political Star. Presentation by Dr Peter Botsman, executive director of the Brisbane Institute.

12.30 – 2.30pm. Parliamentary Annexe, Queensland Parliament House. Contact Terry Flew on 3864 2276 or Danna Dale on 3864 2463.

Apr 30 Who’s Sorry Now? Drugs, Sport and the Media. Seminar by Helen Yeates and Andrea Mitchell. Noon – 2pm. B509, GP.

CENTRE FOR POLICY AND LEADERSHIP STUDIES IN EDUCATION Apr 23 Recent Developments in Computer Software for Qualitative Data Analysis.

Seminar by Dr Leonie Daws.

Noon – 1.30pm. E416, KG.

Apr 27 Contestations for Hearts and Minds in Post-colonial Korean Education. Seminar by John Synott. 5 – 6.30pm. E416, KG.

May 7 Globalisation and Education:

Mantras, Missionaries and Movements. Seminar by Miriam Henry. Noon – 1.30pm. E416, KG.

May 14 Irony Deficiency and Social Research. Seminar by Associate Professor Erica McWilliam. Noon – 1.30pm. E416, KG.

STAFF & STUDENT COURSES Apr 28 Intellectual Property Seminar.

Outlines the different types of intellectual and industrial property and their application to universities. Changes to QUT’s Intellectual Property Policy will be discussed. Noon – 2pm.

S403, GP.

May 5 Staff Orientation Program. For new staff or any other interested staff members who would like to know more about QUT. It is essential to register beforehand for the orientation program.

Training Room, First Floor, K Block, KG. 8.45am - 12.30 noon.

Contact Human Resources

QUT Student Guild recreation manager Dr Don Gordon ... warns of severe impact on a range of services should VSU go ahead.

By Noel Gentner

Voluntary Student Unionism could herald the end of inter-university sport, the QUT Student Guild warned this week.

Student Guild recreation manager Dr Don Gordon predicted the Australian University Games –the largest multi-sport event in Australia – would cease to exist if VSU was introduced.

The Australian University Sport North games could also be threatened by a lack of funds, Dr Gordon said.

The Government’s VSU Bill, which will end compulsory student union membership, goes before the Senate in May or June.

“In practical terms, the support of student involvement at all levels of sport, and the staging of these games depends mainly on membership fees,” Dr Gordon said.

Guild recreation director Luke Forsyth said the annual Australian University Games “pumped $4.5 million” into those cities hosting the games.

“I find it a strange decision to try and bring in this (VSU Bill) just before the Sydney Olympics which promotes sport, and at the same time knock the stuffing out of university sport.”

About 500 students representing QUT participate in inter-university sport annually.

“Most of the sports students play on campus are run through clubs – we fund basic administration

‘VSU could sound death knell for university sport’

costs, capital purchases and venue hire,” Mr Forsyth said.

“Without the Guild fee cash flow, it will be difficult for those students to continue in their various sports,” he said.

Mr Forsyth said there would also be an immediate impact on Guild facilities on campus if VSU went ahead.

“Our student gym prices, which are about 40 to 50 per cent lower than the commercial rate would have to be increased,” Mr Forsyth said.

“We wouldn’t be able to purchase new gym equipment and we would probably have to sack a lot of gym staff. Maintenance of equipment would suffer.”

Dr Gordon said he believed sport played an important part in university life.

The recreation department of the Guild was the visible face of student activities and sport programs, he said.

“If we take away all of the recreation and activity opportunities, we will make university a very sterile academic ivory tower existence, and that’s what we want to avoid,” he said.

“We put thousands of students through our activity programs in sport and recreation which is a clear indication that students want them.”

By Noel Gentner

An opportunity for academics to share their innovations and teaching strategies was given last month at a forum organised by QUT’s Teaching and Learning Support Services (TALSS).

Described as a Teaching and Learning showcase, the forum was chaired by the TALSS Director Professor Gail Hart.

Professor Hart said she believed that “too often”

excellent teaching went unrecognised.

“Students appreciate it (excellent teaching), but it is rarely rewarded to the same extent as excellent research,” she said.

“Academics are expected to be good teachers and competently address very large classes, and diverse student groups.”

“The university also expects that we be good researchers, capable academic leaders and demonstrate commitment to our respective professions.”

Professor Hart said she believed innovation needed to be incorporated into the delivery of teaching material.

She said students, particularly in the area of postgraduate course work, preferred flexible alternatives to traditional teaching approaches.

Teaching strategies showcased

Professor Hart said it was important to rethink objectives and teaching strategies.

“We have students working full-time who are expected to attend the university from 6 to 9pm at night every Tuesday and Thursday – this is really inappropriate considering other demands on their time,” Professor Hart said.

“It is possible for us, if we are thoughtful, creative and innovative to deliver that material at their office or home without the requirement to come into the university.”

The forum was the first presented by TALSS this year.

Professor Hart said further forums were planned and excellent teachers from within QUT and elsewhere would be invited to address.

The forum’s keynote address was presented by Griffith University School of Law Associate Professor Marlene Le Brun, who was awarded a Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development (CUTSD) National Teaching Fellowship in 1998.

QUT presenters at the forum included Faculty of Health Associate Professor Jan Lovie-Kitchin, Mr Gavin Sade of the Academy of the Arts and Ms Sylvia Edwards of the Faculty of Information Technology.

Students want more from Net

VSU issue sparks protest

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Mummy’s secrets unwrapped

P 5

Sending eggs into space

P 7

Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue 188 • April 20, 1999

Students

want more from Net

Cyberspace information kiosks an Australian first

From the Inside

A word fr om the Vice-Chancellor

QUT is at your service

QUT remembers its first Chancellor

L

Award for education academic

Gould upbeat about theatre

Physics professor Brian Thomas

New assistant dean

F

Fees increase at QUT child care centres

Humble manual typewriters sought for birthday exhibition

No-nonsense fines for parking offenders

‘Crime scene’ brings subject to life

Warning on criminals in Botanic Gardens

F

Student union supporters make their point

Academy whirlwind world tour

Achievers are a click away from success

Successful Qdial service is celebrated

Traditional cash set to disappear

Q

Millennium show on the Brink

Registrars past and present celebrate new Garden

Mummy secrets

“unwrapped”

Library notices are now on-line

Diagnostics paper presented

Project aims to prevent injuries

Book examines legal policy

Companies increasingly want degrees

Sidwell builds on firm foundations

Queensland Rail scholarship award

Q

Eggs in space give budding scientists a break

Videos help detect problems early

University sector backs copyright Bill changes

Copying charges likely to stablise

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About your newspaper

‘VSU could sound death knell for university sport’

Teaching strategies showcased