BIO, Beijing, Professor Emeritus Norman Palmer, SQC and AUQA

Dear Colleagues,

Much has happened since my last blog entry. During June, in addition to the usual activities, I attended the combined Vice-Chancellors/Chancellors meeting and the Universities Australia meeting in Sydney, the BIO convention in San Diego, the inaugural JCU graduation for our students studying in Beijing – and bade farewell to Professor Emeritus Norman Palmer.

Australia’s Chancellors and Vice Chancellors meet as a combined group annually. This year, the meeting coincided with the release of the Bradley Review discussion paper. The paper is carefully crafted. It provides no real indication of preferred direction or solutions. The University will respond to the paper as part of the Innovative Research Universities Australia group and independently as well.

BIO is the largest and most extensive conference on biotechnology and related fields in the world. Around 20,000 delegates attended, including JCU colleagues, over 100 Queenslanders and 450 Australians. Other Queensland universities have engaged with the meeting over many years. I was keen to better understand it and its potential for JCU. At the meeting, there are many opportunities for interaction with colleagues, with those involved in the creation and commercialization of new technologies. As is often the case for most meetings, the real value emerges on the back of vicarious interactions while waiting for formal events to unfold. During the meeting, past Premier of Queensland, the Hon Peter Beattie, was recognised for his commitment to the industry, receiving the inaugural BIO International award.

I officiated at JCU’s first graduation ceremony for Bachelor of Information Technology graduates who have studied their program through the Beijing University of Technology (BJUT). In all, 71 graduates were presented. It was a terrific event – my congratulations to Ceremonies Coordinator Roger Yeldham who organized and managed the whole event.

Professor Norman Palmer, DVC (Research and Innovation) retired on Friday 4 July. Norman provided 11 years of loyal and committed service to the University and had overseen the further development of JCU’s research profile and productivity. Since I’ve been at JCU, I have been impressed by Norman’s ideas, his capacity for work as well as his deep commitment to advancing JCU. His leadership in our preparation for the RQF will serve us very well in the ERA era. In recognition of the significant nature of Norman’s contribution to JCU, he has been awarded the status of Professor Emeritus of the University and will, therefore, always be a member of our community.

We have had some very good news from Singapore in the last week or so. Our Singapore campus has achieved Singapore Quality Class (SQC) accreditation; this is a major achievement and provides powerful, external validation of the quality of our work in Singapore. On quality assurance matters closer to home, we have been advised that AUQA will audit the University next in 2011.

The Australian Chamber Music Festival is happening in Townsville as I write – and JCU has supported and sponsored this event over many years. Indeed, the Festival would likely not have happened at all if it were not for the advocacy, organization and support of the inaugural event, 18 years ago, by Professor Ray Golding, then Vice Chancellor of JCU. I trust that Townsville based members of our community have the opportunity to attend one or more Festival events.

Cheers,
Sandra