Archive for May, 2008

The consortium of Australian universities that undertook the Australian Diploma Supplement Project for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has recommended the introduction of an Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement from 2009.

This was announced by the Project Directors, Professor Lynn Meek (previously of the University of New England and now Director of the L.H. Martin Institute at the University of Melbourne), Professor Richard James (Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne), and the Project Manager, Professor Grant Harman (University of New England).

Professor Meek and Professor James explained that the Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement was envisaged as the Australian equivalent of the Diploma Supplement currently being provided to graduates by higher education institutions in 45 European nations. It would take the form of documentation provided free of charge to all graduates of Australian higher education institutions.

The Graduation Statement would make qualifications more portable and their value more transparent by providing descriptions of the nature, level, context and status of the studies that had been pursued and completed by graduates, as well as setting out information about the higher education system to which the qualification belongs.

Professor Harman said the introduction of the Graduation Statement was strongly supported by Australian universities and other stakeholders.

“Our extensive consultations within the higher education sector and with stakeholders demonstrated considerable enthusiasm and support for Graduation Statements,” he said. “Many key people in universities consider that their introduction will assist both domestic and international graduates seeking employment and further study opportunities abroad. They will also assist graduates seeking further study or employment in Australia.”

Professor Meek and Professor James said that Graduation Statements had the potential to make Australian awards better understood abroad, thus enhancing the international mobility of Australian graduates and Australia’s competitiveness internationally.

The Consortium that undertook the Diploma Supplement Project was appointed in January 2007 after a competitive bidding process to develop a single agreed template for an Australian Diploma Supplement. The Consortium represented 14 Australian universities and was led by the University of New England, the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University.

The project team members included Dr Jeannet van der Lee, Associate Professor Leo Goedegebuure and Associate Professor Peter Corrigan from the University of New England, and Dr Kerri-Lee Harris from the University of Melbourne.

The man charged with ensuring that overseas students at the University of New England have a rewarding educational experience in Australia has himself become an Australian citizen in a ceremony held earlier this month in Armidale.

Dr Vernon Crew, the Director of English Language and International Services at UNE, comes from the UK but has spent the majority of his working life in other countries: 10 years in Zambia and 18 years in Hong Kong.

“When I decided to leave my employment in Hong Kong, Australia was the natural place for me to look for a job,” he said. “I’d made many work and holiday visits to places all over Australia, and liked it a lot – a young nation with a great climate and friendly people.

“I had no idea what Armidale was like, however. So, after securing my current position at UNE, I made a flying visit from Hong Kong to check it out – and loved the place. I’ve never looked back! I officially landed in Australia on the 16^th of September 2005 as a Sponsored Migrant, arriving in Armidale and starting work at UNE three days later.”

Dr Crew leads the team that provides English language courses for visiting students from overseas colleges and universities, and English tutelage, academic referral, administrative support and pastoral care for UNE’s own body of international students. As a focus of educational and cultural relationships with communities abroad, the English Language Centre plays a significant role in the life of Armidale.

“Wherever I’ve been I’ve tried hard to become a constructive part of that country and to make an active contribution to its society,” Dr Crew said. “If you live somewhere and accept all the advantages and benefits that that country offers, then the least you should do is show that you really appreciate it. And one of the best ways of doing that is to become a citizen.”

Dr Crew was presented with his citizenship certificate by Armidale Dumaresq Mayor Peter Ducat during a ceremony at the Council Chambers. He was one of about 20 people who became Australian citizens that day.

The photograph of Dr Vernon Crew displayed here is by Bill Tucker.

The Country Women’s Association of NSW has marked a long-standing relationship with the University of New England by inviting the Master of UNE’s Earle Page College, Mr David Ward, to officially open its 86^th Annual General Conference.

Mr Ward said it had been a great honour to represent the University and the College at the conference, which was held earlier this month in Tweed Heads. The Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, opened last year’s conference, and the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir, opened the conference in 2006.

For nearly 40 years Earle Page College has hosted the annual CWA Weekend Country of Study School – a major event supplemented by related activities in CWA branches throughout the State. The program and materials for the Country of Study School at UNE have been produced in various eras by Continuing Education, Earle Page College, and now the UNE Conference Company. Academic staff across the University have assisted with lectures and workshops over the years. In his role as College Master, Mr Ward invites the Ambassador or High Commissioner of the country being studied to be guest of honour at a formal dinner associated with the Study School – a dinner also attended by the Vice-Chancellor and the Armidale Dumaresq Mayor. This exposure to study at the University has encouraged many CWA members to enrol in distance education courses at UNE.

In his opening address to about 1,000 delegates at the Tweed Heads conference, Mr Ward (pictured here) said he had grown up in a small rural community near Orange, where the influence of the CWA had been “all-pervading”. His memories of that influence on him as a child included the annual “country of study” activities which, he said, had contributed to his “life-long interest in the countries of the world, their cultures, and their languages”. He recalled the picture books about the country being studied, compiled by CWA members, “all sitting in neat piles” on his grandmother’s coffee table, and noted that, as Master of Earle Page College, he now attended the CWA’s State International Meeting every year to present a prize to the club that had compiled the year’s best “country of study” book.

“The CWA branch in that community in which I grew up,” he said, “in common with branches around the State, continues to raise funds for needy projects locally and overseas, provide social support, and highlight issues affecting its community in order to bring about positive change.”

In an appreciative review of some of the CWA’s activities, Mr Ward mentioned its “contributions to the wonderful work of the Associated Country Women of the World international organisation”, its “environmental concerns”, and its “contributions to education” – one of those contributions to education being the sponsorship of scholarships at UNE. During UNE’s Scholarships Presentation Ceremony last week, the President of the Armidale Branch of the CWA, Ms Ruth Blanch, presented several scholarships (“Country Women’s Association of NSW / Earle Page College Equity Scholarships”) to residents of Earle Page College.

Mr Ward said these scholarships were “greatly appreciated”, and typified the fruitful relationship between the University and the CWA.

An academic from the University of New England has been recognised by the Japanese government for his efforts to preserve a crucial part of Japan’s musical heritage.

Associate Professor Hugh Deferranti spent four years researching and producing Rites and Tales with Biwa, an audio compilation of traditional stories sung and chanted to the accompaniment of the biwa (a lute-like traditional instrument) by Yoshiyuki Yamashika, Japan’s last great biwa minstrel.

Rites and Tales with Biwa won the Prize for Superior Achievement in Recording at the Bureau of Cultural Affairs’ 2008 Awards for Performing Arts.

Combining music, ritual and poetic recitation, Japan’s biwa tradition stretches back more than 1000 years, and biwa performers – invariably male and usually blind – were in demand for centuries as entertainers and religious celebrants. By the late twentieth century, however, biwa was a dying artform. Already in his 90s, Mr Yamashika was Japan’s last remaining active biwa performer when Dr Defferanti met him in Kyushu in the early 1990s.

“Most Japanese think of biwa players as something medieval. But here was a man who continued to make his living in this way until almost the end of the twentieth century,” Dr Deferranti said. “Since the 1970s, all sorts of people had been documenting him. He had been written about in dozens of books, and was the subject of TV specials and an award-winning documentary film. Yet, to my amazement, there were almost no recordings of him available anywhere.”

In 2002, Dr Deferranti approached the Japan Traditional Cultures Foundation (a sub-label of Victor Entertainment) with the idea of compiling a CD of Yamashika’s recordings. He was met with an enthusiastic response by the CEO , but knew even before he began that producing the CD would be no small task.

“There were maybe 50 people across Japan who had recordings of this guy’s stuff, and many of those were of poor quality. First we had to locate them, and get the permissions, and then we had to sift through them for a selection of pieces that would give a representative overview of his repertoire.”

This editing process took Dr Deferranti about two years; it would be another two years before Yamashika’s biographer, Riro Kimura, finished transcribing them. The CD was released in mid-2007, and Dr Deferranti said he was delighted when he was invited to attend an awards ceremony recognising the achievement in Osaka earlier this year.

“I was thrilled,” Dr Deferranti said. “When you have devoted the last 20 years of your life to Japanese culture, it is highly gratifying to get this sort of recognition of your work.”

The presentation of scholarships worth more than $3.5 million at the University of New England brought scholarship donors and students together in a celebration of the University’s vital role in the community.

UNE’s Acting Vice-Chancellor, Eve Woodberry, welcomed the scholarship donors and recipients – and members of the UNE and wider communities – to the University’s Scholarship Presentation Ceremony for 2008 last Thursday. She said the scholarships were “a wonderful recognition” of the University by a wide range of individuals and organisations, and thanked the donors for their “investment in human capital”. “We feel we can give high-quality graduates in return,” she said.

During the ceremony, scholarship donors met and congratulated recipients as they presented 130 undergraduate scholarships worth more than $1.5 million and 65 postgraduate scholarships worth more than $2 million. The donors included representatives of industry, business, government, community and professional organisations, as well as individuals.

Among the undergraduate scholarships presented were 13 UNE Country Scholarships valued at $5,000 a year for the duration of the student’s course. UNE’s Country Scholarship Scheme, established in 1998, has helped more than 200 outstanding school-leavers from regional and remote areas to live and study at UNE. They are supported by organisations and individuals, as well as by the University itself.

While these scholarships (and many others) are available to students throughout UNE’s wide range of disciplines, the UNE Country Equity Scholarships, supported by the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, are awarded to students from country areas who are interested in teaching and nursing careers. Six Country Equity Scholarships were presented on Thursday. Other scholarships presented to students of particular disciplines included scholarships for students of Urban and Regional Planning supported by Armidale Dumaresq Council, Kempsey Shire Council and Moree Plains Shire Council, and the 10 inaugural Hyman Scholarships for Rural Medicine.

Inaugural scholarships this year also included the Bernard Coffey / UNE Country Scholarship (presented to Daniel Fawell), the North-North West Law Society / UNE Regional and Remote Scholarship (presented to Josephine Togafau-Fepuleai), and the Max Schroder UNE Scholarship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (presented to Aaron Mumbler-Webb). (The photograph displayed here shows Aaron Mumbler-Webb and Mr Max Schroder at the Scholarship Presentation Ceremony.)

UNE’s Deputy Chancellor, Dr James Harris, presented five students with Frederick G. White Bursaries. These bursaries are for rural women enrolled in postgraduate study or in the fourth year of an undergraduate degree program. One of the five, Rebecca Moxon from Willow Tree, is following in the footsteps of her brother, mother and father, who have all studied at UNE. Rebecca, who is undertaking an Honours project in sociology, said the award of the scholarship was “an honour”, and that it gave her “financial stability”.

In offering a vote of thanks to the scholarship donors and the University, James Heath, a recipient of the Jim Pollard Prize sponsored by the Armidale Alumni Association, said “financial stability” was an important factor in allowing scholarship recipients to focus on their studies. Ms Woodberry noted that some students might not have been able to come to university if it had not been for a scholarship. “The generosity of donors makes this possible,” she said.

Members of the University community are encouraged to contribute what they can to UNE’s China Earthquake Relief Fund, established to assist those in desperate need following the recent Sichuan earthquake disaster in China.

The University has many staff members and students who have friends, family and associates affected by this terrible event. Your generous donation and support will assist relief workers in rebuilding destroyed villages and areas, and in providing health care, education, and other vital needs.

Donations to the Relief Fund in cash, or by credit card or cheque, will be accepted at the Cashier’s desk, open Monday to Friday between 9 am and 4 pm. The donations received will be handed over to charities working in areas affected by the earthquake by the end of June.

For more information contact Alex Dunn, UNE’s Public Relations Manager, on (02) 6773 2779 (e-mail: adunn@une.edu.au).

A “Woman Reading” has appeared on the lawn in front of the University of New England’s Dixson Library.

She took up her position there last Thursday, after arriving at UNE from Sydney accompanied by her creator – the sculptor Patricia Lawrence – and foundry craftsman Matthew Crawford.

Assisted by a crane, she settled on a granite pedestal where she continues to read – fostering an atmosphere of reflective tranquillity in the Library precinct.

Her elegant proportions and smooth surfaces belie her weight (165 kg) and the fact that her bronze form was cast in several sections at the Sydney art foundry Crawford’s Casting.

“Sitting outside reading is a pastime I enjoy,” the sculptor said. And all those who welcomed the “Woman Reading” onto her pedestal outside the Library agreed that she embodied that sense of quiet enjoyment.

Over the past two decades Patricia Lawrence, working mainly in bronze, has exhibited her sculptures regularly in Sydney and Canberra. Most of her work is in private collections, but some is in public places – including a sculpture in front of the Chancellery Building at the University of NSW and another at Westmead Children’s Hospital. “Woman Reading” is the second of her outdoor sculptures to adorn educational settings in Armidale: a pool at The Armidale School is home to “The Trout”.

It was the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, and his wife Ann, who had the initial vision of bringing “Woman Reading” to UNE. After seeing a small version of her at the Uralla Sculpture Prize Exhibition last November, they bought one of that edition for themselves and initiated a process that resulted in the purchase of the “Woman” – on a much larger scale – through the Dixson Library’s General Endowment Fund. “When we saw it we thought it was perfect not only for a university, but for this particular site at UNE,” Professor Pettigrew said.

Crawford’s Casting is the foundry that made the statue of an Australian soldier that was mounted on Sydney’s Anzac Bridge in 2000, and that of his New Zealand counterpart mounted on the bridge earlier this year.

In casting the “Woman” from Ms Lawrence’s plaster original, the foundry used two different methods: “lost wax”, which allows for fine details, and “sand moulding”, which, Mr Crawford said, “provides an excellent result for larger, flat surfaces”. The cool, green figure that sits in front of the Dixson Library was formed from molten bronze poured at temperatures of 1,200 degrees (lost wax method) and 1,100 degrees (sand moulding).

Mr Crawford said the success of the complex casting process had “exceeded our expectations”. “When you get a result like this – one that makes people think you must have poured it in one shot – it brings a smile to your face,” he said.

A PHOTOGRAPH of Patricia Lawrence (left) with Professor and Mrs Pettigrew at the installation of “Woman Reading” can be seen by clicking on the image of the “Woman” displayed here.

The University of New England is introducing new online learning systems that enable distance-education students to interact with each other and their lecturers more consistently and creatively than ever before.

A pilot project using one of these systems, the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment, is now enabling distance-education students in UNE’s School of Education to learn through collaborative projects, and allowing teachers and students to explore the use of interactive learning materials and functions such as blogs, wikis, and quiz tools.

The School of Education is redesigning UNE’s Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) degree program to enhance distance education through effective online learning; eleven units in the program went online at the beginning of Semester 1 this year. The aim of the project, which is using the Sakai system, is to have the whole degree program – as well as the Master of Education (e-learning) degree program – online in 2009.

“The project has provided the opportunity for unit coordinators and teachers to reconsider the online learning environment and to design learning experiences for distance-education students,” said Rachael Adlington, the project coordinator. “Unit coordinators have worked with an educational designer, Cherry Stewart, to determine effective practices for supporting online learning and technology use. They have also been generously supported by UNE’s Teaching and Learning Centre, our partner in the project.”

Ms Adlington said students were enthusiastic about the educational benefits of the new learning environment. She said a UNE review of the University’s distance education practice in 2005 had indicated that remote students often felt a sense of isolation – a problem that could be addressed by new communication technologies. “And we’re addressing it,” she said. “Students are now able – and required – to talk to each other.”

“The School of Education’s ICT teaching team has celebrated the culmination of two years’ planning and groundwork, as well as a semester’s hard work by our unit coordinators, in producing 11 newly redesigned units that are founded on strong online, distance-education pedagogy,” Ms Adlington said.

The project has been funded by UNE’s Distance Education Project Advisory Committee, the Teaching and Learning Centre, and the Faculty of The Professions.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show (from left) Rachael Adlington, Cherry Stewart and Dr Mike Littledyke (all from the School of Education) and Mitchell Parkes (from the Teaching and Learning Centre) during work on the Sakai project.

The “e-Expo” at UNE’s Dixson Library tomorrow (Thursday 22 May) will give academics and postgraduate students insight into the direct application of electronic resources in teaching and research, as well as “a glimpse into the future” of such resources.

That “glimpse into the future”, said the Library’s Information Services Manager, Celia Munro, will include surveys of innovations such as e-books and digital theses – innovations, she said, that would “make a big impact”.

Ms Munro said that the Expo would reflect the “more collaborative, group-based patterns of student learning” that were emerging in education, and would inform academics about the new technologies that are available to assist that learning. It would also reflect new directions in the integration of electronic resources, she said.

During this year’s “e-Expo” there will be, in addition to the presentations and training sessions in the Library, access to a “chatroom” and a blog through the Library’s Web page. “In this respect, the Expo itself is moving towards the future,” Ms Munro said. “We aim to provide as much 24/7 service for students – both off-campus and on-campus – as possible.”

The Expo will be a collaborative event, involving the Academic Skills Office, Student Assist, and the Information Technology Directorate as well as the Library. Presentations will cover Internet access to journals and databases (including the highly-regarded Elsevier journal package Science Direct, and legal, medical, and drug databases), resources for students with a disability, job blogs, Personal Response Systems (“clickers” that allow teachers to track levels of understanding in the lecture room), and much more. For the full program, go to: http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~cbarnes/eexpo.pdf.

Staff members from all the services will be available in the Library during the day to answer questions on their services.

A Bhutanese wildlife ecologist named Tiger Sangay has conducted research, under University of New England supervision, that could help livestock owners in his country make peace with tigers – and other large predators.

Mr Sangay’s research on patterns of livestock predation by tigers, leopards, Himalayan black bears and snow leopards will help in the development of programs to prevent – and/or insure against – such predation.

Mr Sangay, who took the name “Tiger” because of his passion for this endangered species, studied livestock predation throughout Bhutan for two years as part of a Master of Natural Resources degree program he undertook through UNE. A report on his research, written in conjunction with his UNE supervisor Dr Karl Vernes, is soon to be published by the international scientific journal Biological Conservation and is already available on the journal’s Web site (www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon).

Dr Vernes visited Bhutan last month for an update on the predation research. He travelled with his UNE colleague Dr Raj Rajaratnam, with whom he is about to begin the supervision of another animal conservation project by a Bhutanese student – this one on the endangered red panda.

He said that Mr Sangay, who is employed by Bhutan’s Nature Conservation Division, had been instrumental in establishing a Tiger Conservation Fund (TCF) which compensates farmers for livestock losses to large predators. “Because of the rigour involved in verifying predation of livestock before compensation is paid under this scheme,” they explain in their paper, “we were able to reliably use data gathered by the TCF to examine seasonal patterns of predation by different predators for different age and sex classes of livestock types across the 20 districts (dzongkhags) that together comprise the Kingdom of Bhutan.”

Their results show that leopards were responsible for 70 per cent of the livestock losses – more than twice as many as the combined losses to tigers (19 per cent), bears (8 per cent) and snow leopards (2 per cent). The total number of animals (mainly cattle and horses) killed by the four predators over the two years of the study was 1,375.

They explain that, while the conservation of protected wildlife (including tigers, leopards, snow leopards and bears) is a central tenet of the Forest and Nature Conservation Act of Bhutan (1995), “farmers in central Bhutan rank livestock predation as one of the most serious threats to their livelihood”.

Dr Vernes said that the conflict between livestock owners and large predators had grown in recent years, with farmers pasturing increasing numbers of animals within Bhutan’s extensive network of national parks. “A farmer can lose a large part of his income through the loss of just one animal,” he said. “Such a loss can be severe enough for some people to retaliate against the predators. So, in the interests of wildlife conservation, there are strong reasons for keeping farmers happy.” Mr Sangay’s study will provide authorities with information that will help them to introduce educational and other programs to achieve that result.

Dr Vernes believes that the conservation of large predators has better prospects in Bhutan than in most other countries because of Bhutan’s superb network of national parks connected by corridors of protected forest, its relatively high standard of education, and its Buddhist culture which emphasises respect for all living things.

A PHOTOGRAPH of Dr Karl Vernes in Bhutan with Tiger Sangay (right) and Sangay Dorji (the student preparing for the red panda project) can be seen by clicking on the image of a tiger displayed here.