Archive for August, 2009

The Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Hon Tony Abbott MP, will present this year’s Annual Earle Page College Politics Lecture at The University of New England on Tuesday, September 1.

A large audience is expected, in addition to College members and official guests, according to David Ward, Master of Earle Page and Austin Colleges. The public lecture – at 8.30 pm – will follow a formal dinner for College members and invited guests at which Mr Abbott will be guest of honour.

“The Annual Politics Lecture is a significant town-and-gown event for UNE, Armidale and the region,” Mr Ward said. “We are delighted to have another high-profile politician deliver this, the 26th one. The series aims at providing Earle Page residents, guests and members of the public with a diverse range of political opinions on significant public issues.”

Each year, Earle Page College invites a prominent political figure to speak at its Annual Politics Lecture, held in conjunction with the Discipline of Political and International Studies within UNE’s School of Social Science. Previous speakers have included Peter Garrett, Philip Ruddock, Alexander Downer, and Julia Gillard. Last year’s speaker was Leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown.

“The Earle Page Politics Lectures are intended to stimulate thought and discussion,” Mr Ward said. “The lecture should also provide a forum for thoughtful questions to Mr Abbott.”

Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, after whom the College and lecture series are named, was chairman of the advisory council for The University of New England College from 1938 until 1954, and then the University’s first Chancellor from 1954 to 1960. He was also Prime Minister for a brief period in 1939.

Tony Abbott was elected Member for Warringah at a by-election in March 1994. Prior to entering Parliament he was Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy from 1993-94. From 1990-93 he was press secretary and political advisor to the Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson. His previous career was in journalism, where he wrote as a feature writer for ‘The Bulletin’ and ‘The Australian’. Mr Abbott was appointed Minister for Health and Ageing on the 7 October 2003. After the Federal election in 2007, Mr Abbott became Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs & the Voluntary Sector.

The lecture will be in the Earle Page College Dining Hall. Those wishing to attend are asked to call the College office on 6773 5300 in order to reserve a seat.

On July 8-12, 2009, the SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) team from the University of New England travelled to Sydney to compete at the National SIFE Competition, where they performed strongly, proceeding to the final, championship round.

The National competition and conference was facilitated by SIFE Australia and saw the arrival of more than 20 university teams from throughout the country, along with high profile executives from some of Australia’s top corporations.

The program involved career development seminars, individual topic presentations and main round presentations, where each university vied for the championship title and the opportunity compete at the SIFE International conference in Berlin, Germany.

The team from SIFE UNE presented a project they are working on with the Minimbah Aboriginal Corporation Preschool & Primary School in the HSBC Financial Literacy competition. Their performance was praised by both judges and peers for its “ethical responsibility and innovation”, according to Jo Vickery, business lecturer and SIFE organiser at UNE.

Another feature of the conference was the Top to Future Top’s seminar where individuals from SIFE teams were able to sit down with company executives from corporate heavyweights such as Woolworths and HSBC to discuss issues such as climate change and the global financial crisis.

In the Main Round of competition, SIFE UNE presented their Minimbah, Armidale Profile, Farming for the Future and Wool Expo projects. SIFE UNE received accolades from judges, SIFE officials and competing university teams, and progressed first to the Semi-Final round and later to the Championship Round, where they were considered in the top four SIFE teams in the nation.

“This achievement is a testament to the dedication and hard work of all involved in the SIFE UNE team,” Ms Vickery said.

An agreement signed today between the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) and the University of New England (UNE) will establish a Cadetship Program to address a national shortage of civil engineers. 

 The Program offers recipients funding while they undertake a three-year Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree, paid regional work placements during semester breaks, and internship periods at the RTA. Two cadetships will be offered from 2010. 

Vice-Chancellor and CEO, Professor Alan Pettigrew, who signed the agreement with RTA Director Richard Boggan, said the agreement would provide significant benefits to the general community and to both organisations.  

 ”Through these cadetships students will be supported at University and have specific opportunities to participate in the workplace, which will eventually lead to a seamless transition from study to full time work, ” he said. 

 ”An opportunity also exists within the arrangement for students to complete their Bachelor of Engineering studies at the University of Southern Queensland.”

The Program will enable students to apply their studies to current technical projects, develop project management skills and network with engineering professionals to develop their career paths. 

Mr Boggan said the initiative fitted well with the RTA focus on customers and communities and would help to meet the challenges of critical skills shortages expected in the engineering profession over the coming years.

It would also assist the organisation to meet the schedule for improving and building new infrastructure in NSW by planning ahead and training graduate engineers.

“The RTA workforce is highly skilled and experienced,” he said.  “It is an employer of choice for many professionals. However with ‘baby boomers’ now reaching retirement age we are taking this initiative  to ensure a new generation of engineers to take over.”

UNE Chancellor Dr Richard Torbay welcomed the initiative. 

 ”There is an acute shortage of engineers in regional areas,” he said. 

 ”This cadetship program offers great opportunities for our students and is another example of how we can work together to train students locally and encourage them to stay in the regions to make their lives and careers.  

 ”This new Engineering Technology degree follows the success of the Rural Medical School and the Rural Social Work degree program, alongside new courses including the Bachelor of Criminology, and Bachelor of GeoScience, which is helping up-skill the region and arrest the brain-drain to big cities”.  

 ”Research has shown that students are more likely to take up jobs in the areas where they undertake their studies and training.  

“It is very welcome to see the RTA working with UNE on this innovative project.”

Media contact: Michael Kauter, UNE, on 02 6773 3872/0429360498 or  RTA Media Unit  8588 5999.

The sixth annual UNE School’s Acquisitive Art Prize (UNESAP) and Let’s Hang It! Exhibition will open at 6 PM on September 4 at the Lalor Harris Gallery of the New England regional Art Museum (NERAM).

The competition attracted a record 620 entries this year — some 50 more than last year. Just 62 of these paintings have been selected for the exhibition. 34 schools are represented altogether in the finals of the competition.

“The quality of work is very high this year and that made judging very difficult,” said Frances Alter, founder and director of the competition.

The guest judge in 2009 is Kerry Gulliver, a noted New England artist.

The University of New England School Acquisitive Art Prize (UNESAP) is held annually with the purpose of encouraging talented young artists in regional New South Wales’ schools.

In 2004, the Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies decided to support the teaching of visual arts and interest in creating visual art amongst students by establishing annual prizes and an exhibition of the best art entries at NERAM.

A number of previous finalists and winners have gone on to tertiary level art studies and have continued to win scholarships and prizes for their work.

The organising committee in the School of Education has been overwhelmed by its huge success and the growth in participation each year from NSW schools.

Any regional primary and secondary school in New South Wales can submit art works on behalf of its students. The work submitted must be two-dimensional but this includes digital art, photography, mixed media, assemblage or collage, painting (acrylic, oils, or watercolour), graphic work, 2D relief sculpture, jewellery and textile work.

Prizes are awarded for both first and second place in each of the four age categories (KG-2, Yrs 3-6, Yrs 7-9, Yrs 10-12). A major Australian wholesale art supply company, S&S Creativity Unlimited, have kindly sponsored second place prizes and art materials packages for winners.

The prize-winning artworks become part of the University of New England’s permanent collection and are mounted on a professional gallery hanging system throughout the second and third floors of the Education building at UNE.

Media contact: Dr Frances Alter (6773 3822) or Leon Braun, UNE public relations (6773 3771).

Do you find it hard to say no? Is it is sometimes hard for you to ask for what you want? If you’ve ever felt you would like to be more assertive, but haven’t known how to go about it, help is at hand.

Psychologists at the University of New England are offering free assertiveness training to the public as part of their new clinical psychology program.

Dr. John Malouff, the coordinator of UNE’s clinical psychology program, said the training was appropriate for teens and adults who wanted to become more assertive.

“Being assertive is very hard for some people. This can be the result of anxiety or low confidence, but even people with good social skills can sometimes have difficulty saying no, expressing their emotions or asking for what they want.

“A lack of assertiveness can lead people into unwanted sexual encounters, mishaps with drugs or alcohol, and being taken advantage of at work or at home.

“It can also make it hard to you to advance in your career — by asking for a raise, for instance.”

Dr. Malouff said that assertive communications were polite and effective while diminishing none of the people involved.

He said the assertiveness training the university was offering would involve talking about the techniques of assertive communication and practising them in hypothetical situations and real life.

While assertiveness was not a “secret formula” for always getting your way, it greatly increases your chances of success, Dr. Malouff said.

“When you ask for what you want you don’t always get it, but boy does it improve the odds.”

To participate in UNE’s assertiveness training, phone (02) 6773 2545 and leave a message including your name, contact details, and the fact you are interested in assertiveness training.

Despite the spectacular advances in our knowledge of genetics over the past 20-25 years, says Professor Anatoly Ruvinsky, such knowledge and its future development will always be limited by the underlying randomness of nature.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, will launch Professor Ruvinsky’s book Genetics and Randomness at the University at 4 pm on the 26^th of August in the Wright Lecture Theatre.

Ruvinsky, Professor of Genetics at the University of New England, emphasises that living organisms are – at the subatomic level – subject to the same randomness as that observed by physicists at the quantum level.

This randomness would never allow – for example – even a complete genetic blueprint of an individual to be an accurate predictor of that individual’s appearance or behaviour. “Randomness is very important for life,” Professor Ruvinsky says, “but it sometimes makes the life of scientists a little uncomfortable.”

Professor Ruvinsky’s book Genetics and Randomness, published last month in the United States, argues that it is crucially important for geneticists to recognise the underlying limitations of scientific prediction. “There are enormous opportunities for the further development of science,” he says, “but, like all human endeavours, science has its limits.”

Genetics and Randomness discusses subatomic randomness in relation to spontaneous mutations and long-term macroscopic changes in living organisms, and the multitude of random events that occur during an individual’s development.

“‘Organised randomness’ is the essence of biological systems,” Professor Ruvinsky says. “Randomness ensures the survival of life by allowing endless variation. Randomness is the very ‘essence’ of life, not a ‘nuisance’ that occasionally causes deviations from fundamentally rigid laws.”

The publishers of Genetics and Randomness, CRC Press, say the book “navigates the complex nature of genetic uncertainty from different points of view and at various levels of biological organisation”.

Half-way through the inaugural year of the ground-breaking course, both students and teachers in the University of New England’s Bachelor of Social Work degree program are excited about its success.

Ninety-two students are enrolled in the new course, with more than 80 per cent of them coming from regions outside the capital cities. “We’re particularly pleased that so many of the students from rural and regional backgrounds aim to return to the regions to work,” said the program’s convener, Dr Myfanwy Maple.

Dr Maple added that, when the students begin their work-place experience in 2011, they will be placed – where possible – in the regions that they come from: “So they’ll already be starting to give back to their local communities,” she said.

She said that the students were particularly enjoying the structure of the course, with its varied units from around the campus feeding into the core social work units. The students themselves confirm this assessment: “It’s a great mixture, while being a very structured degree program,” said Bethany McInnes from Tamworth. (Bethany is pictured here.)

This year, the students are taking units in Psychology, Sociology and Indigenous Studies as well as in Social Work, and in first semester they also took a unit in Politics. “At first we were all a bit hesitant about Politics,” Bethany said, “but then we realised how important it was.”

“The best thing about the course,” said Anna Richards (who also comes from Tamworth), “is that so much of the work we do is related to real life – looking at case studies through a problem-based learning approach. It asks us to think as if we really were working in the field, and where we would go to find the resources we need. It’s not just reading from textbooks.”

The program has a rural focus, with emphasis on Indigenous people and child protection, and is ideally suited to students who have a commitment to assisting families from disadvantaged backgrounds. Anna said she had transferred from Social Science to the four-year Social Work degree program because it offered a specific qualification for employment as a social worker. She added that she aims to work in a rural area.

“I wanted a career where I could work with people,” Bethany said, “and this degree offers so many options.”

Dr Maple said that the student cohort was a mixture of school-leavers and people with a range of experience in related fields. “It’s a nice balance of backgrounds,” she said.

The UNE degree program is one of the few social work degree programs offered by distance education. At least 70 per cent of the initial cohort is studying off campus.

Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of UNE’s Faculty of The Professions, said that he was “extremely pleased with the initial response to the Bachelor of Social Work degree program”, which was “attracting great interest from both school leavers and mature-aged students who are committed to addressing the social inclusion agenda so strongly reflected in government policies at both State and Commonwealth level”.

He said the response fulfilled the prediction of the NSW Minister for Regional Development, Phillip Costa, who, in officially launching the program in March this year, said that it would attract students from both rural and urban locations in large numbers.

“UNE Social Work graduates will soon be joining the workforce and making significant contributions to addressing the shortage of social workers in regional communities in Australia,” Professor Minichiello said.

For more information about the UNE social work course please see

http://www.une.edu.au/study/social-work/

The Second Australasian Piano Summer School, to be held at the University of New England next January, will build on the success of the inaugural Australasian Piano Summer School at UNE in January 2008.

The five-day Summer School, running from the 11^th to the 15^th of January 2010, will bring together talented teenage pianists and leading music educators from around Australia.

Kawai Australia is supporting the Summer School by providing 20 upright pianos for students to use for practice, as well as five grand pianos.

UNE’s Dr Terrence Hays, the Artistic Coordinator of the Summer School, said that it was designed for high-school students in Years 10, 11 and 12. “Our aim is to identify and mentor young musicians in the years before they enter tertiary education,” he said.

Joining Dr Hays in the team leading the Summer School  will be Dr Christine Logan from the University of NSW, Professor Peter Roennfeldt from Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Glen Riddle from the Victorian College of the Arts, Jody Heald from the Australian Music Examinations Board, and Professor Jennie Shaw from UNE. Professor Michael Leslie from the Richard Strauss Conservatory of Music in Munich, Germany, will be the artist in residence. Professor Leslie will lead the masterclass program and give a public recital.

As well as piano masterclasses, the Summer School program will include individual lessons, workshops on improvisation, composition, interpretation, accompanying and ensemble playing, choir practice, sessions on coping with stress and anxiety in performance, and classes for students of other keyboard instruments including harpsichord, and organ.

Dr Hays said that a further aim of the Summer School was “to establish a collaborative research forum for studying aspects of keyboard performance”.

Participants will live at one of UNE’s residential colleges during the Summer School and have access to rehearsal pianos during the week. The organisers expect that some partial scholarships will be made available to help disadvantaged students living in rural and remote areas to participate. Applications (details of which are available at: http://www.une.edu.au/piano-summer-school/) close on the 19th of October.

For more information contact Dr Terrence Hays on (02) 6773 3649.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Blake Entwisle and Elizabeth Gressler practising during the inaugural Australasian Piano Summer School in January 2008.

The UNE-based Poultry Cooperative Research Centre, which is Australia’s leading researcher into sustainable poultry production, has secured an additional $28 million to conduct new research over a further 7.5 years.

UNE’s Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer, Professor Alan Pettigrew, said the cash injection would have significant flow-on benefits for the University of New England, and was great news for the University and its academic community.

Professor Pettigrew congratulated UNE’s Professor Mingan Choct (pictured here),  the Poultry CRC’s Chief Executive Officer, and his colleagues on the successful rebid for the CRC, which is funded under the Australian Government’s CRC program.

“The Poultry CRC attracts world-class researchers and academics,” Professor Pettigrew said, and added that it already supported 35 students nationally for their Honours, Master’s and PhD degrees, and had developed undergraduate courses dedicated to poultry science.

The Poultry CRC has been performing research and driving education since 2003 aimed at improving the sustainability of the Australian poultry industries. Professor Choct said that it had delivered 20 diagnostic tests that cut diagnosis time from days to hours, and had seven vaccines under development and seven patents – some of them international breakthroughs. “These, and our educational outputs, contribute to our success,” he said.

The  CRC will address the major challenge of meeting increasing demand for ‘clean and green’ poultry products and maintaining food security in the face of climate change and population growth.

“Australians eat almost 40 kgs of chicken each every year, as well as around 175 eggs,” Professor Choct said. “Our industry must meet increasing demand for poultry products while using fewer resources and reducing environmental impacts. To ensure food security, we must massively increase productivity, without compromising food safety or welfare.”

Professor Pettigrew also congratulated UNE’s Associate Professor David Lamb who leads an important component of the CRC for Spatial Information, based at the CSIRO, which received a total of $32.2 million.

UNE will be involved in two major projects. An “Agriculture, Natural Resources and Climate Change: Biomass project” aims to empower Australia’s response to climate change by transforming the way public and private land managers balance agricultural productivity and sustainability. UNE will host this major project, using its significant strength in precision agriculture research to bring together agronomists, soil scientists, sensor specialists, physicists, ecosystem scientists, plant biologists, statisticians and computer scientists.

A “Health Research through the CRC for Spatial Information project” is predicated on the expectation that linking spatial technology with other technology and management methods can assist to deliver tangible healthcare improvement in rural areas.

“Our thanks go to Professor Ray Cooksey and the team at Research Services for their assistance in achieving these great outcomes,” Professor Pettigrew said.

The University of New England’s relationship with the University of Macerata in central Italy has been further strengthened during a visit to UNE this month by two senior academics from the Italian university.

Professor Alfredo Luzi and Dr Viviana Gaballo discussed the current student exchange program between the two universities with the Head of UNE’s School of Arts, Professor Jennie Shaw, and other members of the School, and met the two students from Macerata who are spending this semester at UNE.

Dr Gaballo, who lectures in communication studies, also had discussions with UNE lecturers about extending the eight-year-old exchange program to include communication studies as well as languages and linguistics.

Their host in Armidale was UNE’s Convener of Italian, Brennan Wales – a regular visitor to Macerata.

Alfredo Luzi (pictured here) is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature at the University of Macerata. “The agreement between our two universities has been a great initiative and is working really well,” Professor Luzi said.

He pointed out that the two universities are of a similar size, and are both located in small regional cities. “It’s good for Italian students to go to a smallish city in Australia,” he said, “and for Australian students to get a taste of the ‘real’ Italy.” This was Professor Luzi’s fifth visit to UNE.

The two students from Macerata who are studying at UNE this semester are Laraelsa Luchetti and Monia Fabiani. Laraelsa is in the third year of her degree program in Macerata, and Monia is in second year. At UNE they are both studying Italian Literature and Linguistics, while Laraelsa is also studying French and English, and Monia Chinese and History. Their work at UNE will count towards their Macerata degree.

Laraelsa and Monia arrived in Armidale late last month. In giving her initial impressions of UNE, Monia said that it seemed to be more “organised” than her home university, and added that she was impressed by UNE’s provision of student services.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Luzi displayed here expands to include (from left) Brennan Wales and Anna Cavallaro from the academic staff of UNE’s Italian discipline, Laura Churcher (a student of Italian at UNE), and Dr Viviana Gaballo from the University of Macerata.