Archive for December, 2009

2009 was a particularly “green” year for UNE, with the launch of the UNE-based National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research in May and the University’s sponsorship of the Sustainable Living Expo (SLEX) Armidale in September.

The National Centre is a joint venture between UNE and the NSW Department of Primary Industries, aimed at addressing the challenges that climate presents to primary industries. In officially launching the Centre, the Hon. Ian Macdonald MLC also announced the appointment of Professor Annette Cowie as its Director. “Scientists at the National Centre will initially focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, sequestering carbon in soils, and developing next-generation biofuels,” Mr Macdonald said.

UNE, as a leader in many aspects of environmental sustainability, was proud to be the major sponsor of SLEX in 2009.

At the level of University governance, the major events of the year were the installation of Richard Torbay as Chancellor at a graduation ceremony in March, the retirement of Professor Alan Pettigrew as Vice-Chancellor at the end of October, and the appointment of Professor James Barber as the next Vice-Chancellor – a position he will take up in February 2010.

The University saw the second intake of medical students in its School of Rural Medicine – UNE’s part of the Joint Medical Program. It also saw the first intake of students in its new Bachelor of Social Work degree program, which has a unique rural focus. More than ninety students are enrolled in the program – 80 per cent of them coming from regional areas.

Earlier this month UNE’s School of Rural Medicine announced the establishment of the Tablelands Clinical School, with Dr Maree Puxty as its Clinical Dean. The Clinical School will comprise part-time academics in obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, emergency, and psychiatry who will provide both high-quality teaching to medical students and clinical services for the region.

UNE continued to follow its strategic vision of taking its expertise in regional issues to the regions of the world. One example was the International Conference on Health Service Delivery Management, held in Thailand in October, and jointly organised by UNE and Thailand’s Naresuan University. The conference attracted health practitioners, providers and educators from 16 countries, including Australia, Sudan, Nepal, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Laos and Bhutan.

On the UNE campus there were two major conferences examining ways of improving educational opportunities in regions throughout the world: the first International Symposium for Innovation in Rural Education, held in February, and the Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society, held in November.

Other important conferences held at UNE this year have included the first International Evidence-based Complementary Medicine Conference (in March), the 20^th biennial Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition – Australia conference (in July), the 13^th Annual Symposium on Precision Agriculture in Australasia (in September), and the 2009 conference of the Australian Systematic Botany Society (in December).

Charity and community service were not forgotten, with UNE staff digging deep for the Victorian bushfire appeal. The 30th annual Earle Page College Coast Run from Armidale to Coffs Harbour raised more than $30,000 for the Children’s Medical Research Institute, while the Celebration of Sharing Charity Art Auction, held in July, raised more than $5000 for the Salvation Army and local outreach program Paws Up.

The university received a new face in October, with the launch of the new UNE logo, along with an accompanying brand strategy and television campaign. Fittingly, in a year where environmental concerns were prominent, the new UNE logo is green.

Two lucky school-leavers have won a year’s free college accommodation at the University of New England in 2010.

The University announced today the two winners of its “Live Free at UNE” competition. They are Arabella Nelder from Lismore (winner of the competition’s first round) and Shanelle Maloney from Grafton (winner of the second round).

Both Arabella and Shanelle completed their Higher School Certificate studies this year – Arabella at Somerville House in Brisbane, and Shanelle at Grafton High.

The first round of the competition was conducted at this year’s UNE Open Day in September, and the second round was conducted – subsequently – online. Altogether, the competition attracted more than 1,000 entrants from around Australia.

Each prize covers one year’s college fees to the value of $7,500 – including accommodation and meals, cleaning and linen services, and Internet and phone connections. If they accept their prize, each winner will be able to live at the college they have chosen from among six UNE residences, where they will experience a living-and-learning environment unique to UNE.

This is the first time that UNE has run the “Live Free at UNE” competition. “It’s a great opportunity for our prize-winners to gain an experience of college life while being able to focus on their studies without having to think about accommodation costs, and all the associated living expenses such as energy bills,” said UNE’s Chief Development Officer, Chris Patton. “The University is particularly happy to make these prizes available at a time when many rural and regional families considering tertiary education options may be experiencing economic hardship in our communities.  We look forward to welcoming Arabella and Shanelle – along with hundreds of new first-year students – to our campus accommodation at UNE.”

Clicking on the image displayed here reveals a photograph of Mr Chris Patton drawing the name of the second-round winner of the “Live Free at UNE” competition.

The University of New England is set to dramatically increase its international business student numbers after signing an agreement with one of Vietnam’s top business schools.

Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of The Professions at UNE, has signed an agreement with Hanoi University of Business and Technology that will allow Vietnamese business students to come to Armidale to study business at UNE.

Professor Minichiello said this important agreement represented the seriousness of the UNE’s intention to develop significant strategic relationships and collaborations with international partners in countries such as Vietnam.

“UNE is well placed to work with Vietnam on a number of areas of significance, including business, education, health service management, environmental sustainability and agriculture, given our emphasis on regional impact and global relevance,” Professor Minichiello said.

In signing the agreement, the Vice-Rector of the Hanoi University, Dr Doa, said that it was a landmark agreement and that students had been preparing to study in Australian for some time.

“We have been seeking collaboration with respected international institutions like the University of New England in Australia to enhance the prospects of our students.  Australia is increasingly seen by students in Vietnam as a popular destination to further pursue their studies,” he said.

The Hanoi University of Business and Technology was formally established as a private university by the Government of Vietnam in 1996.

Its mission is to train economists and practicing technologists, and it now offers courses in business administration, international trade, finance-banking, accounting and information technology.  In 2008, the university had enrolled almost 16,000 graduates, and this has increased to 20,000 this year.

The university has established international links with the Netherlands, Taiwan and China, while this is its first agreement with an Australian university.

Professor Minichiello said the agreement had been three years in the making.   He said the agreement opened the possibility of adding other courses to the project, as well as the possibility of exchanges for UNE academic staff in the business fields to Vietnam.

Scientists monitoring the health and performance of Siberian huskies over a 10-week sled-racing season have shown that hard-working dogs can perform just as well on a meat-free diet as they do on a meat-rich diet.

Their results, published earlier this year in the British Journal of Nutrition (Vol 102, pp 1318-1323) add to the evidence that dogs fed an exclusively vegetarian diet can be just as healthy and happy as their meat-eating relatives.

Dr Wendy Brown, the canine nutritionist from the University of New England who led the husky trial, is confident that dogs can thrive on a meat-free diet. She warns dog owners, however, that preparing an adequate vegetarian diet for a dog is more difficult and time-consuming than they might think.

Dr Brown has concerns, too, about some of the vegetarian dog foods that are becoming commercially available in growing numbers. Many of these, she said, are untested. “People manufacturing and buying vegetarian and vegan pet foods are often totally against testing, believing that even feeding trials are cruel. But feeding trials can be done in a friendly way. For my own trials, I borrow people’s pet dogs – some of them show dogs – and they are always well cared for. People visiting my kennels comment on how happy the dogs look. And they are.”

“When I feed my own dogs,” she said, “I want to know that what they’re eating is nutritionally adequate.”

“As dogs belong to the order Carnivora, it’s often assumed that they are exclusively carnivorous,” Dr Brown said, “but in fact they are omnivores, belonging to the same superfamily within the Carnivora as the bamboo-eating giant panda and the omnivorous bear.”

In a paper presented at the University of New England during the international conference “Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition 2009″ and published in the conference Proceedings, Dr Brown addresses the common argument that vegetarians should not impose their own values on their pets. “A similar argument is often raised when human parents impose their religious or moral beliefs on their children, particularly when the belief system differs from that of the ethnic majority or predominant culture,” the paper says. “In either case, it would be wise to assess the situation without prejudice.”

In the case of dogs, she says, vegetarianism should be assessed purely from a nutritional perspective – i.e., whether the diet meets the dog’s nutritional needs, maintains the dog’s health, and is sufficiently enjoyable for the dog to eat enough of it.

Research has shown that vegetarian diets can meet these requirements, but that the preparation of a home-made vegetarian diet for a dog can be an exacting and time-consuming process. For example, Dr Brown says, such diets are more likely to be successful when animal products such as eggs and dairy products are included; but, as many dogs are lactose intolerant, milk products should be introduced gradually to gauge their acceptability. It is also advisable to cook eggs, as too many raw eggs in the diet may result in biotin deficiency.

“But there are recipes available,” she adds, “and that’s a good place to start.”

Clicking on the husky image displayed here reveals a photograph of Dr Wendy Brown and one of the canine collaborators in her research.

Dr Jenny Wise, whose book The Scientific Eyewitness was published in August, is preparing to give students of criminology at the University of New England the benefit of her expert insight into the social impact of forensic science.

This has been a big year for Jenny Wise: she took up a lectureship in criminology at UNE in January, graduated with a PhD in criminology from the University of New South Wales, and saw the publication of her PhD thesis – by the German publisher VDM Verlag – as The Scientific Eyewitness: The role of DNA profiling in shaping criminal justice.

UNE’s highly successful Bachelor of Criminology degree course, introduced in 2008, already includes practical experience of DNA sampling and analysis. Dr Wise will begin teaching her new unit, “Forensic Science and Criminal Justice”, in 2010. “I’ll be looking at the social impact of using forensic analysis technologies such as DNA profiling,” she said, “- the impact both on people within the criminal justice system and on members of the general public.”

Among the factors contributing to this impact is the so-called “CSI effect” – i.e., the changing attitudes of police officers, prosecutors and juries towards DNA evidence as a result of television programs such as CSI and Law and Order. “There’s a general belief that juries are more likely to convict a defendant if the Prosecution’s case is supported by DNA evidence,” Dr Wise said. “And prosecutors argue that juries are tending to acquit defendants when no such evidence is presented.

“This perception that DNA evidence is necessary – even when it is not – can lead, for example, to police officers asking for DNA tests when other forms of evidence, such as closed-circuit television footage, would, in fact, be conclusive.”

“DNA analysis is a fantastic forensic tool,” she said. “It’s a huge step forward from eye-witness identification. But we must recognise that, as fallible human beings are involved in the process, errors – such as the mislabelling of samples – can occur.”

Recalling a recent case in which a conviction of rape was quashed after faults in the DNA sampling procedure had been revealed, she said: “DNA should never be used as the sole piece of evidence in a court-room prosecution; it should always be supported by more traditional forms of evidence.”

Dr Wise’s book The New Scientific Eyewitness examines the rise of DNA evidence as a “scientific hero” that is regarded by politicians and law enforcement officials as the new gold standard in solving crimes and preventing miscarriages of justice. It analyses the use of DNA profiling in two jurisdictions – NSW in Australia and the Thames Valley in the UK – and reveals that its use is significantly changing investigative and prosecution practices within the criminal justice system.

People interested primarily in the basic science of the subject will – from 2010 – be able to include a major sequence of Forensic Science (following either a chemistry stream or a biochemistry stream) when undertaking UNE’s Bachelor of Science degree program.

Clicking on the image displayed here reveals a photograph of Dr Jenny Wise.

Australia’s woodland birds are continuing to “pay the debt” imposed on them through large-scale land clearing since the nineteenth century.

That “debt” is labelled “the extinction debt” in the literature of ornithology because its “payment” involves the local extinction – over a period of many decades – of some animal and bird species in any isolated patches of vegetation that remain after clearing.

Delegates to the fifth biennial Australasian Ornithological Conference in Armidale earlier this month were able to compare the fortunes of woodland birds in their own study areas with those on the Northern Tablelands, where scientists from the University of New England have been documenting declining populations of some woodland bird species for many years. The conference, which ran from the 29^th of November to the 4^th of December, included a day-long symposium on woodland birds.

“At the time of clearing, the remnant vegetation has more species than can survive at equilibrium,” explained UNE’s Professor Hugh Ford, who contributed to the symposium, “so there is a ‘relaxation’ in species diversity. The region is said to contain an ‘extinction debt’ that needs to be paid, and a number of species will be lost during the payment of the debt, which may take many decades.

“It’s a depressing story, but a really encouraging thing to come out of the conference was the consensus that, as a result of an increased level of research activity, we now have a better understanding of the ecological processes involved – even though much is still unknown.”

Professor Ford has conducted – and supervised – fieldwork on woodland birds in the Armidale area over the past 30 years. He is the principal author of a paper published this month in the international journal Biological Conservation (Vol 142, pp 3182-3190) that focuses on the progressive loss in the Armidale region of two ground-foraging woodland birds: the brown treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus) and the hooded robin (Melanodryas cucullata – pictured here). The other researchers who contributed to the paper are Stephen Debus from UNE, Jeff Walters from Virginia State University (USA), Caren Cooper from Cornell University (USA), and Veronica Doerr from CSIRO in Canberra.

The fact that most of the land clearing in the Armidale area occurred over 100 years ago indicates the involvement of an extinction debt, their paper says.

Titled “Extinction debt or habitat change? – Ongoing losses of woodland birds in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia”, the paper reveals that the population decline in each of the two species is caused by a different mechanism. In brown treecreeper populations, females seem to be unable (or unwilling) to disperse among pockets of remnant vegetation. The resulting isolated groups of males then die out.

In contrast, hooded robins suffer high levels of nest predation in fragmented landscapes, leaving too few developing chicks to replace losses caused by adult mortality.

The authors report that brown treecreepers have disappeared from 14 out of 21 study sites (all of them within a radius of 40 km of Armidale) that had populations of the species 30 years ago, and that hooded robins remain in only three of their study sites – compared to 11 sites in 1992.

“There’s a reasonable chance that both of these species will continue to contract westwards, out of the Northern Tablelands,” Professor Ford said. They would thus follow the crested bellbird and the grey-crowned babbler into regional extinction.

While an obvious measure in attempting to prevent these losses would be extensive tree planting, a less-obvious measure, Professor Ford said, would be changes in patterns of stock grazing. Both the brown treecreeper and hooded robin are ground-foraging birds, and the reintroduction of periodic grazing in areas such as disused travelling stock routes could make it easier for birds to feed there. “Managers may need to introduce grazing and/or fire at appropriate levels to conserve some kinds of ground-foraging birds,” the paper concludes.

Finally, in widening their perspective, the authors say: “It is likely that many other eucalypt woodland birds are following similar trajectories towards regional extinction, and that this pattern is being repeated in woodlands and forests around the world.”

The Rev. Judy Redman’s placement as Uniting Church Chaplain to the University of New England ends on the 31^st of December.

Since she took up the position in February 2001, the University has benefited not only from the pastoral care she has provided, but also from her committed contribution to other aspects of student support.

Judy has helped many new students – both Australian and international – settle in to university life and overcome problems of homesickness and disorientation.

When she came to UNE, she built on her work as the inaugural Ecumenical Chaplain at the Gippsland campus of Monash University, where she was involved in the delivery of a range of student services – including the development of an information package to help those suffering from homesickness. She brought that material with her to UNE and adapted it for the Armidale campus, where it is now an important component of the University’s “orientation” material for both Australian and international students.

Her involvement with student services at UNE includes being a member of the former Student Support Advisory Committee (2001-6), coordinator of the Don’t Drop Out project for struggling students (2003-4), postgraduate representative on the Alcohol Awareness Advisory Committee (2006), postgraduate member of the UNE Council (2006-8), Vice-President of the UNE Postgraduate Association (2006), and editor of a cultural awareness booklet for international students (2007-9).

She also served on the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee from 2002 to 2008, and as Chair of that committee’s panel on research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples from 2004 to 2008. She is particularly proud of the panel’s achievement of specialised training for people undertaking such research.

Judy says she has enjoyed working on a campus small enough to allow people “to know who you are as a person”.

The pastoral role of a university chaplain, she explained, is not as clearly defined as that of a minister working within a congregation. “I had to do a lot of work developing networks and helping people understand what I was here for,” she said. “Some people are deeply suspicious of the Church, and it takes a while to build up a good working relationship.”

A big advantage of working outside a congregation, she said, is that people – especially young people – feel more able to ask questions – questions that can be “challenging but quite freeing”.

“Having a religious presence on campus shows that the University is serious about its educational task of developing the whole person – not just the intellect,” she said. “For some people, their faith is an important part of who they are, and providing support for that is important.”

Judy is on long service leave until the end of her appointment, and is spending the time working on the PhD project she is undertaking at UNE: a study of the parables of the Realm of God in the Gospel of Thomas (written in the Coptic language) and their parallels in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). The project developed out of a study of Coptic that she embarked on through her interest in languages and in Christian history.

Her family, too, have strong connections with UNE: her husband Bruce is currently enrolled in an environmental science course, their daughter Ceiridwen is studying German in UNE’s School of Arts in preparation for undertaking a Bachelor of Arts degree, and their son Hugh holds a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from UNE and works for the University as a computer analyst. (Judy’s own tertiary qualifications are from the University of Sydney, Queensland University of Technology, and Melbourne College of Divinity.)

Whatever the future holds, Judy – with the support of her family – will continue on her path of active commitment to the Church and to the wider community.

The season for campus tours is reaching its height at the University of New England.

UNE’s Schools Liaison Officers and members of the UNE Student Marketing and Recruitment Team (UNESMART) have been conducting tours regularly over the past few months. Among recent tours have been those for candidates for enrolment in the Joint Medical Program’s Bachelor of Medicine degree course, and school groups from Walcha and Merriwa.

Newly appointed Campus Tour Operators began conducting six tours a week on the 1^st of December, and more tours will be added to the schedule – as required – once the main-round offers from the University Admissions Centre are released.

“Our visitors from Merriwa got to experience one of our science labs first-hand,” said Jessica Price-Purnell, one of the Campus Tour Operators.  “Students and teachers from Merriwa Central School got the opportunity to experiment with different gasses, to see what happens when a rose is dipped in liquid nitrogen, and to make their very own ‘green slime’.  School visits and campus tours really are one of the best ways to get a taste of university life.”

Campus tours provide an opportunity for prospective students and their families to see and experience what UNE has to offer.  “Prospective students get the opportunity to see inside our residential colleges and talk to current residents about their experience of living at UNE,” Ms Price-Purnell said. “They also get to experience the first-class facilities that Sport UNE has to offer. And, very importantly, they get the opportunity to see our academic facilities and talk to some of our world-class academic staff.”

Campus tours at UNE are a starting point for many students’ UNE experience, and many who have been on tours say that the tour was vital in their decision-making process. “The tour guides were very friendly, and they made my decision that much easier,” said one recent participant. “I can’t wait to live and study here.”

Campus tours are free. For more information, go to http://www.une.edu.au/for/future-students/tours.php, and to book a campus tour, e-mail campustours@une.edu.au.

The common belief that mobile phones make life more stressful is wrong, according to new research findings; in fact, they may make us feel less rushed.

Three academics studied the way that 1,083 Australians used their mobile phones and found that those using them most did not feel more pressed for time.

In a paper in the journal Work, Employment and Society, published this week by the British Sociological Association and SAGE, the researchers say that mobile phone use gave the users a greater flexibility about schedules.

The study was carried out by Professor Michael Bittman and Judith Brown from the University of New England in Australia and Professor Judy Wajcman from the London School of Economics in the UK. They got 1,083 people living in Australia to complete a questionnaire and a log of their phone activity using the data on their SIM cards.

In their paper the researchers report that those who used the phones most frequently during both work and leisure time felt no more stress than infrequent users.

Mobile phones could allow us to organise our days better by allowing us to rearrange meetings at short notice, giving us more time, they argue. “Phoning ahead relaxes the formerly inflexible scheduling of a pre-arranged rendezvous,” their paper says. “It seems plausible that this new flexibility of arrangements could contribute to a sense of being less rushed or pressed for time.

“The extra flexibility afforded by mobile communications may be more than sufficient to offset any sense of being harried arising from the increased possibility of being contacted.”

The paper reports that almost none of those studied used their mobile phones for work purposes during their leisure time. This was despite the fact that, as the researchers say, “in principle, a person with a mobile phone is always available”. Their new research contradicts the argument that mobile phones extend work beyond the workplace into the places and times normally reserved for families and leisure.

They found that only 21 per cent of calls on the mobile phones studied related to work and that 40 per cent were to contact family and 21 per cent for friends. The work-related calls were almost always made during working hours – 8 am to 5 pm – and only 3 per cent of work-related calls were made after 7 pm.

“This low rate of work-related use out of standard hours suggests that something other than the mobile phone is extending work hours,” the researchers say. “An analysis of diary data also offers little support for the proposition that mobile phones are a work-extending device.”

The University of New England’s Professor Victor Minichiello is one of seven international experts invited by the Vietnamese Government to deliver a two-week training program for leaders of higher education institutions in Vietnam.

The seven international scholars travelled from the United States, Japan, Singapore and Australia to Vietnam, where Professor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of UNE’s Faculty of The Professions, spoke on their behalf at the program’s opening ceremony.

Professor Minichiello congratulated the Government of Vietnam for investing in its academic institutions and supporting the leaders of those institutions. He spoke about the opportunities and challenges facing higher education – including those associated with new technologies to support the changes occurring in teaching and learning, and those associated with the preparation of graduates for the workforce of the future.

The program, which began on Monday 30 November and continues till Monday 14 December, was funded by Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and organised by Dr Le Phuoc Minh from Vietnam’s National Institute of Educational Management. Attended by 170 Rectors and Vice Rectors, this year’s program follows the success of the inaugural program last year.

In welcoming the participants, the Vice Minister of Education and Training, Tran Quang Quy, said that the training program was designed to update and supplement knowledge and skills about managing, leading and administering universities and colleges, and help Rectors lead and support their staff in promoting change and following the direction of the modernisation, globalisation and standardisation of higher education.

Professor Minichiello delivered a course on staff development, using some of UNE’s training programs for staff as examples of current best practice. He said that staff development recognised the importance of staff competence, commitment, and capacity to change for the successful achievement of a university’s current and future goals, and that it was an important investment for the future of the organisation.

“The fact that Professor Minichiello and UNE were invited to participate in this training program represents recognition of our expertise and the commitment of our staff to assisting colleagues and governments in Asia to further develop their higher education systems,” said UNE’s Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Webb.

“The reform of higher education in Asia presents an enormous challenge to governments,” Professor Webb said, “but it’s one that Asian countries are taking up with enthusiasm.”