Archive for December, 2010

Almost before the ink is dry on the last exam of their school life, many Year 12 students are overwhelmed by the pressure to choose where to go and what to study during their tertiary education years. Trying to find clear and focused online advice often adds to that pressure.

Students in the Port Macquarie-Hastings region have just had life made that little bit easier for them, and they couldn’t be more enthusiastic about being involved. They were invited by Port Macquarie-Hastings Council to test a new online portal, called Mid Coast Uni Portal, which brings together a host of options for higher education in the one convenient access point.

The site, conceptualised by the Council to boost its regional students’ access to – and participation in – future studies, is a collaborative venture between the University of New England, University of New South Wales, University of Newcastle, University of Sydney, Southern Cross University, Charles Sturt University, and North Coast TAFE.

The Web site is at www.midcoastuniportal.com.au.

UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students and Social Inclusion), Ms Eve Woodberry, said that the Web site was dedicated to making the decision for tertiary study more straightforward, and that it would attract prospective students who would otherwise not be drawn to university study.

“UNE is immensely proud to be so heavily involved in a technology scheme that drives straight to the goal of boosting student participation and encouraging new high-school graduates to look into their potential,” she said.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council encouraged students to test the site in real time, and Ms Woodberry observed that the portal had been extremely well received.

“Bringing all of these options together, across six universities and TAFE in one user-friendly portal, makes exploring higher education not only easier but actually quite enjoyable, as students get to interact with each university,” she said. “This Web site is a testament to the commitment universities have to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to consider a higher education. It’s about diversity and choice, and we hope more students access and enjoy the online experience.”

Organisers of a recent symposium at the University of New England hope the event has laid the foundation for a continuing dialogue on the intrinsic value of animals’ lives.

The event, titled “Animalia: a Critical Animal Studies symposium”, brought together UNE academics from disciplines – including literature, music and philosophy – who share a compassionate interest in animals. They presented papers on subjects ranging from dogs in fiction to the musical representation of birds and beasts.

The guest speaker was Julia Hardaker, Executive Officer of the organisation Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities (AMRRIC) – an independent group of veterinarians, academics, health professionals and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. “With the view that human and dog health are inseparable in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities,” Ms Hardaker explained, “AMRRIC works to improve community health by improving the health and welfare of the dogs.”

“AMRRIC is privileged to information regarding the inner and complex world of relationships between owners and their dogs,” she said. “We have come to better understand the history of dogs in remote and Indigenous communities and the shift from the dingo to contemporary dogs as companions and protectors. We’ve been taken to ‘dog dreaming sites’, and have been educated about family kinship systems and the spiritual connectedness to their dogs.”

The symposium was hosted last month by the UNE-based Arts New England Centre for Research and Innovation in the Arts, and organised by Dr Jane O’Sullivan and Dr Julia Petzl-Berney from UNE’s School of Arts with the assistance of Rowena Smith, a PhD candidate in the School of Arts. Dr Jennifer McDonell, a lecturer in English at UNE who is internationally recognised for her work in Critical Animal Studies, opened the event with an introduction to this emerging field of inquiry.

“Scholars identifying their work within Critical Animal Studies (also known as Human and Animal Studies) are interested in the ways in which humans and animals are connected,” Dr McDonell said. “Humans and animals have co-evolved, so neither can be understood – discursively or materially – without the other. Work in this field is informed by the assumption that scholarly reflection about animals depends not only on discursive practices, but also on observation, cooperation, openness, and compassion for actual beings.”

Dr O’Sullivan emphasised the interdisciplinary – and, indeed, multidisciplinary – nature of Critical Animal Studies, explaining that it embraced research in the humanities, as well as in the natural and social sciences, that focused on “animals as the prime subjects of inquiry” in the context of animal/human relationships. “Critical Animal Studies is growing as a field of academic activity at universities around the world,” she said. “It’s a good example of the Academy taking up the challenge of speaking for the voiceless.”

“The symposium provided an introduction to the field – and an invitation to wade into that field,” Dr O’Sullivan said, adding that the contribution of Julia Hardaker as guest speaker exemplified the role of Arts New England as a research centre for the whole community.

The University of New England has added a new link to its chain of connections with academic institutions in China through the signing of an agreement with Henan Agricultural University (HAU).

The President of HAU, Professor Zhang Qiong, and UNE’s Chief Development Officer, Mr Chris Patton, signed the agreement when Professor Zhang and four of her senior management colleagues visited UNE late last month.

The agreement will enable students who have completed a diploma program or two or three years of a degree program at HAU to complete a UNE degree – with advanced standing – in the areas of accounting, business, biotechnology and molecular genetics, environmental science, animal science, agriculture, and agricultural and resource economics.

HAU, with 21,000 students and 1,700 staff members, is in the city of Zhengzhou in China’s Henan Province. It offers degrees in agronomy, medicine, science, engineering, arts, economics, management, law and education. It has a rural focus, with a particular interest in agronomy and environmental science, and its collaboration with UNE will focus on common areas of strength.

The delegation from HAU, which included Li Chengwu (the university’s Vice-President), Professor Zhang Dongping (Dean of the International Education College), Professor Li Chaohai (Director of the Key Laboratory), and Huang Song (Dean of the Horticulture College), discussed aspects of the collaborative agreement with UNE staff members from the Schools of Environmental and Rural Science, Science and Technology, and Business, Economics and Public Policy. They also visited some of UNE’s teaching facilities, including the new glasshouse complex in Environmental and Rural Science.

UNE is currently teaching students from seven Chinese educational institutions through advanced standing and cooperation agreements. Mr Patton said that UNE greatly valued this comprehensive agreement with HAU – a highly-regarded university. He added that the arrangement was particularly pleasing at a time when national figures indicated an overall drop in the numbers of Chinese students applying to study at Australian universities.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of  Professor Zhang Qiong and Mr Chris Patton displayed here was taken at UNE after they had signed the agreement. Clicking on this image reveals a photograph of the visitors from Henan Agricultural University with their UNE hosts.

With the end of the 2010 school year and the approach of the next academic year, the University of New England is seeing an increased demand for its free tours of the campus.

UNE’s Schools Liaison Officers and members of the UNE Student Ambassador Program have been conducting tours regularly over the past few months. Participants in recent tours have included school groups, and students applying for the Joint Medical Program’s Bachelor of Medicine degree course.

Year 11 students from Walcha Central School participate in an annual visit to UNE. This year, they were able to see a production by a Theatre Studies student. “Most of the students from Walcha had never seen a theatre production before, so it was an exciting introduction to that area of study,” said Ruth Bartlett-Taylor, the UNE Schools Liaison Officer who guided the tour. “They were certainly impressed by the level of talent displayed in the production, which was very professional.”

The past few weeks have also seen groups from Ashford and Merriwa Central Schools come to Armidale for the day. Year 6 students from Merriwa and their parents saw a fitness class at SportUNE, listened to the blood flowing through their veins, and learnt about the academic discipline of Sports Science. They also manufactured “slime” in the science laboratories.

Individual students and their parents have come from as far away as Narrandera and Braidwood during the same period, and students from Emmaville Central School will be visiting the campus in the coming weeks.

“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,” Mrs Bartlett-Taylor said.

“It’s so important to see the place where you might be living for the next four years,” said a visiting student on a recent tour. “It’s great that I can see what my college room might look like, and see inside the lecture halls where I will be studying.”

Two current UNE students who are members of the University’s Student Ambassador Program – Stefanie Taylor and Kyra Austin – have been newly appointed as Campus Tour Operators. They will gain valuable work experience over the summer while sharing their UNE experiences with visiting high-school students. “I’ve loved my time here at UNE, and I enjoy sharing my experiences with potential students,” Stefanie said. “It’s such an important decision for them, so I’m glad that I am able to help them get some questions answered.”

“‘Booloominbah’, the Dixson Library, and the residential colleges are greatly admired by visitors,” she added, “and many touring students enjoy hearing about the history of the University and its buildings.”

Tours are generally run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays throughout the year. They begin at 9:30 am and 1:30 pm and run for about two hours. Bookings are essential.  For more information go to http://www.une.edu.au/campustours.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show Ruth Bartlett-Taylor (right) taking Camilla Parry on a campus tour. The photo was taken on the staircase under the Gordon Window in “Booloominbah”. Camilla, who completed Year 10 at New England Girls’ School this year, spent last week doing work experience in UNE’s Marketing and Public Affairs Directorate.

The kangaroo is a unique symbol of Australia, and a newly-published book examines the world’s continuing fascination with this famous marsupial.

Kangaroo: Portrait of an Extraordinary Marsupial, by Stephen Jackson and Karl Vernes, tells the remarkable story of the kangaroo from its ancient origins and prehistoric significance to current-day management and conservation.

The project started over two years ago, when Dr Karl Vernes from the University of New England and Dr Stephen Jackson from the NSW Department of Primary Industries at Orange teamed up to write a book about kangaroos that was unlike any other written on the topic.

“We wanted this to be a lively, informative book for anybody interested in kangaroos – one that touches upon the many diverse reasons, both cultural and biological, why we find kangaroos so fascinating,” said Dr Vernes, a Senior Lecturer in UNE’s School of Environmental and Rural Science. “The book delves into the cultural importance of kangaroos to Aborigines over tens of thousands of years, and the fascination that was obvious to Europeans when they encountered them, right through to issues such as kangaroo harvesting, management and conservation.”

Karl Vernes and Steve Jackson met back in the mid-1990s when, as PhD students, the pair found themselves sharing an office in Dr Chris Johnson’s mammal ecology lab at James Cook University.  “Together, we hatched all kinds of book plans, but getting though our PhDs, publishing research papers and finding postdoctoral positions and jobs sort of got in the way,” Dr Vernes said.  “The plans for this book were developed two years ago, when Steve got the green light from Allen & Unwin to write the book, and invited me onto the project because of my experience with kangaroos gained over two decades of ecological research on the group.”

Kangaroo: Portrait of an Extraordinary Marsupial was published by Allen & Unwin in September this year. The book will be officially launched on Thursday 9 December at 4:30 pm in the United Campus Bookshop at UNE.

Kangaroo reveals the amazing diversity of this group of animals – ranging from tiny forest dwellers and tree kangaroos to large majestic animals living on the open plains of central Australia and the giant kangaroos that once roamed the Pleistocene landscape. The authors also investigate the natural history of kangaroos: their unique reproduction methods, intriguing behaviour, varied diet, and trademark hopping ability – all of which make them such fascinating animals.

The launch on Thursday will be a public event, and everyone is welcome. For details of the launch go to: http://www.ucb.net.au/home_une.htm.

The image displayed here expands to show Dr Karl Vernes and Professor Annabelle Duncan, UNE’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), with the new book.

The University of New England has been awarded a Commonwealth Government grant of $486,000 to help Australian secondary school teachers and their students gain Asian language literacy.

The program is sponsored by the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP) Strategic Collaboration and Partnership Fund, an initiative of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The grant awarded to UNE is the largest given to any single organisation since the NALSSP began in 2009. It will support UNE’s new Asian Languages Accreditation Program (ALAP), run by the School of Arts and the Arts New England Centre for Innovation and Research in the Arts, which will provide professional development in language acquisition for 30 registered (in-service) secondary school teachers.

Teachers will undertake part-time studies by distance (online) education in Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese or Indonesian languages and teaching methodologies as part of a Diploma in Modern Languages program. Each ALAP student will be given a Student Contribution Sponsorship which includes a full Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) grant for all eight units in the Diploma course. In addition, ALAP students will have subsidised travel and accommodation when attending non-mandatory intensive schools at UNE for study in Asian language units. For those ALAP students who wish to accelerate completion of their studies, optional overseas study is available in the summer holidays at one of UNE’s partner institutions in China, Indonesia or Japan. Students will be eligible to apply for a subsidy of up to $4,000 to cover travel, accommodation and meals for three weeks while they are overseas.

In announcing the allocation of $3.6 million from the NALSSP Strategic Collaboration and Partnership Fund to UNE and other applicants, the Minister of School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, the Hon. Peter Garrett, said that the grants were a vital part of “the Government’s strategic investment into increasing Australian students’ knowledge of the languages and cultures of our Asian neighbours”.

Competition for funds was fierce, with only 10 of 51 proposals making the final cut. “I am delighted that the Government and its chosen expert assessors have recognised UNE’s established excellence in the teaching and learning of Asian languages,” said UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Professor Jennie Shaw.

Professor Shaw is keen for individual teachers and local schools to take part in the program. “The great advantage of online learning is that we can deliver high quality, flexible study to sponsored students who would be otherwise disadvantaged by geographical circumstances or family or employment commitments,” she said.

No previous knowledge of an Asian language is necessary. Those teachers with no previous Asian language experience will be able to acquire language skills at a level that meets the NSW Institute of Teachers accreditation requirements to teach an Asian language as a second teaching area. For those who have either studied the specified Asian language to HSC level or equivalent, or who are native speakers of that language, the ALAP provides a pathway to language acquisition at a level that meets the NSW Institute of Teachers accreditation requirements to teach an Asian language as either a first or a second teaching area.

Applications and enrolments are now open. Preference will be given to secondary school teachers who submit their applications to UNE by the 1^st of January 2011, but enrolments will remain open until the 1^st of February or until all 30 places are filled. Studies commence in February 2011. All study covered by the Student Contribution Sponsorship must be completed by December 2012.

For more information contact Professor Jennie Shaw at UNE or asianlanguages@une.edu.au

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Sayaka Nunotani giving a koto recital during a Japanese cultural evening at UNE earlier this year.

Twenty science teachers from Armidale, Gunnedah, Guyra, Inverell, Tamworth and Walcha travelled to the University of New England last week for two days of professional development aimed at helping them keep their students in touch with opportunities for science-based employment in primary industries.

The event was part of the national Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE) program, which aims to build strong and sustainable relationships between school students, teachers, and scientists and employers in local primary industries.

The teachers from NSW were joined by a teacher from Karoonda in South Australia who had won a PICSE travelling scholarship to take part in the event.

UNE houses a NSW activity centre for the PICSE program, which is a collaboration between – and funded jointly by – the Commonwealth Government, universities, regional primary industries, national primary industry organisations, and businesses. The program delivers science class activities, teachers’ professional development, teaching resources, student camps, and student industry placement programs.

The event for teachers, on the 25^th and 26^th of November, allowed them to interact with UNE scientists to learn about the current scientific research supporting adaptation to a changing climate in the primary industries sector, and gave them access to new ideas and resources to update their classroom teaching. Kay Lembo, the PICSE program’s Eastern Area Coordinator, who attended the event, pointed out that it had also provided them with valuable networking opportunities.

Dr Matt Cahill, Research and Development Leader for Australia and New Zealand with the international company Dow AgroSciences (DAS), spoke to the teachers about the diverse range of key roles that scientists play in R&D companies such as DAS.  Dr Cahill said that the company, which has recently joined forces with the PICSE program, was looking forward to hosting its first PICSE student placement – at its Breeza field station in January – and to “building on the DAS/PICSE commitment to encourage students into science”.

The guest speaker at the dinner on the Thursday evening was Professor Annette Cowie, Director of the National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research.

Joe Pilz, the teacher from South Australia, emphasised the importance of linking science teaching in rural and regional schools with local primary industries. “We’ve got students dropping out of science in rural schools without realising that there’s a lot of science involved in rural industries,” he said. Mr Pilz said he had benefited greatly from the PICSE professional development days.

Gina Watt, from Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in Tamworth, said that the PICSE program – which she called “a fantastic program” – was “a link to the wider world” for teachers. She remarked on its “relevance to industry”, saying that there were “opportunities out there” for students that were not being taken advantage of.

“I love this program,” said Megan Tyers from New England Girls’ School in Armidale. “You can immerse yourself in real science, and then show the students what’s really happening out there.”

Susanna Greig, the PICSE Science Education Officer based at UNE, said: “The first NSW Activity Centre for the national PICSE program was established at UNE in 2007. Since that time the program has expanded and is now working with twice the number of schools and running additional activities for school students and teachers in local schools.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Yvette Ballard from Guyra Central School and Dave Moffitt from PLC Armidale at the PICSE event. It expands to include Megan Tyers from New England Girls’ School.

The University of New England has welcomed to its staff a man well qualified to continue the work of the inspirational Latin lecturer Dr Charles Tesoriero.

“I want to share my passion for Latin with as many students as possible here at UNE,” said Dr Randall Pogorzelski, the University’s first Charles Tesoriero Lecturer in Latin, in responding to his official welcome last Thursday.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jim Barber, said that Dr Tesoriero’s passion for Latin had led to his bequest of $1 million to UNE for the establishment of a new Latin lectureship, and that he had “great pleasure in welcoming” Dr Pogorzelski to the position.

Professor Barber thanked those among the guests at the welcome function who had added to the bequest by their donations.

Charles Tesoriero, who held a lectureship in Classics at UNE from 2000 until 2005, died in 2005 at the age of 32. Dr Tamara Neal, Dr Tesoriero’s former partner and one of the executors of his Will, speaking at the welcome function, explained that he had left a bequest of $1 million to both UNE and the University of Sydney for the promotion of Latin teaching. “Charles was a passionate teacher, who instilled in his students a love of Latin, Latin literature, and everything to do with the ancient world,” Dr Neal said. “He inspired loyalty and trust in his students, who were attracted by his passion, his intellect, and his integrity.”

Dr Neal read a statement by Charles Tesoriero’s uncle, Ron Tesoriero, in which he thanked the University and said it was “wonderful that Charles’s spirit is being kept alive through the bequest”.

Dr Pogorzelski said he was “grateful to Charles for his generosity and his commitment to Latin”.

“Latin is amazing for its ability to bring people together and foster a shared passion and enthusiasm,” he said, adding that the new lectureship was “a great opportunity” to build such a “community of Latinists” at UNE.

Clicking on the image displayed here reveals a photograph of Dr Randall Pogorzelski (centre) with UNE’s Professor Greg Horsley (Professor of Classics and Ancient History) and Dr Tamara Neal.