Archive for March, 2011

Melanie Oppenheimer’s deep interest in the work of the British social reformer William Beveridge has led to a two-day symposium on Beveridge at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the publication of a book to be launched there next month (April).

Dr Oppenheimer, an Associate Professor at the University of New England, is an authority on the history of volunteering, and the author of several books on the subject, including Volunteering: Why we can’t survive without it (UNSW Press, Sydney, 2008).

William Beveridge, 1879-1963 (pictured here), is best remembered as the author of two reports to the British Parliament during World War II that served as the basis for the establishment of the post-war Welfare State.

“I was really interested, however, in his third report – Voluntary Action – published in 1948, the year of his visit to Australia and New Zealand,” Dr Oppenheimer said. “Commissioned by one of the large friendly societies, it deals with the two foundations of voluntary action: philanthropy and mutual aid. Mutual aid involves people coming together to make the world better for themselves in organisations such as cooperatives, trade unions and friendly societies, and Beveridge was concerned about the possibility that the over-arching Welfare State could squash such individual activity.”

“In 2006 I realised that the 60^th anniversary of the report’s publication was approaching, and initiated plans for a symposium,” she said. Co-convened by Dr Oppenheimer, Dr Frank Bongiorno (a former history lecturer at UNE who now teaches in the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at King’s College London) and the Voluntary Action History Society, the symposium was held at LSE in November 2008.

The book to be launched there on the 18^th of April – Beveridge and Voluntary Action in Britain and the Wider British World, edited by Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin (Manchester University Press, 2011) – comprises edited versions of papers from the symposium. “The list of authors is a virtual ‘Who’s Who’ of Beveridge scholars,” Dr Oppenheimer said, “including Josie Harris, Beveridge’s biographer.” Nicholas Deakin, the book’s co-editor, is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Administration at the University of Birmingham.

Beveridge and Voluntary Action in Britain and the Wider British World will be launched in London by Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive of Volunteering England.

“Beveridge’s Voluntary Action report has lessons for today – particularly in the wake of the global financial crisis,” Dr Oppenheimer observed. “It sounded a note of caution for a society in which the State was meant to fix everything, and a warning about the over-reliance on business. Beveridge believed that business was ‘a good servant but a bad master’.”

UNE and the University of California Irvine (UC Irvine) School of Medicine today formalised an agreement to work together on initiatives that will transform medical and health education using technologies supported by the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The agreement will see UNE access UC Irvine’s advanced medical simulation technology and high-tech applications over the broadband network, boosting medical education for students in the Joint Medical Program (a collaboration between UNE and the University of Newcastle together with Hunter New England Area Health Service and Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service) and in nursing and allied health courses at UNE.

UC Irvine is a leading institution in education, research and clinical care in the United States. It advances medical knowledge and clinical practice through scholarly research, physician education and high-quality care. It educates more than 400 medical students and trains more than 600 residents and fellows at the UC Irvine Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The UC Irvine School of Medicine is the first in the United States to offer its entire first-year curriculum on the iPad tablet computer platform and train students with portable, hand-held ultrasound units.

Dr Gerald Maguire, the Senior Associate Dean of Medical Education at UC Irvine, is visiting UNE with three of his colleagues. “We will be working together to train today’s students to meet the medical needs of tomorrow,” Dr Maguire said. “In addition to formal student exchanges, we will use medical simulation technologies and applications, bedside ultrasound, and mobile devices to enhance medical education and achieve economies of scale.”

He said that the collaboration would enable some “unique educational advances” through the “pooling of resources” – including UNE’s expertise in distance education.

“This is an exciting collaboration for UNE with one of the world’s leading medical schools,” said Professor Jim Barber, Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England. “It allows us to tangibly demonstrate the use of the National Broadband Network to enhance student learning, and ultimately to deliver better health care in our regions. We have some very strong partnerships now with UC Irvine, the University of Newcastle, and Area Health Services that do great credit to our medical, nursing and allied education programs.”

“Things that we could not conceive of doing by distance education in the past are now within our grasp,” he added.

Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of UNE’s Faculty of The Professions, said: “This exciting collaboration will show the practical benefits of using the NBN for medical and health education, including using the NBN’s capacity to transfer audio, video and large data sets simultaneously for medical simulation.  This partnership is another big step in innovating in the field of health, and in giving our health and medical students access to the world’s best.”

Dr Maguire and his three colleagues from UC Irvine presented a public seminar at UNE today as part of the current UNE-NBN Seminar Series. Dr Maguire gave an introduction to the UC Irvine School of Medicine; Dr Harry Haigler, Associate Dean of Medical Education, spoke about the use of digital technology  in the delivery of the School’s first-year medical program; Dr Shahram Lotfipour, Associate Dean for Clinical Science Education, introduced a live Internet link to the Medical School’s Simulation Centre, where the Director of the Centre, Dr Sharon Lin, demonstrated the use of sophisticated manikins for the interactive simulation of a patient undergoing medical procedures; Dr Chris Fox, Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, spoke about the School’s innovative use of portable, bedside ultrasound equipment.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed above shows Dr Gerald Maguire (left) and Professor Jim Barber shaking hands after signing the agreement, with (behind them) UC Irvine’s Dr Harry Haigler (left) and Dr Shahram Lotfipour.

The University of New England (UNE), has won the Gartner and 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Award in the category of Customer Experience.

The Gartner and 1to1 Media awards programme highlights innovative organisations that make a big impact through their customer relationship strategy and achieve an unrivaled level of excellence in delivering customer experience. Winners of three other categories in the Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia Pacific region were British Telecom, Centrica-British Gas and the Turkish bank, Akbank.

As the Customer Experience category winner announced at an awards event staged in London, the University of New England successfully demonstrated to the judging panel how it has deployed a unified customer experience solution to provide outstanding customer service to students across the entire student lifecycle. This includes everything from the first point of contact with a prospective student through to graduation, post-graduate courses, and beyond.

“This award is tremendous recognition for UNE.  It not only recognises the work of theStudent Relationship Management (SRM)Team, but also importantly the efforts of those key student-facing departments who use the SRM system,” said Patrick Tobin, Project Director, Student Relationship Management, University of New England The members of UNE’s SRM Steering Committee have also provided invaluable strategic advice and support.  UNE has achieved great results in improving its customer service experience over the past few years, and to receive an award from one of the world’s leading research and advisory organisationsis a wonderful validation of our success.”

The university’s objectives evolved over time from cost-efficient enquiry management towards excellence in student support across multiple interaction channels.  To meet these objectives, UNE needed to provide: 24/7 self-service; responsive staff-assisted service; proactive, contextual support for students at various stages across the student lifecycle; and the extension of student support and collaboration using social media. The university also wanted a 360-degree view of students, giving it the capability to build a superior relationship. Student access to most of these facilities is via AskUNE.

The initiative has dramatically changed how the university interacts with students, enabling it to be more proactive through outbound marketing, lead capture and email communications. At the same time, the system is replacing paper with electronic records, and through its integration with the university’s existing records management system, is removing the need for duplication.

“Perhaps the greatest testament of success is UNE’s substantial revenue growth in the past two years, as a result of a progressive increase in UNE’s applications and enrolments, following several years of decline.  This turnaround is unlikely to have been possible without the customer experience solution,” says Tobin.

“We now have the ability to service the entire student-to-alumni lifecycle from a single system; we’ve driven significant efficiencies thanks to the online knowledgebase and system workflows; and fewer staff are required to respond to student enquiries and with a shorter turn-around time,” says Tobin.

More than 440 school students entered enthusiastically into the fun of scientific problem solving when they took part in the annual Highlands Science and Engineering Challenge at the University of New England last week.

They responded creatively to a range of challenges – including the construction of weight-bearing bridges, remotely controlled airships, and receivers for an electronic signal.

During the process they gained an insight into scientific principles, the effectiveness of teamwork, and the satisfaction that might be gained from a career in science or engineering.

But the immediate aim of the organisers was that the students should all have fun.

The Discovery Day on Tuesday 22 March attracted more than 200 students from seven Armidale primary schools, and the Challenge for secondary (Year 10) students on the following day brought 240 participants from six Armidale high schools and central schools in Uralla, Walcha and Guyra. Primary and secondary students took part in exactly the same activities – the only difference being that the Discovery Day was non-competitive, while the teams of high-school students were competing for a place in the Northern NSW Super Challenge in Newcastle in August.

The winning team came from The Armidale School, with teams from Armidale High School and Walcha Central School coming second and third.

This is the ninth year that UNE has staged events in the “Challenge” series. Supported by UNE’s School of Science and Technology and School of Environmental and Rural Science, the event is organised by committee of local Rotarians and UNE representatives, and assisted by the University of Newcastle, which supplies much of the equipment for the activities.

“Each year we see different solutions to the problems,” said David Steller from Armidale Central Rotary Club. “The students never cease to amaze us.”

While the emphasis for the primary students is simply on having fun in science-based activities, the Year 10 students have reached a stage where they will have to make decisions about the subjects they will undertake in Years 11 and 12. “We want to encourage these students to think about careers in science, so that when they come to choose electives they will consider doing some high-level science subjects,” said Dr Peter Lye, A Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at UNE. “Without this background, students can have difficulty with science programs at university level.”

It’s a big week for Morgan Dwyer. The day before her graduation from the University of New England on Saturday 2 April she’ll present a public lecture about her archaeological adventure on the Spanish island of Menorca.

Travelling to Menorca (one of the Balearic Islands) last year as the inaugural recipient of UNE’s Caswell and Mulligan International Travel Bursary, Morgan took part in the excavation of graves at the site of the Roman port city of Sanisera.

Although Menorca is a popular tourist destination, the site of Sanisera has remained relatively undisturbed over the centuries. Excavations conducted by the Sanisera Archaeological Field School are yielding vast amounts of information about the site’s inhabitants: the prehistoric Taliotic people, the Romans, the Arabs, and later the British.

Morgan (pictured here examining a child’s skull from Sanisera’s necropolis) will talk about her experiences in excavating graves at the site of the necropolis, and in cleaning, preserving and classifying skeletal remains. She will also discuss the general history of the Balearic Islands, which lie at the heart of the Mediterranean.

Her talk will be in Lecture Theatre 1 (Room 133) in UNE’s Education Building at 6.30 pm on Friday 1 April. Refreshments will be available at 6 pm outside the lecture theatre.

The Romans first arrived on Menorca in 123 BC, and the island remained part of the Roman Empire for the following 600 years. Sanisera, one of three Roman cities on Menorca, was built around the port of Sanitja at the north of the island, and the city prospered from the commerce provided by boats sailing from Spain to Italy and from France to Africa.

The annual Caswell and Mulligan International Travel Bursary (worth $2,500) was established by Dr Gabrielle Caswell (a UNE graduate and current student) and Stefan Mulligan in 2010. The bursary is to support the travel of a UNE undergraduate student of ancient history to an archaeological site overseas, or for an internship at an international museum. On Saturday 2 April Morgan Dwyer will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Ancient History.

People travelled to Armidale from around Australia and around the world to graduate from the University of New England in a ceremony at the University today.

During the ceremony the Chancellor of UNE, Dr Richard Torbay, presented about 200 graduands in the Sciences, Health and Medicine with their awards.

Those who came from abroad included Mitra Rashidian, who travelled from her home in Los Angeles where she works as a psychotherapist. While conducting her PhD research and preparing her thesis, titled Understanding the Sexual-selves of Iranian-American Women: A Qualitative Study, Dr Rashidian visited UNE several times. “And I decided definitely to be here for Graduation,” she said. “It’s an honour and a pleasure to be here in this wonderful place that’s given me so much.”

Another graduand from overseas was Tanongson Tienthavorn, who travelled from Thailand with his father, Dr Vichai Tienthavorn, who is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Payao in Thailand. Dr Tienthavorn, who works at an army hospital and medical college in Thailand, spent four-and-a-half years at UNE studying towards the Doctor of Health Services Management degree he was presented with today. His thesis is titled Managing Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Services of Road Traffic Injuries in Khon Kaen Province, Thailand.

Jennifer Wood from Tamworth graduated with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy cum laude. She is UNE’s first PhD graduate to gain the recently introduced cum laude distinction, which means that her thesis, titled The Influence of Seed Morphology, Ultra-structure and Chemistry on the Milling Quality of Chickpea,  was passed – without the need for any alteration – by all three of her examiners.

Dr Wood studied for her PhD and published several scientific articles while working as a researcher at Tamworth Agricultural Institute and having two children.

The guest speaker at today’s graduation ceremony was Professor Mary O’Kane, NSW Chief Scientist and Scientific Engineer.

Professor O’Kane (pictured above), after observing that UNE had entered its own “era of productivity” over the past few years, urged the graduands to contribute to the nation’s productivity in their future careers by being innovative. “Innovation is the driver of productivity,” she said, “and intrinsic to maintaining our way of life.”

She noted that, after a period of growth in the 1990s, Australia’s productivity had declined since 2003 – a decline exacerbated by factors such as an ageing population and climate change. “This is where you come into the picture,” she told the graduands. “Your country needs you.”

The graduation ceremony at UNE tomorrow (Saturday 26 March), will be for the discipline of Education.

James Joyce’s Ulysses and Virgil’s Aeneid will come under the microscope at a lecture at the University of New England next month.

The lecture will be held at at Earle Page College (in the Gallery) on Thursday, April 7 at 5.30 pm.

The speaker will be Dr Randall Pogorzelski, the University’s first Charles Tesoriero Lecturer in Latin. With degrees from the University of Southern California, Pennsylvania, and UC Santa Barbara, Dr Pogorzelski has specialised in Latin Literature and combines with this an active interdisciplinary interest in comparative literature.

Dr Pogorzelski’s lecture is entitled ‘Tyrants and Terrorists: Cacus and Political Identity in Virgil’s Aeneid and Joyce’s Ulysses, and draws on material he is preparing for a book which revises his PhD from a few years ago. The lecture will deal with the construction of political identity in book 8 of Virgil’s Aeneid and in the “Cyclops” episode of Joyce’s Ulysses.

Dr Pogorzelski recently was awarded the Gildersleeve prize for the best article to appear in 2009 in the American Journal of Philology, and he is working on a new project on representations of space and geography in the Neronian and Flavian periods.

This may prove the last opportunity to hear Dr Pogorzelski speak in a public forum in Armidale, as he has accepted a post at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, and leave UNE at the end of June. Don’t miss out on hearing this very able young scholar on April 7.

Media Contact: Greg Horsley on 6773 2390 or 6773 2555.

A new agreement between the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) and the University of New England will enable the two organisations to cooperate more closely in a range of projects related to biodiversity and cultural heritage planning.

The signing of a co-location agreement at UNE last week will see the members of the Department’s Biodiversity and Cultural Heritage Unit moving from their offices in the centre of Armidale to new accommodation on the UNE campus. The move is scheduled to take place by the end of March.

All five members of the Biodiversity and Cultural Heritage Unit attended the signing ceremony at which Professor Iain Young, Head of UNE’s School of Environmental and Rural Science, welcomed them to their new location within the School. Professor Young said that their presence would bring “great benefits” – not only to his School, but to others around the campus.

Dr Kate Wilson, Executive Director of DECCW’s Scientific Services Division, flew from Sydney for the occasion. She said the Department was looking forward to taking its skills into a new environment in what was “a really productive relationship”. “It’s an acknowledgement of the excellence of the Department’s staff that they’re being invited to UNE,” she said. In welcoming the DECCW scientists to UNE, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Annabelle Duncan, said she believed the mutual respect of the partners would ensure success.

The co-location agreement builds on an existing Memorandum of Understanding between the Department and the University that facilitates collaboration in research and teaching. Co-location will allow an even more productive blend of the Department’s practical focus on individual projects and the University’s broader, more theoretical perspectives.

A particular strength of the Department’s Biodiversity and Cultural Heritage Unit is in the development of spatial models and their application in biodiversity and cultural heritage planning. The University, for its part, is able to contribute knowledge gained from a wide range of relevant research projects, access to remote-sensing expertise and equipment, and multidisciplinary perspectives.

The co-location will also enable UNE students to become involved in real-world projects.

Ross Williams, DECCW’s Director of Catchment and Environment Protection Science, said that he and his four colleagues saw the move to UNE as “an excellent opportunity to collaborate using our complementary skills”. “Together we can really build capacity, and seek grants for projects that we haven’t been able to pursue in the past,” he said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Dr Kate Wilson, Executive Director of DECCW’s Scientific Services Division (right), signing the co-location agreement with Professor Annabelle Duncan, UNE’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).

More than 2,200 people are graduating from the University of New England this autumn, and more than 1,000 of them will be receiving their awards in person during the University’s four Autumn Graduation ceremonies over the next two weekends.

The first ceremony, on Friday 25 March, will be for people graduating in the Sciences, Health and Medicine, and the subsequent ceremonies will be for the disciplines of Education (Saturday 26 March), Law, Economics, Business and Public Policy (Friday 1 April), and Arts and Humanities, including the Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences (Saturday 2 April).

The lawns of “Booloominbah” will be crowded with up to 1,000 visitors – friends and relatives of the graduands – on each of the four days.

Three distinguished Australians who have long-standing associations with UNE will be presented with honorary awards: on Saturday 26 March Mrs Edwina Ridgway OAM will receive the award of Doctor of the University, and on Saturday 2 April Professor Sharon Sullivan AO will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, and Mrs Jennifer Crew OAM will be made a Distinguished Fellow of the University.

Mrs Ridgway, the Principal of UNE’s Duval College and Drummond & Smith College, will present the Occasional Address on Saturday 26 March, and Professor Sullivan, a UNE graduate and former Executive Director of the Australian Heritage Commission, will present the Occasional Address on Saturday 2 April.

The Occasional Address speaker on Friday 25 March will be the NSW Chief Scientist and Scientific Engineer, Professor Mary O’Kane. Professor O’Kane, who was Vice-Chancellor and President of Adelaide University from 1996 to 2001, is Chair of the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy and Chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information. The speaker on Friday 1 April will be Adam Graycar, Professor of Public Policy at the Australian National University and Dean of the Australian National Institute of Public Policy.

Staff and students of the University of New England will rally behind disaster-stricken Japan at the Markets in the Mall this Sunday.

The Armidale Japanese Association will set up donation boxes, an origami workshop corner for children, and a small flea market to raise money in support of  victims of the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant disaster in the north-east of Japan.

The campaign has been dubbed ‘Ganbare Tohoku!’ (Cheer up Tohoku!), referring to the region of Japan affected by the disasters.

Those who donate will be given a piece of origami work (such as a crane, frog or other ornamental figure) that the members of the association have made as a token of appreciation. 

All funds raised will be donated to those affected via the Australian Red Cross. 

Dr Keita Takayama, from UNE’s School of Education, is leading the campaign, with support from colleagues from across the university and the local community.

Students enrolled in Japanese language units at UNE and local schools have also been invited to help the campaign at the market stall.

Dr Takayama said: “Many of us in the Armidale Japanese Association, both Japanese and non-Japanese members, felt compelled to act in the wake of this catastrophic event.  Having received heart-felt sympathy, condolence, and encouragement from our neighbours, colleagues, and friends in Armidale, we’ve decided that the fundraising campaign would help Armidale residents and the UNE community communicate their compassion for the victims.”

The Armidale Japanese Association was established by a group of Japanese families and friends in Armidale in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.  The association currently has 14 families residing in Armidale area and is open to anyone interested in and associated with Japan.  The association is planning to run another fundraising campaign at the UNE Japanese Cultural Festival on May 13 and at the Markets in the Mall in April and May.   

With at least 8450 dead, and thousands more missing, the disasters in Japan have devastated the country. Some 335,000 people have been forced into temporary emergency shelters, where they now face shortages of food, clothing and medical supplies. 

“One of the few positive outcomes from such a tragic event is that it unites people together,” Dr. Takayama said. “The formation of Armidale Japanese Association is one such example where people in the community spontaneously come together to work for the common cause.”

Those interested in supporting the campaign can contact Dr. Takayama on 6773 3472 or at ktakayam@une.edu.au.