Archive for the 'Programs and Partnerships' Category

More than 600 people who wish to study medicine have undergone a rigorous selection process that will set some of them on the road next year to gaining a medical degree through the Joint Medical Program (JMP).

The JMP interviews have been conducted simultaneously, over a period of two weeks, by the two universities involved in the innovative partnership: the University of New England and the University of Newcastle. One third of the applicants have been interviewed at UNE.

Admission to the JMP is highly competitive, with only 170 applicants receiving a place – 60 of these at UNE. To determine which applicants are most likely to be successful medical students and then doctors, the JMP measures their personal qualities through a series of short interviews and considers this alongside their academic ability.

This is the second year that the interviews have been in this “multiple mini interview” form, in which applicants move through a series of eight separate, one-on-one interviews designed to reveal the strength and balance of qualities that the JMP believes are required in a doctor.

The interviews seek information about a candidate’s ability to learn independently, their decision-making ability, their interpersonal and communication skills, and their desire to be a doctor.

As the process is designed to reveal a wide range of personal qualities, half of the interviewers are drawn from the general community and half from a range of academic disciplines.

Associate Professor Graham Lloyd Jones, academic supervisor of the multiple mini interview process at UNE, said interviewers commented that applicants were “exceptional and highly-motivated young men and women”.

“It’s a huge commitment from all the interviewers who have given freely of their time to attend training, carry out the interviews over a two-week period, and contribute to our evaluation process,” Dr Lloyd Jones said. “The University is very grateful for their assistance, which enables such a large number of students to be interviewed on the UNE campus.”

At UNE, the whole University worked together to make the applicants feel welcome and able to fully engage in the interview process.

“Although the campus at which they are interviewed is not necessarily the one at which they will study, it is a great opportunity to show applicants what UNE can offer them as students,” Dr Lloyd Jones said. “Feedback about Armidale and the facilities on campus for students has been very positive.”

Many of the applicants interviewed at UNE’s School of Rural Medicine come from rural areas across Australia – auguring well for a program aimed at increasing the number of doctors working in the regions. The JMP also provides strong incentives for Indigenous applicants, interviewing around 25 Indigenous candidates each year.

The first round of general offers into the JMP will be announced around 16 January, 2013.

Twenty-five science teachers from secondary schools as far away as Sydney, Mudgee and Coffs Harbour spent two days at the University of New England this week learning about current research to help ensure the continuing supply of high-quality food.

From within the New England North West region, the teachers came from Inverell, Walcha, Guyra, Gunnedah, Tamworth, Warialda and Armidale.

The professional development event, organised by the Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE), a national program with a centre based at UNE, enabled the teachers to interact with scientists at the cutting edge of research supporting food security. They were able to share not only a wealth of new information, but also resource materials and activity ideas for the classroom.

Many of the participants have been attending these PICSE events at UNE ever since they were initiated some years ago, and they said they had found them an effective means of alleviating professional isolation. While the high-school curriculum is kept in mind, the program also helps teachers to explore current science-related issues: for example, the science behind coal seam gas was explored, assisting the teachers to further the understanding of their students.

Sheila Peres da Silva, who travelled from Sydney on a PICSE travelling scholarship, said: “I’ve learnt so much! It was the best professional development event I’ve ever been to…and I’ve been to many over the years.”

Over the two days, teachers interacted with leading researchers from around the region, learning about innovations in food production (including the UNE SmartFarm), and regional and global food security issues and solutions. They were also introduced to new resources – including laboratory activities – developed by PICSE. “These had the UNE Agronomy and Soil Science laboratory buzzing with activity and ideas,” said the manager of the UNE PICSE program, Susanna Greig.

Those contributing to the event included Dr Isa Yunusa, Dr Chris Guppy, Professor David Lamb, Dr Mark Trotter, Dr Ken Geenty, Associate Professor Paul Ashley and Dr Sue Wilson from UNE, Dr Sharon Downes from CSIRO Ecosystem’s Australian Cotton Research Institute, Dr Ross Jenkins from Niche Environment and Heritage, Belinda Pine and Meredith How from the Department of Education and Communities, and Professor John Crawford from the University of Sydney. Professor Crawford, who was the speaker at the event’s special dinner, chaired the committee responsible for funding much of the research on sustainable agriculture, diet and health in the UK.

“These events really are valuable opportunities for teachers to be updated on current research developments, enabling them to pass this information on to their students,” Susanna Greig said. “And it’s a terrific opportunity for us to work with teachers in helping their students to find out about science-based careers linked to primary industries.”

PICSE is a national collaboration between – and is funded jointly by – the Commonwealth Government, universities, regional primary industries, national primary industry organisations, and businesses. It works to build strong and sustainable relationships between school students, teachers, universities and local scientists and employers associated with primary industries.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed above shows Deb Snaith from McIntyre High School, Inverell, and Dave Saunders from Orara High School, Coffs Harbour, engaged in a laboratory activity at UNE. It expands to include Jo Kirkby from Walcha Central School and Susanna Greig.

A young researcher at UNE has won a national award for her work on suicide prevention among some of the most marginalised members of society.

Dr Kathy McKay was presented with a Suicide Prevention Australia LIFE Award at the Annual National Suicide Prevention Conference in Sydney last month.

Dr McKay (pictured here), who is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at UNE, won the LIFE Award for Emerging Research. Focusing on community-based programs for suicide prevention, she has been working for the past two years on the development and evaluation of a youth suicide prevention program in Western Australia called “Alive and Kicking Goals”. The program, initiated, managed and led by Indigenous people in the Kimberley, aims to reduce the high suicide rate among young Indigenous people in and around Broome through the use of football and peer education.

Dr McKay moved to UNE earlier this year to join the team of researchers in the newly-established Collaborative Research Network (CRN) for Mental Health and Well-being in Rural and Regional Communities. While continuing her work with “Alive and Kicking Goals”, she is also conducting research – together with her CRN project leader, Associate Professor Myfanwy Maple – on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention among marginalised communities, and the broader mental health and well-being of rural populations through CRN projects such as the recently-launched Rural Outreach Mental Health and Resilience (ROMHAR) study.

She remarked on “the amazingly positive atmosphere” in the CRN, where she is able to pursue her own ideas for research in a collaborative environment.

“A lot of the work I do is with Indigenous people and people from other marginalised groups who don’t have a voice,” she said. “I hope my LIFE Award raises some awareness of the suicide problem within such groups.”

She said she felt honoured that people had taken the time to nominate her for the LIFE Award. “It’s wonderful to be recognised by people I admire – and am blessed to be working with,” she said.

The University of New England’s reputation as a leader in agriculture has been recognised with a $29 million grant from the Commonwealth Government.

The Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans, announced the grant as part of the Education Investment Fund for UNE’s Integrated Agricultural Education Project while at UNE’s Tamworth Regional Study Centre today.

The $46 million project will deliver better teaching facilities and greater collaboration across the teaching and research sectors.

UNE’s Chancellor, Richard Torbay, welcomed the announcement and congratulated the staff members responsible for the submission, saying it was a real win for agriculture and the New England region.

“This grant allows UNE to continue to be innovative in its approach to rural sciences, and offer students a world-class education in agriculture and animal sciences,” Mr Torbay said. “The project is also expected to create more than 50 jobs across the construction and teaching sectors, which is great for the region.”

The Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Annabelle Duncan, said UNE was delighted to have received the grant and thanked the Federal Government for supporting UNE’s goal to be a leader in agriculture.

“The Integrated Agricultural Education Project includes new and upgraded buildings with collaborative teaching and learning spaces on UNE’s Armidale Campus, an adjacent SMART Farm educational facility, and a significant upgrade to UNE’s Tamworth Regional Study Centre,” Professor Duncan said.

“The majority of the grant,” she explained, “will be spent on a new three-storey Agricultural Education Building that will include specialised teaching laboratories, a large lecture theatre, tutorial rooms, temperature-controlled work rooms, a multi-discipline Zoology Teaching Museum and a Learning Resource Centre.

“Contrary to sector trends, UNE has been increasing its enrolments in agriculture and animal sciences, and we expect that trend to continue. This project allows UNE to accommodate that growth in state-of-the-art facilities and continue to supply skilled graduates to agribusiness nationally.”

The project also includes upgrading Tamworth’s Regional Study Centre to a UNE Future Campus, meaning improved interactive tutorial spaces and cutting-edge technology for online students.

“This project aligns with UNE’s Strategic Plan which is to grow volume and margin in Distance Education and to invest the surpluses in the on-campus experience,” Professor Duncan said. “UNE is growing strongly online due to our transition to trimesters, our courseware redevelopment, and our reinvigorated marketing strategy. So we are now turning our attention to campus life and investing heavily in infrastructure.

“Our improved financial situation over the past 12 months has allowed UNE to begin to fulfil this strategic direction. Our ambitious college redevelopment project, which is due to get under way next year, is one of the first projects UNE is undertaking to improve its on-campus student experience.”

“The grant announced today will further assist our on-campus efforts, and we again thank the Commonwealth for their contribution,” Professor Duncan said. “We look forward to working with our partners CSIRO, TAFE NSW New England Institute, the NSW Government and Tamworth Regional Council in delivering this new and exciting project.”

Clicking on the photograph of Professor Annabelle Duncan and Senator Chris Evans displayed above reveals a photograph of Professor Duncan and Senator Evans with the Federal Member for New England, Tony Windsor.

A new degree program at the University of New England is blazing a trail into the Chinese business world just as the Commonwealth Government’s White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century is advocating similar initiatives.

Launched at the beginning of this year, the four-year Bachelor of Advanced Chinese Language and Business Studies program culminates in a year of business study – all in the Chinese language – at one of UNE’s partner institutions in China.

“The program recognises the significance of China as Australia’s major trading partner,” said Professor Alison Sheridan, Head of the UNE Business School, “and is based on the strong relationships we have with our Chinese partners.”

“We wanted to give our students the opportunity to live and study in China – immersing themselves in the culture they want to work in,” she said. “The students currently enrolled in the degree program are looking forward to spending their fourth year at China’s Harbin Engineering University.”

The program has been designed to provide a solid grounding in accounting, economics, finance, organisational development, management and marketing, combined with an equal component of Chinese language and culture.

“This unique combination of business, language, culture, and in-country study will prepare our students to be leaders in meeting the emerging challenges of this century, and in building stronger connections and partnerships across the region,” Professor Sheridan said. “It will qualify them for roles in business management, marketing, financial management, government agencies, consulting, and foreign affairs.”

UNE currently has partnerships – involving advanced standing and cooperation agreements – with eight Chinese educational institutions, bringing hundreds of Chinese students to Armidale. “There’s a strong element of Chinese language and culture on the UNE campus,” Professor Sheridan said, “and this can also contribute to our students’ educational experience.”

For more information on the Bachelor of Advanced Chinese Language and Business Studies degree program go to: www.une.edu.au/courses/2013/courses/BACLBS.

Gail Hawkes, a sociologist at the University of New England, was a young woman in the sexually liberated “swinging ’60s” of the twentieth century. Now she’s talking to women of her generation about their experiences of sexuality as they journey into their own 60s and beyond.

Realising that she was participating in what she calls “a unique historical moment”, Dr Hawkes (pictured here) initiated a collaborative research project aimed at elucidating the significance of that “moment”.

Working with Professor Victor Minichiello and other colleagues at UNE, and the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University, she is talking to women and asking them: “How does it feel to turn 60 when you’re the product of the “swinging ‘60s”? The Australian Research Council is funding the project.

“It was my pet idea,” she said, “but I didn’t know whether we were on the right track or not. I think now that we are – there’s been such huge enthusiasm from women. The picture that’s emerging is that women of the ‘post pill’ generation, because their experience of sexuality was so different from their mothers’ experience, don’t fit into any pre-established model. They’ve had to be very creative in their personal lives – and they’re surprisingly willing to talk about this.”

The project, titled “Sexual well-being and ageing: a study of older Australian women”, is the first study of the sexuality of older women to focus on this significant group. “The aim is to use women’s own experiences and feelings to build our understanding of the complex relationships between ageism, sexism and sexual subjectivity, and develop a conceptual framework that advances our understanding of sex and sexuality in older women,” Dr Hawkes said.  “We’re inviting women aged between 55 and 86 to get in touch and share their experiences with us.”

After talking on the ABC Radio National program Life Matters early last week, Dr Hawkes received more than 60 e-mail responses from women wanting to be involved. The segment, titled “Swinging 60s turn 60: Are they still feeling sexy?”, was so popular that she was invited back to the program for a one-hour talkback segment last Friday.

Participation in the project involves a one-off interview, which will take between one and one-and-a-half hours.  “We will be talking to participants using a relaxed approach,” Dr Hawkes said. “There will be a series of open-ended questions that will allow women to explore their experiences and feelings about ageing and sexual well-being. We will also ask them to keep a personal journal for two weeks, starting after the interview. The findings from this project will allow for the integration of sexual well-being into the broader health and well-being agenda for the fast-expanding ageing population in Australia. The research findings will create an important public debate, changing and promoting attitudes that validate the sexual lives of women in general and older women in particular.”

The project has established a blog at http://blog.une.edu.au/sexualityandageing/. Dr Hawkes can be contacted on 02 6773 2277 or on ghawkes@une.edu.au and all interested women are invited to contact her.

An event at the University of New England last month marked the beginning of a new era of research on the plants of north-eastern NSW and the University of New England’s contribution to botany.

It was the launch of database software that gives flexible online access to the huge collection of plant specimens in UNE’s N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium.

The Director of the Herbarium, Professor Jeremy Bruhl, together with a team of volunteers, has been working on the database software with the eResearch organisation Intersect Australia Ltd over the past 18 months.

Professor Bruhl explained that the herbarium contained well over 85,000 pressed and dried plant specimens – including the “type specimens” that anchor the application of names as cited in the original publications. Some of the specimens in “Herbarium NE” (the international code for the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium) dated back as far as the nineteenth century, he said.

UNE’s herbarium, he continued, was one of the first in the world to begin the process of cataloguing its collection in a computer database – a process it began in about 1987.

With the establishment in 1999 of Australia’s Virtual Herbarium (AVH) as part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), researchers had online access to data from Australia’s State and National herbaria. Recognising the significance of that innovation, UNE became a leader in the movement to include university-based herbaria in the AVH database – a movement that has borne fruit in Intersect projects at UNE, the University of Wollongong and Southern Cross University.

Professor Bruhl said that Herbarium NE records should be delivered within the next few weeks to AVH and ALA, and members of the public and researchers would be able to search for any genus or species of plant, and look at the records or maps of distribution. They would also be able to filter the records to display just those from Herbarium NE, he said. Some background to the herbarium is available online at http://www.une.edu.au/herbarium/, and those wishing to request access to the new NE database can do so at http://www.une.edu.au/herbarium/herbarium-ne-database/.

An important aspect of the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium software is that staff members, students, and colleagues collecting specimens for the herbarium or needing to lodge voucher specimens for their research can enter data from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection rather than from just one dedicated terminal at UNE. The software also ensures consistency of nomenclature and various other fields, thus enhancing the quality and integrity of the data. Users can search the database by using names of plants, names of collectors, or other text strings, or by specifying such temporal or spatial parameters as collection dates or areas.

The software launch was the prelude to an eResearch Open Day. Organised by Johan Boshoff, an eResearch analyst from Intersect based at UNE, the Open Day introduced UNE researchers to the services that Intersect can offer them.

Dr Ian Gibson, Chief Executive Officer of Intersect, said that the aim of the not-for-profit company was “to build systems that lead to better research outcomes”. “That’s why we’re so pleased to be part of the herbarium project,” he continued.

Clicking on the AVH logo image displayed above reveals a photograph of (from left) Gordon White (co-establisher of the 1980s database), Professor Jeremy Bruhl, and some of the volunteers who worked on the database:  Jon Burne, Phil Rose, and Ian Telford (the Herbarium Curator).

A large-scale biological, medical and social study of mental health in rural and regional Australia has just begun at the University of New England.

The study is being conducted through the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) for Mental Health and Well-being in Rural and Regional Communities, funded with the help of a $4.8 million grant from the Australian Government and launched at UNE earlier this year.

Known as ROMHAR (“Rural Outreach Mental Health and Resilience”), the interdisciplinary study will collect data on a wide range of variable factors associated with mental health in the general community.

The project leaders, Professor Chris Sharpley and Associate Professor Myfanwy Maple, said that the incidence of depression and suicide was higher in rural than in urban communities, highlighting the importance of this kind of research.

The UNE researchers will ask voluntary participants in the project to answer a detailed questionnaire, and to donate samples of saliva and blood for laboratory analysis. “We’ll be trying to identify molecules that might be reliable indicators of depression,” said Dr Linda Agnew, a cellular immunologist working at UNE. “This will enable us to test several current hypotheses linking genetic, immunological and endocrinal data with some of the medical, psychological and social factors involved in mental illness.”

The researchers need to collect information from people who are very healthy through to those who have experienced mental health difficulties. “Therefore, anyone in the community who is over 18 years of age is welcome to participate,” Dr Maple said. “It is particularly important that we include people with good mental health as well as those who have had difficulties.”

The project is being launched in New England, but there are plans to extend it to rural sites in Victoria,
Queensland and Western Australia.

The Government funding has enabled the recruitment of a number of researchers and the purchase of new equipment at UNE, and the development of collaborative links with other universities. Professor Sharpley said that the multidisciplinary nature of the data to be collected would make the ROMHAR study unique in Australia.

People interested in participating, or in obtaining more information on the study, can contact the Project Administrator, Kerri Fitzpatrick, on (02) 6773 3700 and leave a message, or e-mail ROMHAR@une.edu.au.

UNE Landcare (UNEL) is calling for volunteers to help plant 1,500 native grass, shrub and tree seedlings along Dumaresq Creek near SportUNE on Sunday 11 November.

Sunday’s working bee will be part of a campaign in which UNEL is aiming to plant 10,000 native trees and other plants along Dumaresq Creek in a series of such community planting events over the next six months.

UNEL has received a Community Action Grant of $18,750 from the Commonwealth Government for the planting progam.

“These plantings will help stabilise the creek banks, provide food and habitat for wildlife, increase biodiversity values on campus, increase the area of native vegetation at the University and – we hope – engage UNE staff members and students,” said Southern New England Landcare’s Ellen Nyberg, who coordinates UNEL.

“By participating in the ‘10,000 Trees’ campaign,” she said, “you can leave a leafy green legacy at UNE for students, staff members, visitors and wildlife to enjoy in the years to come. To get an idea of what the plantings will look like in five to ten years, take a look at the existing planting on the south-west side of the creek.”

Planting on Sunday will begin at 9 am and continue till 1 pm. A free barbecue lunch and morning tea will be provided for volunteers. Everyone is welcome to be involved.

Ms Nyberg explained that the planting program was the second stage of the Campus Creek Cleanout project, a partnership between UNEL, UNE’s Facilities Management Services (FMS) and the Armidale Urban Rivercare Group, which began early this year with work on the removal of in-stream willows and poplars that had been interrupting and diverting the flow of water. “Fantastic support for the project from FMS, including the clearing and preparation of planting sites, has allowed UNEL to focus almost all of its efforts and funding on revegetation,” she said.

For more information on the project, or on Sunday’s event, contact Ellen Nyberg at Southern New England Landcare on (02) 6772 9123 (ellen@snelcc.org.au) or go to: unelandcare.wordpress.com.

Eight years of collaboration between the University of New England and rural health educators and providers in Thailand took another step forward last week with the visit to UNE of a high-level delegation of Thai health service and university officials.

Their mission was to investigate the integration of medical education and health service provision in rural NSW, with particular emphasis on primary health care and general practice.

Dr David Briggs, an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Schools of Rural Medicine and Health at UNE, explained that Thailand was keen to upgrade the role of its GPs to that of “gatekeepers” of the health service – as in Australia.

Dr Briggs, who coordinated the study tour by Thai officials, has been involved with the international collaborative program over the past eight years. “The program is continuing to build trust and relationships,” he said, “and this week’s visit has seen further positive developments – both for the Thai health service and for UNE’s international profile.”

“The program has included an exchange of students over the past seven years,” he said, “with two Thai students currently undertaking a Bachelor of Medicine degree program at UNE, and another studying for a doctorate. They like what UNE has to offer – including its rural setting.”

Dr Phudit Tejativaddhana, while studying at UNE from 2005 to 2008 for his Doctorate in Health Services Management, experienced in New England the kind of integration between health care and education that Thailand is working to achieve. Dr Tejativaddhana, who is Dean of Public Health at Thailand’s Naresuan University, was one of the 21-member delegation, which included two others from Naresuan University. He said that, during the study tour, he and his fellow delegates had observed the strength and flexibility of the Australian health system, paying particular attention to primary health care and the role of Medicare Locals.

He said that a major government focus in Thailand was on the development of primary health care and the human resources to support it, and pointed out that UNE, too, had a mission to train doctors, social workers and nurses for work in rural areas.

Professor Peter McKeown, Head of the School of Rural Medicine at UNE, said that the study tour marked a broadening of the relationship between UNE and the Thai health service. “We’re all keen to build that relationship,” Professor McKeown said.

The delegates saw – and were impressed by – a recording of a joint class in medical simulation between UNE and the University of California, Irvine, using the synchronous videoconferencing capacity of high-speed broadband. “UNE has established strong international links in medical simulation with UC Irvine in the United Sates,” said Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of UNE’s Faculty of The Professions, “and we are now talking with partners in Thailand and Argentina so that our students and staff can exchange clinical experiences at a global level.”

Other members of the delegation included Professor Paichit Pawabutr (a former Permanent Secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health), Dr Weerawat Phancrut (Deputy Secretary General of Thailand’s National Health Security Office), Dr Chonlada Busayarat (member of the Royal Thai College of Family Practitioners), Dr Peerasak Lerttrakarnnon (Deputy Head of the Department of Family Medicine at Chiang Mai University), Professor Winit Phuapradit (Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok), four other senior staff members of Ramathibodi Hospital, representatives of two regional hospitals, and five GP trainees.

The study tour program included a day and a half at Tamworth Hospital, a visit to health care centres in Tamworth and Manilla, and two-and-a-half days at UNE in the School of Rural Medicine and the Oorala Aboriginal Centre, where they attended presentations on continuing medical education, Indigenous health, and the use of technology in medical education and general practice.

Clicking on the image displayed above reveals a photograph of (from left) Dr Phudit Tejativaddhana, Professor Peter McKeown, Dr Weerawat Phancrut, Professor Winit Phuapradit, and Dr David Briggs.