Archive for August, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more information about the UNE social work course please see

http://www.une.edu.au/study/social-work/
This article was written by UNE’s Marketing and Public Affairs and reproduced here with their permission.

Link to The Specator Australia article (15 August 2009), ‘Loose Laws’, about Bryan Pape’s High Court challenge. Bryan Pape and Jurgen Brohmer from the UNE Law School discuss Bryan’s High Court challenge of the Tax Bonus Act. The audio file is available from the link below.

Access the audio file.

For further information see:

Pape v The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia & Anor [2009] HCATrans 59 (30 March 2009) at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2009/59.html

and

Pape v The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia & Anor [2009] HCATrans 60 (31 March 2009) at
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2009/60.html

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This article was written by UNE’s Marketing and Public Affairs and reproduced here with their permission.