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.

About 100 Aboriginal high-school students and Aboriginal Education Officers from throughout northern NSW got a taste last week of what it would be like to study at university to become a teacher.

The students, all in Years 10, 11 and 12, visited the University of New England for a day that included talking to teacher educators, taking part in teacher-education workshops in subjects including mathematics, science and creative arts, listening to a talk by an experienced Indigenous teacher, and generally experiencing the life of a university campus.

They came from as far afield as Moree, Taree, Gunnedah and Port Macquarie, and about 40 of them had an experience of life in a university residence by staying overnight at St Albert’s College.

The visit of the students on Monday 6 July was part of a Commonwealth-funded project led by Dr Pep Serow (pictured here), a Lecturer in Education at UNE who specialises in mathematics education. The “Indigenous Teacher Education Experience Project” is aimed at getting more Indigenous teachers into Australian schools. Last week’s “Experience Day” was preceded earlier this year by a series of community-driven meetings between representatives of education bodies and Aboriginal communities, and will be followed by a mentoring program to begin in Term 3 this year.

Twenty-five students signed up for the mentoring program during their visit to UNE. They will each be assigned an academic mentor who will visit them at their school once a term and communicate with them by video-conference. The 25 participants will also communicate with their mentors - and with each other - via a newly-created Web site.

“It is essential that Indigenous people have a greater involvement in educional decision making,” Dr Serow said. “We can begin this process through building stronger relationships between schools, communities and universities.”

In welcoming the students to UNE, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, emphasised the vital importance of the teaching profession, the uniquely rewarding experiences that it brings to teachers, and the recognised high quality of teacher education at UNE.

Professor Len Unsworth, the Head of UNE’s School of Education, acknowledged the work of Dr Serow and her colleagues in organising the day. “We need more Indigenous people in the education system,” Professor Unsworth said, emphasising the importance of “educators and Indigenous communities working together”.

“Together we can make a real difference,” he said. “That’s why it’s so terrific to have so many of you here today.”

Mr Michael Boney, an Aboriginal teacher raised in Ashford and now teaching at Ashford Central School, inspired the visiting students by talking to them about his life’s journey and its fulfilment as a teacher.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Dr Pep Serow displayed here expands to include two of the visiting high-school students: Manduway Dutton from Grafton High and Kylie Saunders from Muswellbrook High.

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

The next Kirby Seminar, titled ‘Capital Punishment and Diplomatic Protection: Australia s Experience in Responding to its Citizens in Peril‘ will be delivered by Professor Don Rothwell (ANU) on Tuesday 14 July at 12 noon in the Lewis Seminar Room in the Law School.
Throughout the past decade Australia has been confronted with a number of challenges arising from its citizens being sentenced to death in overseas countries. In some instances, as with a number of Australians held in Vietnam, the Australian government has been successful in requesting that clemency be applied and the death sentence has been commuted. In other instances, such as the case of Van Nguyen in Singapore in 2005, the government’s diplomatic efforts have failed. Currently, there are three Australians on death row in Indonesia; all members of the so-called Bali Nine who were arrested for drug trafficking offences in Bali in 2005. Whilst the Australians held in Bali had yet to exhaust their local judicial remedies, there is growing concern as to their plight and what options may ultimately be open to the Australian government to ensure the death penalty is not applied. This seminar will explore these issues, especially the rights and obligations the Australian government may have towards its citizens who are being detained overseas and in circumstances of peril. It will also review the position of successive Australian governments towards the death penalty.

When: 12 noon, Tuesday 14th July 2009

Where: Lewis Seminar Room, W38 Law School Building

Link to The Guyra Argus (5 June 2009) for the full article about first-year Nursing student from The University of New England, Kerry Rologas, and his stint at Guyra. This is the first of many practical placements he will undertake while studying for his nursing degree…

In the next instalment of the Kirby Seminar Series, coordinated by the UNE School of Law Research Committee, Associate Professor Angus Corbett of the University of Technology Sydney will speak on the topic of “The Missing Dimension of Safety: The Liability of Statutory Authorities for Failing to Prevent Harm Associated with the use of Roads”. The seminar will take place at noon on 25 June 2009 in the Lewis Seminar Room (W38, Law School Building).
Associate Professor Corbett’s paper is concerned with the missing dimension of safety in the regulation of the use of roads. It investigates a number of well known cases that deal with the application of principles determining when statutory authorities will be liable for failing to prevent harm associated with the use of roads. This analysis reveals that it is often rational to limit liability of statutory authorities for failing to prevent harms associated with the use of roads. But it also reveals evidence that these authorities lack the capacity to develop safety systems that are needed to prevent many harms that are associated with the use of roads. The argument developed in this paper is that it is important for courts to acknowledge both the failure of statutory authorities to develop safety systems and the complexity of the task of establishing these safety systems. Acknowledging the complexity of the problem of improving safety will assist in creating a context in which governments, statutory authorities, community organisations and members of the public are able to probe our ’social structure and culture to see how these promote’ our vulnerability to damage associated with complex systems such as roads.
For further details please contact Julia Werren (or phone 02 6773 2098)

At a ceremony in China last week, the University of New England (UNE) and Wuxi South Ocean College (WSOC) celebrated the 10^th anniversary of a highly successful educational partnership.
The partnership has brought about 350 students from the College in Jiangsu Province, China, to Armidale, NSW, to undertake business studies at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at UNE.
UNE’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, speaking at the Wuxi celebration, said that the partnership was “enriching - both personally and professionally - for students and staff at both institutions”.
“While WSOC students gain from UNE’s strong international reputation for academic excellence and outstanding student support services,” he explained, “UNE benefits from the cultural diversity WSOC students bring to the campus and the internationalisation of our academic program.”
Professor Pettigrew said the relationship, begun in 1999 as a Collaborative Teaching Agreement, had become an Advanced Standing Arrangement in 2006. Under this arrangement, Wuxi students undertake 2.5 years of study (including English language) at WSOC, and then move to Armidale, where they transfer with Advanced Standing into an undergraduate program for their final 1.5 years of study. There are currently more than 70 Wuxi students at UNE completing their Bachelor of Business degree studies.
The Director of the Wuxi Municipal Education Bureau, Mr Lu Weidong, also speaking at the ceremony, reflected on the success of the 10-year association and commended all staff members involved for the high quality of the program.
Professor Xiaoxing Zhou, the President of WSOC, was the host for the occasion. He was accompanied by the previous President, Professor Honglu Zeng (a member of the WSOC Council), Dr Kevin Gao (the Assistant President of WSOC, who is a UNE graduate), Mr Michael McAuley (the College’s Associate Dean Academic), and Mr Mark Zhang (Vice Head of School - and also a UNE graduate).
The Head of UNE’s School of Business, Economics and Public Policy, Professor Alison Sheridan, and the UNE team leader for Wuxi, Dr Peter McClenaghan, accompanied Professor Pettigrew to Wuxi for the celebration.
Special guests at the ceremony included Mr Iain Watt, the Minister-Counsellor for Education at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, Mr Kevin Qian, Chairman of the Chiway Holding Group (of which WSOC is a subsidiary), and Dr Xiangning Yang, Vice Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, who is also a Professor at Nanjing University.
During the ceremony Professor Zhou and Professor Pettigrew joined in launching the WSOC & UNE Alumni Association, and Professor Pettigrew presented Professor Zhou with a painting of the UNE building in which Wuxi students attend most of their classes.
The image displayed here expands to show Professor Xiaoxing Zhou (left) and Professor Alan Pettigrew launching the WSOC & UNE Alumni Association.
This article was written by UNE’s Marketing and Public Affairs and published with permission.

About 200 students from more than 30 schools throughout northern NSW visited the University of New England last Friday to indulge their interest in mathematics in a full day of maths-based activities.

Now in its 15th year, the annual Year 8 Mathematics Day at UNE allows keen mathematics students to meet their peers from other schools, and to compete with them in a range of interesting and enjoyable activities. Working in teams of four, the students develop skills in cooperative problem solving while applying their classroom mathematics to the solution of practical, real-life problems.

The students, accompanied by their mathematics teachers, came from as far away as Inverell, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Wee Waa. A team from Bishop Druitt College in Coffs Harbour won the trophy in the Secondary Schools Division, and a team from Bowraville Central School was the winner in the Central Schools Division. Each of the members of the two winning teams received a certificate and a medallion, and their schools will hold the perpetual trophies throughout the coming year. Both Bishop Druitt College and Bowraville Central School are first-time trophy winners at the Year 8 Mathematics Day.

The event is sponsored each year by the UNE-based National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR), UNE’s School of Education, and the New England Mathematical Association. More than 20 people from these organisations were involved in the preparation and presentation of this year’s event.

“After 15 years, the day is still meeting the needs of students and schools, and is receiving high praise from both the participants and their parents,” said Professor John Pegg, the Director of SiMERR. “Most significantly, it helps to highlight the important role that mathematics plays across the educational spectrum, and how mathematics underpins so many of the trades and professions in today’s society.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows a student from Guyra Central School intent on solving a problem during the Year 8 Mathematics Day at UNE.

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

In the next installment of the Kirby Seminar Series, coordinated by the UNE School of Law Research Committee, Dr Jonathan Crowe, Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland, will speak on the topic of “The Priority Of Contextual Meaning: A Theory of Judicial Interpretation”. The seminar will take place at noon on 19 May 2009 in the Lewis Seminar Room (W38, Law School building).

In his paper, Dr Crowe argues that, in interpreting legal texts, judges should seek to give effect to their contextual meaning: the meaning they hold when considered in the full light of their broader social and moral context. He will argue first that, as a descriptive matter, contextual meaning is necessarily prior to any more restricted form of textual interpretation; that is, the contextual meaning of a legal text is its ordinary meaning. He will then advance two arguments for the proposition that, other things being equal, judicial interpretation of legal texts ought to follow their ordinary (or contextual) meaning. The final parts of his paper explore the nature and limitations of the contextualist model of judicial practice. The possibility of conflicts between contextual factors at different levels of abstraction makes it necessary to distinguish between narrow and wide versions of the contextualist methodology. He argues that wide contextualism offers the best overall account of judicial practice.