Commentary by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Acting), Professor Mike Wilmore

‘We work at small universities, Mike.’ I had to disagree when a friend of mine recently said this to me. I don’t think it’s true of their university and I certainly don’t think it’s true of UNE. I believe that Future Fit reinforces this truth by offering us a new perspective on who we are as a university.

I know it’s easy to see why someone might perceive us as a small university. We’re based in a city that’s certainly dwarfed by our state capitals and smaller than many other regional centres. Other universities have bigger student populations. There are individual research institutes at some universities that have income rivalling our total revenue.

But those aren’t the only perspectives through which we can or should view our scale. Compared to other universities UNE makes an enormous contribution to our regional economy. According to a report commissioned by the Regional Universities Network (RUN), we contributed $318 million to our region in 2018, which amounts to over 16% of the local real GDP.

Those numbers don’t tell the whole story. When I travelled with the Vice-Chancellor to Moree recently to launch the Future Fit strategy we met numerous graduates of UNE who embodied a point made by RUN that regional universities’ graduates often stay in their communities. They’re the bedrock of our regional workforce across many industries.

Here’s another fact: UNE currently has Australia’s fourth largest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. At a recent Universities Australia DVC meeting a colleague from another NSW university lamented that despite having more than twice as many students as UNE they enrolled fewer that half our number of Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander students.

These are not characteristics of a small university. They show that from various perspectives we make big contributions to both our region and to the lives of our students. Future Fit challenges common narratives by emphasising the transformative role that UNE has in our region as a whole and on the lives of people seeking new pathways through higher education.

Let me offer another example of why the stories we tell about ourselves are important. A colleague told me in another recent conversation that they ‘only’ worked as an administrator. Again, I was happy to respectfully disagree. Not only does their work have significant intrinsic value, but by doing it so well they create opportunities for others – colleagues and students alike – to excel in their own roles. The perspectives on our work contained in Future Fit gave us the language we needed to discuss those opportunities. I’m pleased they left with a new perspective on their work!

A lot goes into the development and implementation of a strategic plan; many interconnected projects with accompanying measures of success. We’re currently identifying these through the intensive planning that Faculties and Divisions are completing. Just as important is the shared narrative contained in Future Fit.

The stories we tell about ourselves are important, but so are those we chose to reject. I firmly believe we must challenge our own and others’ assumptions that we’re a small university. By acknowledging the true scale of our success and ambitions we create exciting visions of our future. These visions are realistic because they build on our demonstrated track-record of achievement. They also show how we can work together and find new ways to make big contributions to empower communities, build resilience, and support students on their educational journey.