Newsletter - Vol 2, 2011
-
From the Executive Director, Mr Conor King
The past three months have seen further development of the Government’s reform program across many areas.
Read more
Supporting student preference
The most important was passage of the legislation is to allow universities to be funded for all enrolled Australian undergraduate students from 2012. -
Project Spotlight - Research
The IRU network has a particular research strength in disaster management and adaptation, highly relevant as we see the increase in catastrophic weather events in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
Read more
In August, the US Ambassador to Australia, Mr Jeffrey Bleich.
launched an overview of this work “Disaster Resilience: Preparing, responding and adapting - an IRU network area of research strength addressing one of the major challenges of our times”, at Parliament House, Canberra.
Many Members of Parliament representing IRU campuses and IRU graduates were present to understand better the value of IRU universities. -
Senior Staff Forum
Research was the theme for the 2011 Senior Staff Forum, held in July and hosted by the University of Newcastle.
Read more
Over two days, delegates had the opportunity to hear from a range of external speakers including
- the newly appointed Chief Scientist for Australia, Professor Ian Chubb AC
- New South Wales Chief Scientist and Scientific Engineer, Professor Mary O’Kane
- Chief Executive Officer of Universities Australia, Dr Glenn Withers AO, as well as
- Chief Executive Officers of the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Professors Margaret Sheil and Warwick Anderson.
-
Project Update - Benchmarking
In September, the IRU’s planning divisions convened in Melbourne to consider the first stage of the IRU Benchmarking project. The Forum allowed for extensive feedback on the look and feel of the Interface and suggestions for further development.
Read more
IRU Benchmarking is led by La Trobe University. The Project is developing the IRU Quantitative Benchmarking Interface that brings together data to generate charts against a wide range of performance measures. All data items cover IRU members with many also including public data for all Australian universities. -
Assessment and Moderation Forum
What are our students capable of when they graduate and how will we know this? This was the topic addressed at the Assessment and Moderation Forum, supported by the IRU Deputy Vice-Chancellors Academic and attended by colleagues from the seven IRU universities. The Forum was held in Melbourne in September.
Read more -
European Association of International Education (EAIE)
The European Association of International Education (EAIE) Conference 13-16 September was held in Copenhagen this year and attended by more than 4200 international higher education professionals from 87 countries.
Read more -
Improving Researcher Career Paths
The Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) is seeking input to guidelines they will be developing to help researchers meet their career needs and objectives. This work has been requested by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science and Research (DIISR), in response to ongoing concerns around research career paths in Australia.
Read more
As a first step, researchers are invited to complete the following survey by 15 October
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ACOLA_Careers_Survey
-
Business/Higher Education Round Table Awards Dinner - 10 Nov
10 November – Melbourne
Read more
The BHERT Awards recognise outstanding achievement in collaboration between business and higher education. Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace relations will provide the keynote address and announce the winners of the nine award categories.
www.bhert.com -
Conferences
• Partnerships for Research and Development Excellence
Read more
4-6 October – Melbourne, Sebel & Citigate Albert Park
• Collaboration in Regional Tertiary Education
hosted by James Cook University - Cairns
18-19 November
• Strategic Planning for Flexible Learning
15-16 November – Sydney, Citigate Central
• Measuring and Improving Student Engagement and Experience
22-23 November – Melbourne, Novotel on Collins
• Work Based Learning Forum
22-23 November - Melbourne, Vibe Savoy
• Learning Space Design Summit
5-6 December, Melbourne, Rendezvous Hotel