Celebrating 20 Years

One of the things I love most about my job as VC are the opportunities I have to chat with students – whether it’s at a BBQ lunch on campus, celebrating their success at a graduation ceremony or welcoming them to campus at orientation week – it is always refreshing to remind myself of the role we play in helping students reach their full educational potential.

I had the chance to meet Renee, one of our BA Professional Communication students recently, who is currently completing her third and final year at CQUniversity. Over the summer semester, Renee is undertaking a work placement with the CQUniversity Corporate Communications team.

CQUniversity offers one of the best mixes of classroom and workplace-based learning of any Australian university and the Corporate Communications team were very keen to have Renee on board for this opportunity.

Interestingly enough, the project Renee has been tasked with during her placement is CQUniversity’s 20th anniversary celebrations. 2012 is a very special year for CQUniversity – and Renee. Although founded in 1967 as an institute of technology, 1992 was the year we gained full university status. Renee just happens to be holding her own ‘20th celebrations’ next year as she was born the same year we became a university.

You might say 20 years doesn’t seem very long in the world of higher education and you’d be right. I like to think of us as being ’20 years young’. One definition I found for young was “being in the first part or period of growth”. I think this describes CQUniversity’s current period of renewal perfectly – this is only the beginning – there are bigger and better things to come.

We have a unique history and a most interesting story to tell. There are countless achievements and successes to be proud of over the past twenty years and I’m very excited to have CQUniversity’s Professor Denis Cryle compile our history since 1992. You’ll be hearing more about our plans to celebrate our 20th anniversary and I’m sure Renee will do us proud – as one of our students – to help bring this all together.