Is it just me or has 2014 been the biggest, busiest, and most
remarkable year we’ve had yet? I don’t even know where to begin with a yearly
wrap-up!
Surely the 1 July merger with CQ TAFE has been the most
profound event of the year. This was a day that not only transformed
CQUniversity forever, but the way post-schooling education and training is
conducted in Central Queensland. It was also the day we welcomed almost 19,000
TAFE students and 400 incredibly dedicated VET colleagues into the
organisation, at the same time becoming the largest regionally-based university
in Australia. Let that sink in – we are now the biggest regional uni.
And if the merger itself wasn’t a big enough task, around 20
new VET programs were added to our range of offerings in the post-merger
period. The effort that went into this was outstanding. We also saw Study
Centres open in Townsville, Charters Towers, Perth and Karratha this year,
enabling more students to access an innovative model of supportive Distance
Education.
Our stock just continued to rise across all areas of the
university, as did our reputation in the sector. We seem to be one of the
universities that everyone is watching at the moment, and its easy to
understand why. Our numbers are climbing, our course options are expanding, our
student satisfaction ratings are heading north, and our graduation ceremonies
seem to be getting bigger and bigger. And lets not overlook the work Facilities Management team have
been doing on major new buildings & projects all over our footprint.
Our teaching staff have continued to raise the bar of
excellence this year. Prof Stephen Colbran, who won this year’s Australian
Award for Teaching Excellence in Law, is a great example of the talent we have,
but I could just as easily list many others. Likewise in research we’ve seen
some great results being produced, and we exceeded our target for total
research grants this year. Prof John Rolfe’s involvement in the $31M Tropical
Water Quality Hub and Dr Corneel Vandelanotte’s NHMRC funding have been
exciting to see, and the outputs of our Early Career Researchers Group this
year makes our research future look very exciting indeed. Our international
students continue to be a great source of pride, and 2014 was the year we began
to see the green shoots of recovery following the downturn in the international
market.
Our engagement with Indigenous communities and groups under
the leadership of Prof Bronwyn Fredericks has been phenomenal. Today we have
more than 1,100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at CQUniversity,
and this year we saw more Indigenous students cross the graduation stage than
any other year - something we should all be proud of. Speaking of graduates,
our alumni continue to take the world by storm, and its hard to go past the
story of former student Carolyn
Hardy who won this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award. And how fantastic was
it to see our Engineering students win the national finals of The
Big Idea competition with their concept of reusing industrial pallets for
emergency housing following natural disasters.
There are so many things that have made 2014 great (and I
know I’ve overlooked many), but my favourite moment of the year? Probably
watching Dr
Louise Byrne steal the show on ABC’s Q&A program as a panellist.
I’d like to thank everybody for their contribution and support this
year - I am very proud of what has been achieved. I wish you all a safe and
happy Christmas, and a wonderful New Year.
See you all in 2015!
Scott
