Exploring opportunities in PNG

CQUniversity is forming a partnership with the Papua New Guinea University of Technology in Lae to better expand the educational opportunities between Australia and PNG and to help unlock more of the nation’s remarkable potential. 

For this reason I will shortly be boarding a plane to PNG to meet with my counterparts over there and attend the 31^st Australia-Papua New Guinea Business Forum. Joining me on the trip will be Provost Hilary Winchester and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Nik Babovic.

Some of the opportunities we will explore while there include the sharing of teaching expertise and resources, research prospects, and the movement of students between the two institutions.

There are some challenges in working on the ground in a country like PNG but there are also tremendous opportunities. We have a real chance to make a difference to the lives of ordinary Papua New Guineans, and to help them write the next chapter in their country’s exciting journey.

CQUniversity is well placed to make a difference to students in PNG, not just through its proximity to the country but also through CQUniversity’s philosophy of ‘giving back’ and student inclusion.

The University has a culture of “giving back” to communities around the world to help spread the life-changing power of education. But we are also a University who is proud to work with students who are often overlooked by the ‘exclusive’ universities; students from low SES backgrounds, rural/remote students, first-in-family students, and indigenous students.

But this is not just a one-way benefit for PNG. CQUniversity students, researchers and staff will also have access to opportunities happening right on our doorstep in one of the most remarkable countries in the world. I can see real value for both universities coming from this partnership.

This is a very exciting opportunity for CQUniversity, and I am looking forward to working with the Vice-Chancellor of Unitech Dr Albert Schram who is a very committed and pragmatic university leader.

Phenomenal fundraising effort raises almost $17,000 for Nepal Earthquake relief

Wow, what a great effort from everyone this week! Our simultaneous campus fundraising lunches raised a grand total of $16,393 for Nepal earthquake relief. This is on top of the $10,000 already donated by the University, to Rotary, for emergency shelter kits. On top of this the media coverage about our fundraising efforts also led to a member of the public donating a further $1,000 to our fundraising tally!

I am so proud of everyone who made a donation and pitched in to help yesterday - it just goes to show what we can achieve when we all work together.

Combined with funds already donated to Rotary by staff and students following the earthquake, I am confident that our efforts will lead to almost $30,000 being channeled into emergency relief shelter boxes for Nepal.

As well as monetary donations I am also aware of staff within the Nursing school collecting clothing and other items to ship to Nepal. This commitment to helping communities in need - even those that are so far away is what makes CQUniversity such a great university!

Thank you to everyone for showing your support and getting behind the beautiful country of Nepal and it's amazing people, many of whom also call CQUniversity home.

Here's some pics from yesterday:

CAIRNS: It appears you can win friends with salad. Looks like the tropical sunshine in Cairns inspired some lighter choices for their lunch. 

CAIRNS: The health conscious Cairns crowd contributed a princely sum to the fundraising effort - even with salad on the menu. 

TOWNSVILLE: Our newest campus fired up their new BBQ and put out prayer flags to raise a nice chunk of money. 

MACKAY: A strong crowd in Mackay led to plenty of funds being raised. 

ROCKHAMPTON: Rocky staff and students (as well as the community!) came together and to raise money and enjoy a snag or two.

EMERALD: Being one of our smallest campuses didn't stop Emerald from contributing a mighty sum to this fundraising initiative. 

GLADSTONE: Even without their fearless leader, Professor Owen Nevin in charge (he's in Kazakhstan tracking snow leopards), the Gladstone team still managed to raise lots of cash. 

GLADSTONE: The look of satisfaction only a sausage, caramelised onions, BBQ flavoured sauce and white bread can bring.  

BUNDABERG: A great effort for our Bundy staff and students who braved the cold (21 degrees) to eat sausages and donate money.

BUNDABERG: The DFM team leisurely cooking the snags while the line grows longer.

NOOSA: What's that on that table? Coke, creaming soda and lemonade... Noosa, where is the wine? 

BRISBANE: Another stack of cash was raised in Brissie. Success that can be attributed to the fact they served an authentic Nepalese feast. Now I'm hungry. 

MELBOURNE: The Melbourne crew managed to raise a pile of cash thanks to a lunch and silent auction. Well done!

ADELAIDE: Adelaide staff enjoy their stylish alfresco area.

ADELAIDE: Jenni and Brad are all smiles after lunch. (Seriously, look at that alfresco space - complete with decorative bamboo, looks like one of the terraces on the Block). 

SYDNEY: I saved the best for last here. Hats off to the Sydney campus who have raised $4,155 in the last week thanks to their lunch and other activities. What a fantastic effort! If I was giving out prizes I would give one to Sydney but I'm not, so they'll just have to bask in the glory of being the fundraising champions of CQUniversity. 

CQUni campuses come together for Nepal

There have been few times I have been as proud of the CQUniversity community as I have been over the last two weeks, watching how we’ve responded to the devastating earthquake in Nepal. The way our colleagues have rallied around our 700-strong Nepalese staff and students during their time of profound grief and sadness has been truly amazing. It surely is a mark of a great university.

I have been overwhelmed with the response I’ve received from our Nepalese staff and students to the University’s initial donation of $10,000 towards Rotary Emergency Shelter boxes, along with the support mechanisms we have put in place for those personally affected, and the spontaneous morning tea fundraisers that have sprung up around some of our campuses. 

Tragically, the death toll in Nepal is still climbing - in fact, it has tripled since the University’s initial response. As the full scale of the tragedy becomes more clear, many CQUniversity staff and students have been looking for ways we can do even more for Nepal.

Dannii Battersby, a School Administrative Assistant who works at our CQIRP facility in Rockhampton, alongside many of our talented Nepalese staff, put her hand up to hold a BBQ on her campus to raise money for more Rotary Shelter boxes. One thing led to another and Dannii’s idea has now become a campus-wide simultaneous lunchtime fundraiser, with most of our campuses hosting a lunch on Thursday at 12pm – 1pm.    

I urge all staff and students to take an hour out of your busy schedules and head to your closest lunch time fundraiser – there is one being held on almost each of our campuses. Bring a pocket full of gold coins (or notes!) and join with your colleagues not only to reflect on the terrible tragedy that has fallen on Nepal, but also to celebrate the wonderful contribution our Nepalese students and staff make to our great university. 

I look forward to seeing plenty of photos from each campus getting together, and to sharing them with the entire university. Details of each campus fundraiser event  are below:

Campus	Location	Event
Cairns Study Centre	Main Foyer	Staff cook-off
Townsville Campus	Downstairs foyer, Bulletin Building, 538 Flinders St	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Mackay City campus	Between A & C Block	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Mackay Ooralea campus	Refectory/outside BBQ area	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Emerald Campus	Atrium Area, ground floor, A Block	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Rockhampton North Campus	BBQ area in front of library	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Gladstone Marina Campus	Student Common Room	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Gladstone City Campus	Under croft B Block	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Bundaberg Campus	Between buildings 1 & 3	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Noosa Campus	Plaza outside 24hr computer lab	BBQ/Sausage sizzle
Brisbane Campus	Level 7 foyer	Traditional Nepalese feast + raffle
Sydney Campus	Student Recreation Area, basement level	Traditional “Mo Mo & Chai” Nepalese lunch
Melbourne Campus	Level 6, open area	Pizza lunch
Adelaide Campus	Campus foyer area	BBQ/Sausage sizzle

Heartfelt thanks to all organisers, and to everyone who supports this worthy cause.  

A Big Week of Beef

This week has been a big one for the University with our sponsorship of Beef Australia 2015. This is a major international event held in Rockhampton every three years and while it might be held in central Queensland it reaches much further afield. In fact this week we’ve met people from places like New Caledonia, Mongolia, Argentina and Uruguay.

While we have been affiliated with Beef Week in past years, 2015 has been the year that we have had our biggest involvement as a supporting partner. This has been great as it’s meant we have been involved in a series of major program events, as well as having a major presence with prominent expo display. The networking has been great and we have also had a huge number of program enquiries. I’ve also eaten my weight in steak.

Highlights of the week for me would have to be the CQUniversity Beef Industry Symposium on Monday and yesterday’s breakfast to launch our new Bachelor of Agriculture program. Yesterday’s launch attracted more than 80 industry leaders, teachers and students and the feedback received afterwards was fantastic.

Tomorrow is the last official day of the Beef program and we will be hosting a group of South American industry leaders and researchers at CQIRP – such a great opportunity for engagement.

I hope everyone who’s been has enjoyed their week. Looking forward to the next event in three years!

CQUni marks Townsville milestone

Yesterday marked a big moment for CQUniversity’s future – and for the future generations of Northern Queenslanders.

I was thrilled to attend the opening of CQUniversity Townsville last night, and to see so many local business, education, and community leaders be wowed by this incredible $3 million project. At the event, there was a palpable sense - CQUniversity Townsville isn’t just a place to kickstart careers, but hub for the region’s growing community aspirations, too.

Townsville is now a two-university city, and the new campus provides exciting opportunities for local students.

Our expansion into Townsville demonstrates our national reputation for supporting our students to achieve, no matter how they choose to study.

Many of our regional students, and also our international students, tell us they want to study in regional centres, and we believe Townsville can deliver them a great experience for study, and for lifestyle.

It’s this experience, and our determination to engage all our students, that puts CQUniversity on track to becoming a truly great university.

The campus is already supporting more than 600 Distance Education students, and I can see great potential for allowing growth, in face-to-face programs including Paramedic Science, Nursing, Law, Education, and Psychology.

With multiple universities calling Townsville home, the Northern Queensland hub joins the ranks of Australian capital cities, and vibrant regional centres such the Gold Coast, Geelong, and Mackay.

The CQUni Townsville campus includes large teaching spaces for class and residential schools, computer and videoconferencing labs, a Paramedic Science lab, a library, staff offices, study spaces and a welcoming reception area. It also boasts plenty of student parking, and room for further expansion along with this CQUniversity’s popular Study Hub at Jones St, which opened last year, will remain as a study space for students, with secure access available around the clock.

The Townsville campus is one of 24 CQUniversity sites around Australia, and is a key to our plan to grow student numbers to 50,000 nationwide by 2020.

The campus will not only support face-to-face learning, but students can also access a range of expanded services, including careers advice, counselling, and scholarship support.

As I continue to serve on the panel advising the Prime Minister on the development of Northern Australia, the potential and growth opportunities of Townsville, and all of Northern Australia, continue to amaze me.

Same goes for the enthusiasm of local people. Since we first established a presence in Townsville in August last year, I’ve been thrilled with the excitement of local leaders, businesses, and students who have welcomed us to Townsville. Yesterday, it was great to catch up with many of them, and hear how CQUniversity is already making a difference in their lives.  

Whether it’s helping locals to reach their dream careers, or attracting new students to Townsville, or even inspiring school leavers to pursue higher education that they might not of previously considered, I’m confident that this campus can deliver real social and economic benefits for the Townsville region.

CQUni responds to Nepalese earthquake disaster

CQUniversity welcomes students and staff from all over the world. The rich infusion of different cultures and ideas is what makes ours such a vibrant and diverse university. And there are few countries, if any at all, that have the strength of ties with CQUniversity as Nepal. We count among our colleagues a number of staff originally from Nepal, including academics, researchers and professional staff. We have many business and philanthropic ties with Nepal as well, which sees us partner with a number of universities and hospitals/health clinics to provide research opportunities and unique student experiences. And we also host almost 700 Nepalese students at our Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Bundaberg and Rockhampton campuses.

Which is why it has been so heartbreaking to see the news reports of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake which devastated Nepal over the weekend. Oxfam are reporting that the current 2,500 death toll is ‘just the beginning’ of this unfolding catastrophe. Thousands more have been injured and countless scores have been left without shelter and other necessities.

Information is currently being circulated to our hundreds of Nepalese students about what support and assistance CQUniversity can provide in exceptional circumstances such as this. For our Nepalese staff, the University can assist with a range of support, leave and counselling measures.

CQUniversity’ s immediate response to this tragedy will be the provision of $10,000 worth of emergency shelter. This will be via the Rotary Club who have developed Rotary Shelter Boxes; self-contained temporary housing and disaster survival kits that will be sent to the worst-struck areas of Nepal, containing enough emergency shelter, food, first aid, health/hygiene disease prevention and water purification facilities to cater for large family groups. CQUniversity’s donation will provide 10 Shelter boxes for 100 people. Below is an overview of the contents of each Rotary Shelter Box.

There is still an enormous demand for more assistance. Can I encourage all staff and students to consider making a contribution towards additional Rotary Shelter Boxes. This is an extremely innovative, practical and rapid way of getting real help to those in desperate need. Donations can be made via direct deposit to the Rotary Sunrise Club BSB 034 210  Account Number 148076. Please add ‘UniNepal’ as your transaction reference. For a receipt please email a screenshot of your EFT transfer to rockhamptonsunrise@gmail.com.

The Rotary Club of Rockhampton Sunrise will arrange the transport and logistics in dispatching these kits ASAP. Please give generously, if you can.

Finally, given the strong Nepalese community here at CQUniversity, most staff would know a colleague or student from Nepal. Please reach out to them and see if they are OK. I have heard a number of stories of students who have lost immediate family members, and many more unable to confirm the safety of other loved ones. I can only imagine how distressing it must be to be thousands of miles away from your home country watching the news reports of the devastation back home. 

Please know that you are not alone and that the whole CQUniversity community is thinking of you at this difficult time. 

Equity matters at CQUni

Last week I popped in on a workshop for the 21 CQUniversity projects being funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Higher Education Participation Program (HEPP). This funding is targeted at initiatives we use to better support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to be what they want to be. It was a great opportunity for me to reflect on what an inclusive university CQU is.

Being an inclusive university is something that everyone at CQUniversity is proud of. Ours is a university that defines itself by those we include rather than those we exclude. We are a university that is reflective of the society around us and that’s exactly why it’s important for us provide opportunities to those who might have otherwise thought a university education was unattainable.

It’s great that some universities pride themselves on prestige and exclusivity – and that’s great for them, but we will never be one of those universities. I don’t think that your geographical location, family background, study mode, ATAR or whether or not you have a disability should determine your ability to achieve.

The HEPP projects being rolled out at CQUniversity are evidence of this and each and every one of them has a specific aim of raising university aspirations among students from disadvantaged backgrounds.  The projects will help to ensure these students are supported throughout their studies and that they have the same opportunities for employment as anyone else upon graduation. I think that the project coordinators of these programs have some of the most exciting jobs at the University because they get to see that what they are doing is genuinely making a difference to the lives of our students.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the results of these 21 HEPP projects over the next few years and bearing witness to CQUniversity reinforcing its status as Australia’s (if not the World’s) most inclusive and engaged university! 

Me having a chat to staff at the HEPP workshop

Me and with the group of HEPP project coordinators