Advancement Office looks to the future

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Tags: Advancement Office, appointments, centenary-edition, Clare Pullar

The University of Queensland has entered a new era in community and corporate engagement by welcoming Clare Pullar as its first Pro Vice-Chancellor (Advancement).

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Advancement) Clare Pullar

Ms Pullar joined the University in September after Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield created the position to build UQ’s long-term philanthropic vision.

She brings to UQ 20 years of experience in the higher education sector including leadership roles at Melbourne Business School and the University of Melbourne’s Trinity College.

“Clare’s advocacy across two decades has seen educational institutions and their communities directly benefit in numerous ways, and we want to generate the same sense of possibility and achievement at UQ,” Professor Greenfield said.

“There’s many ways our alumni and community partners can become involved with the future of the University and it’s important that we start inviting people to make this happen”.

During her time at Trinity, Ms Pullar successfully led a major capital raising campaign which included new scholarships to admit the college’s first Indigenous students.

She said such projects illustrated the transformative nature of giving, with the college able to see its past, present and future through the prism of helping others.

In recognition of her achievements, Ms Pullar has received both the Trevor Wigney Award and the Peter Crook Award for outstanding service in Advancement in Australasian education.

Born in Scotland, Ms Pullar attended school in Victoria before studying at La Trobe University.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in philosophy and history and a Diploma of Education she commenced what would be her first fundraising challenge – helping a school in Goulburn out of debt to build new classrooms and facilities.

The ten-year project involved working closely with the local farming community to secure support during tough financial times.

Ms Pullar said she had been attracted to UQ by the Vice-Chancellor’s vision and the commitment of the senior executive to make Advancement a priority in the long term.

“We’re at a stage in UQ’s history where we’re launching into a second century which is going to be very different from the first,” she said.

“This century is about being a university for a globalised world and tackling some of the very big issues requiring some very big ideas.”

New UQ projects such as the Global Change Institute provided exciting opportunities to confront these challenges via collaboration, she said.

Ms Pullar said the University had benefited from major acts of philanthropy during its history, including a £60,000 donation by the Mayne family to establish the St Lucia campus in 1926.

More recently, groups such as Atlantic Philanthropies had set the agenda for fundraising by matching personal contributions with those from government and university sources.

Ms Pullar said it was now time for others to use their skills, networks and resources to help build UQ for future generations.

She said Australian universities could learn much from their Canadian counterparts, which have restructured their business models in the past 15 years to include philanthropy as a viable funding source.

“We’ve seen them transform their higher education sector and the way that’s happened is that they have turned their institutions into asking institutions. You’ve got to be bold and ask for help and ask for partnerships,” she said.

Ms Pullar said building relationships was not a “one-way street” however, and UQ needed to better inform graduates about the opportunities on offer.

“I think the biggest opportunity for outreach to our alumni is the Centenary. During 2010 there are going to be many ways that we will engage with our community and invite their participation and involvement,” she said.

“There will be opportunities for people to not just connect with part of the University that they’re most familiar with, but to engage with some of the cutting edge thinking that has emerged since they were students here.”

By Cameron Pegg

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