Second century confidence

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Tags: centenary, centenary-edition, Vice-Chancellor

By Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield AO

Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield

It is my privilege to be Vice-Chancellor and President of UQ at the start of our new century. We all owe a great deal to the people before us who created a strong platform for the future, particularly by attracting fantastic students, recruiting and holding on to exemplary staff, and establishing stunning infrastructure.

The Centenary is an opportunity to picture the University some years from now; for the sake of argument, in 2025.

Of one thing I am very confident: the global appetite for high quality tertiary education will not wane. The nations that are now labelled “developing” will clamour for well-informed professionals, and Australia will need an educated populace to face up to aggressive rivalry for markets and allies.

The bulk of UQ’s undergraduate students will be Generation Z, whose original traits will spur the institution in unforeseen directions. At the same time, school-leavers will not dominate the undergraduate community to the same extent as today, because more people who already have careers will seek additional education.

Global learning and mobility will be non-negotiable by 2025. Ideally, at least half of our students will complete part of their programs overseas, either studying or working as interns – or both. We will have more inbound exchange students, and a larger proportion of PhD candidates from overseas.

The socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of UQ students will be more diverse than is the case in 2010, due largely to scholarships and long-term strategies such as the new Wotif Young Achievers program.

More students will volunteer for programs comparable to Engineers Without Borders and Emergency Architects Australia. Greater numbers will drive initiatives similar to Manali Medical Aid, post-tsunami hospital care in Samoa, and the Pro Bono Centre for law students – all of which are current UQ projects.

Among staff, I envisage more conjoint industry and government appointments, and more full-time researchers. Both schemes will be needed to maximise the results of greater investment in collaborative projects.

Partnerships with industry and government invariably lead to questions about the role of a university. For UQ, the fundamentals will not alter: academic integrity, independence and quality will remain sacrosanct.

Where will the UQ people of 2025 study and work? A year ago Herston was made our fourth official campus. It is already expanding, with the $104 million Oral Health Centre in the advanced stages of planning.

I envision one or two new campuses in the foreseeable future. The developments at and around the Princess Alexandra Hospital are so substantial that this may well rate as a campus by 2025. It would be a collegial campus involving partner institutions and businesses, and would potentially take in the Translational Research Institute Queensland (adjoining the hospital), the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (soon to include a general practice “super clinic”), and the Boggo Road Ecosciences Precinct (presently a collaboration of the Queensland Government and CSIRO).

UQ’s 280 hectares at Pinjarra Hills, in south western Brisbane, may become another campus, perhaps a research/industry/village campus on the proviso that the site is sensitively planned to respect community and environmental values.

UQ Gatton is destined for a tremendous future. It is well on the way to being the best place in the subtropics for learning, discovery and development related to animals, and the ambition is for a similar concentration of excellence in the study of plants, agriculture and food.

UQ Ipswich will have multiple strengths. Health sciences will be its teaching and research specialty, and students, staff and the regional community will benefit from an on-site general practice super clinic. The campus will have a unique relationship with the neighbouring Bremer State High School, and will host UQ’s first university college, offering associate degrees.

St Lucia will continue as a stronghold for learning, research and commercialisation, and will be an efficient entry point for corporations, charitable groups and governments seeking high-level expertise.

The standard of campuses that the University is able to build and maintain will circle back to the quality of its people. The achievements of our foundation century did not spring from luck. They were born out of intelligence, hard graft, and relationships with exceptional organisations and individuals – many of whom were UQ alumni.

This is a formula for success that the University will carry into its second century.

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