Looking forward

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Tags: Vice-Chancellor, winter-2012

Professor Debbie Terry

By Vice-Chancellor Professor Debbie Terry

Being UQ’s Vice-Chancellor and President for a number of months has been a highlight of my life – an experience enriched by interactions with innumerable people, including many alumni and partners of the University.

The privilege has sharpened my awareness of the unlimited capacity of UQ people, and their power to raise UQ’s stocks ever higher. So I understand why our next Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Høj, says he looks forward to working with UQ’s staff, students and alumni “to further enhance the University’s already excellent global reputation for learning, research and outreach activities”.

Peter has an impressive track record in all three areas he cites, as he is a seasoned teacher, supervisor and researcher whose work has manifested the links between high-quality research and industry success.

He has been Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of South Australia for the past five years, and previously ran the Australian Research Council. He has also led the Australian Wine Research Institute and was Foundation Professor of Viticulture at the University of Adelaide. After moving from Denmark to Australia with his Australian wife and two small children in 1987, Peter worked at La Trobe University.

He is a board member of CSIRO, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and a Foreign Member (Natural Sciences Class) of The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. His Master of Science, PhD and honorary doctorate are all from the University of Copenhagen. Peter’s many other contributions include serving on the Australian Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.

He comes to an institution that has recently grown more resilient, learning from the chain of events that triggered the departures in 2011 of my predecessor, Professor Paul Greenfield, and his senior deputy, Professor Michael Keniger.

The case that started the chain – the irregular admission of an undergraduate student in early 2011 – prompted wide-ranging reviews and reforms designed to prevent its repetition, anywhere at UQ.

Checks and balances, auditing, investigation, and accountability for decision-making have all improved – and will continue to be tightened.

The areas of improvement include: student admissions; handling of misconduct complaints; preventing conflicts of interest; leadership education and awareness for UQ leaders; communication of University policy changes; training for UQ decision-makers; and assurance, investigation and risk management.

We will appoint an external chair of an independent panel to monitor the implementation and completion of all the reforms, and will commission research with a view to heightening our workplace culture of integrity.

As UQ is a public institution with more than 200,000 alumni and high-level partners throughout Australia and the world, it is perhaps not surprising that the incident of 2011 drew the scrutiny of Queensland’s CMC and the new federal Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA).

TEQSA has said it is satisfied with UQ’s responses, and we continue to co-operate with the CMC as Contact goes to print.

As Vice-Chancellor, I have been reminded continually of the positive legacies of the senior leaders who have gone before me, including Paul and Michael. Peter will become part of UQ’s tradition, and will build new traditions and set directions that his forerunners may not have so much as envisaged.

Whatever approaches he chooses, he will have access to the ideas and wisdom of the same people who have made my time as Vice-Chancellor so rewarding. We will all join in welcoming Peter Høj to UQ, and in lending our strength to his ambitions for the University.

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