UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Paul Greenfield

In mid-2011 more than 6600 alumni in almost 100 countries took the opportunity to express their views of UQ by being part of an online survey. Thank you to all the respondents, whose answers will inform our efforts to offer alumni the programs and benefits that they want.

Hundreds invested extra time to write comments about their relationship with UQ, and many of these were particularly instructive.

Overwhelmingly, people had positive memories of their student experience and gave high ratings to the education that UQ now provides. For example, 94 percent felt proud to be a UQ graduate, 91 percent said they had an overall great experience as students, and almost 90 percent would recommend UQ to their friends. These ratings are a tribute to past and present staff, and to the quality of our alumni community.

On the other hand, alumni were generally cool about their present relationship with UQ. Only 40 percent agreed that they had a strong relationship with UQ, almost one-third were neutral about it, and the remainder disagreed with the proposition. Also, most people did not feel that they were a valued part of the UQ community.

Clearly, the University’s strong performance towards students is not flowing through to alumni. As engaging with alumni is integral to the University’s vocation, and we strive for all-round excellence, this is indeed a serious concern.

If you are someone who finds UQ’s performance towards alumni lacking, please be assured that alumni are valued as intrinsic to UQ, irrespective of whether they are quiet achievers, celebrities, or people who studied purely for the love of learning. When I take the University’s increasing success as the pervading theme of this magazine, I cannot isolate it from the work of countless people whose stories are not documented.

I was gratified by the magnanimity of the thousands of alumni who would consider volunteering, especially if it enables them to help students. Half of the respondents signalled interest in giving guest lectures or joining discussion panels, 42 percent were interested in being career mentors, 44 percent would consider assisting with UQ humanitarian projects, and more than a quarter were interested in inviting a new international student home for dinner.

I know that many hundreds of alumni already volunteer as adjunct academics, student mentors, fundraisers, advisors, reunion organisers, UQ Senators – the list goes on. It is now up to UQ to expand opportunities for people to serve in these roles and other ways.

More than half of our alumni live within an hour’s drive of central Brisbane, but altruism is not limited by borders or datelines. This is proven by the members of the new board of The University of Queensland in America Foundation, the dynamos running our 10 Asia-based alumni associations, and the residents of Vietnam who supported a group of current students who performed exceptional deeds for children of a community in the Mekong Delta.

A similarly generous disposition towards UQ students of today and tomorrow came through in alumni’s answers to questions about donating, with scholarships being the most popular target for people who were able and willing to give funds to UQ.

People shared valuable insights on activities that interest them, and their preferred avenues for receiving communication from the University. On the basis of this you should expect to see more email invitations and notices about seminars, cultural events and professional development.

Judging by answers relating to benefits and services they would like to receive, many alumni treasure knowledge and scholarship as ongoing links with the University. Their most popular choices were library access that is free or discounted (the latter is already available), and lifelong learning.

The take-out message for the University is that actions speak louder than words. Busy alumni took the trouble to tell us what they like and dislike about their relationship with UQ, with some even inviting the University to partner with them to improve offerings for their fellow alumni.

There is now a decisive onus on the University to digest the criticisms as well as the compliments to communicate better with alumni who want to maintain or reinvigorate contact with their alma mater, and to harness the enthusiasm and creativity of alumni who want to share their wisdom, energy and connections. Stay tuned.

By Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield AO

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield

You don’t need to be a brilliant researcher or wizard teacher to be a catalyst for change and progress at UQ.

Since the University’s early days, philanthropists have been making a mark by applying foresight and generosity to challenges of all scales. In fact, as far back as 1911 at least 100 donors were helping fund equipment for the fledgling University, paving the way for transformational benefactors in the 1920s and 1930s. Among them were James and Mary Emelia Mayne who enabled – among other things – the St Lucia campus, a medical school and a UQ presence at Pinjarra Hills; TC Beirne, who funded a law school; and a group of Dramatic Society students whose collective £10 seeded the Fryer Library, which now holds more than 100,000 publications including 4,000 rare books.

As the University matured, the philanthropic tradition was cultivated by countless people with big hearts and the vast vision to imagine a long-term legacy of learning and research.

The end of the 20th century saw the rise of a new breed of philanthropist: entrepreneurial donors who will take risks that government and others decline. They want to collaborate on key project elements – such as design, governance, and leveraging of third-party funds. Often, they are alumni who attribute their own success at least partly to a UQ education. They want others to enjoy similar opportunities and – as people accustomed to seeing a return on their investments – they lend their expertise to philanthropic causes to achieve results.

UQ is privileged to have a number of outstanding partners of this ilk, including Chuck Feeney (a Cornell University alumnus), Graeme Wood, and Andrew and Jennifer Brice (all three of whom are UQ graduates).

The progress they have spurred in just a few years shows that, where the University is prepared to loosen the rigidity of our first-century business practices and work closely with benefactors, we can deliver new and better outcomes to students, high-achieving staff, and community members who need our research.

On the other hand, you do not have to be a successful business person and hands-on patron in order to make an impact. Very recent events have proven that gifts of a much more modest scale are seminal when they join a pool of targeted funds.

After disastrous floods damaged or ruined the homes and belongings of hundreds of students in January, the University appealed to alumni and friends throughout the world to support them. More than 900 people (90 percent of them alumni) responded with donations ranging from a few dollars to $100,000, swelling the total to more than $330,000 and delivering assistance to approximately 400 students. Unallocated funds are now establishing a continuing student welfare fund.

We have also established a presence in an international stronghold of university philanthropy, the United States, by incorporating The University of Queensland in America. Chaired by Dr Andrew Liveris, the 2005 UQ Alumnus of the Year who heads The Dow Chemical Company, and overseen by a board including UQ alumnus Dr Patrice Derrington, who works in Wall Street investment banking, it will enable US citizens to make tax-effective donations to UQ.

Andrew and Patrice’s service to the US foundation highlights another vital avenue for alumni and others to elevate the University’s reputation, standing and performance: volunteering. Throughout the UQ community, from the Senate to the recent biennial Alumni Book Fair, sporting clubs and student societies, volunteers lend energy and influence to support fantastic ventures in learning, research, and activities that engage and uplift local and global communities.

One of the best outcomes of last year’s Centenary celebrations was extensive contact between alumni and their alma mater. More than 10,000 people attended reunions in venues ranging from the UQ Centre, to the Cornell Club in New York, to the Sheraton Saigon.

One function of these events was to encourage alumni to articulate the University’s strategic vision. From this, it is clear that alumni know their institution’s global impact reflects on its graduates, and vice-versa. Moreover, they recognise their university will be best-placed to turbo-charge 21st century knowledge and innovation if it is fortified by alumni.

In May we launched the Global Challenges Leadership Series, which in 2011 takes in cities including Beijing, Bogota, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Shanghai, Washington DC and Yogyakarta, in addition to Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. It is no accident that one theme of the series is the role of universities in solving global challenges. In our era, institutions with UQ’s strengths have a responsibility to make tangible contributions to global problem-solving. For this mission, we welcome reinforcement from alumni and other partners.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield

By Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield AO

The embarrassment of riches from UQ’s first 100 years was always going to present challenges when it came time to mark the Centenary.

How to appropriately celebrate the contributions of some 180,000 graduates and innumerable staff, partners and friends in the community? How to give people scattered through 150 countries opportunities to connect or reconnect with their alma mater? Perhaps most importantly: how to honour the legacy of the “builders” of the first 100 years by joining with 21st century alumni to cement future success?

The first major celebrations pivoted around the official birthday of the University Senate, in April. Some 15,000 people converged on the St Lucia campus one Sunday to sample a UQ smorgasbord that included conversations with acclaimed literary alumni, guided tours of the Great Court, entertainment by UQ musicians, and UQ museum tours.

1994 Alumnus of the Year, Queensland Governor Dr Penelope Wensley, began an oration series that comprised a string of eminent speakers, including a Nobel laureate and the Director-General of UNESCO, and 2005 Alumnus of the Year, Dow Chemical CEO Dr Andrew Liveris.

Alumni also commanded centre stage during and around the first weekend in July. The biggest-ever Courting the Greats audience witnessed the crowning of Sir Llew Edwards, Dr Nat Yuen and Robert Dann as Centenary Alumnus of the Year, International Alumnus of the Year and Young Alumnus of the Year respectively. That same day, Governor-General Dr Quentin Bryce, 2008 Alumnus of the Year, unveiled two Great Court carvings by alumna Dr Rhyl Hinwood: badges of the Queensland University Regiment and Squadron.

Throughout 2010 I have had the good fortune to catch up with UQ people based far and wide. At last count, the University has hosted reunions of graduates in 12 countries and 22 cities, while colleges, faculties and schools organised smaller events for their alumni.

Not all reunions can be joyous, as was shown when many people were drawn together by the death of former Chancellor Sir James Foots.

Regardless of the occasion’s cause, I encountered high-performing alumni. The more of them I meet, the prouder I feel to be part of this University, and the more clearly I understand why UQ is widely regarded as being in the top one percent of the world’s universities.

The University has charted its own aspirations, and they centre on continuing to foster leaders for an increasingly complex and interconnected world, while never ceasing to lift researchers’ capacity to confront global challenges. For instance, we want to:

• Expand the value and range of scholarships, including for research higher degree candidates and students from Indigenous and disadvantaged backgrounds;
• Improve access to options such as overseas study exchanges, internships in Australia and internationally, and mentoring by alumni;
• Lift the proportion of students who are postgraduates (without substantially growing the total student population); and
• Offer research higher degree students more advantages that are distinctive to UQ.

International experience shows universities only soar when alumni and partners are part of the propulsion.

My senior colleagues and I are talking to graduates and partners as well as students about UQ’s direction and inviting consideration of ways to help elevate the University’s reputation.

It goes without saying that we do not expect loyalty and service without a quid pro quo, so we ask what sort of returns alumni and others expect from the relationship.

Some contributions are so lofty that they defy commensurate recognition. It will be a challenge to properly acknowledge alumni such as Graeme Wood, Andrew and Jennifer Brice and Dr Ron Thomson, or The Atlantic Philanthropies and its founding chair, Chuck Feeney. Adequate acclaim is even more elusive when people give anonymously, shun publicity, contribute in non-financial ways, or die before their vision is realised.

The gold standard philanthropist of UQ’s early decades, Dr James Mayne, must have had uncanny insight. He knew his support would be essential to the consolidation of a university offering the standard and breadth of education needed in the young state of Queensland.

Could he have known that his example would be as important in UQ’s second century as it was in the first? His bronze likeness, sculpted this year by Dr Hinwood, is installed in the main entrance to the Forgan Smith Building. It carries meaning on many levels, not least as a reminder of the heights that can be reached when people of goodwill imagine a bold future for the University.

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.

Fostering outstanding performances from higher degree, postdoctoral and early career researchers is a key UQ objective that meshes with other discovery-related aims, including building and sustaining excellent infrastructure.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield

More than 8000 people have received a UQ PhD since the program began six decades ago, and research higher degree candidates set a new 12-month benchmark in 2008 when UQ awarded a record 599 Doctors of Philosophy and Masters of Philosophy.

Each has been a deposit in humanity’s bank of knowledge, with the potential to influence other endeavours and contribute to life-altering breakthroughs. Research higher degree projects can also generate economic wealth, and augment societal and workforce qualities such as analysis and problem solving.

Fostering outstanding performances from higher degree, postdoctoral and early career researchers is a key UQ objective that meshes with other discovery-related aims, including building and sustaining excellent infrastructure.

In some areas it takes tens – even hundreds – of millions of dollars to establish the facilities needed for entry to the global league, followed by large ongoing outlays to maintain the position. Given heavy reliance on imports for necessities ranging from medical imaging equipment to library books, the challenge escalates when the Australian dollar slides.

The right infrastructure sets off a virtuous cycle, helping the University recruit and retain exceptional people who in turn make UQ more attractive to other high achievers. Large research infrastructure grants from government, industry and philanthropists are harbingers of a strong, sustainable academic community.

A striking 2009 example of this is a genomics program targeting pancreatic and ovarian cancers, bringing in $27.5 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council and $5 million from the Queensland Government.

Genomics is a “watch this space” field, potentially allowing treatments for serious illnesses to be individualised for patients. Its pace of development is rapid because new generations of the enabling sequencing technology are continuously being released to – and mastered by – specialist scientists.  It is fortunate – but not accidental – that UQ has a cadre of world leaders on staff.

They can sequence a human genome in a matter of months for $US100,000, whereas the initial sequencing was a worldwide 13-year effort that cost $US3 billion. Some impressive young UQ researchers are already at the candidacy or post-doctoral stage, and the advent of the international cancer program will fuel interest.

Another recent Australian Government grant with vast implications is $47 million for the School of Veterinary Science’s new headquarters at Gatton. It supports stage two of a plan to assert UQ as a world force in teaching, research and technology transfer related to animals and plants, and will impact on areas including food security, biosecurity and animal welfare. The completed first stage is the Centre for Advanced Animal Science at Gatton (strongly backed by the Queensland Government), and the next step will involve plant sciences.

Engineering was a pillar discipline when UQ began almost 100 years ago, but it will take major investments to maintain international esteem in the second century. A new $50 million Australian Government commitment for the Advanced Engineering Building, along with $15 million from the State Government for the Queensland Centre for Advanced Materials Processing and Manufacturing, seeds the rejuvenation of the engineering precinct at St Lucia.

At our Herston Campus, $104 million from Canberra will build the Oral Health Centre, the most advanced facility of its type in Australia and a long-overdue new home for the UQ School of Dentistry. It will, among other things, speed the translation of research findings into high quality clinical care, enable UQ to educate more dentists and oral health therapists, and treat about 17,000 dental and cancer patients per year.

The signature of our newly-retired Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor David Siddle, is a consistent feature of our strategic research successes. David could secure deals with corporate boards and policy units, and at the same time reward early career researchers and recruit ascendant stars. I thank him for his immeasurable legacy.

For enduring focus on the individual and personal as well as the corporate, I doubt anyone will out-perform our former Chancellor, Sir Llew Edwards AC. Sir Llew unassumingly announced his retirement late in 2008, after almost 16 years as Chancellor. He is missed, but the University is fortunate that John Story agreed to succeed him. It is a pleasure to welcome John as UQ’s 13th Chancellor.