Vice-Chancellor and President of The University of Queensland, Professor John Hay AC, will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Australia on Thursday, March 17.
Professor Hay will be awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters and deliver the occasional address at a graduation ceremony at the University of Western Australia’s Winthrop Hall, at 7.30pm.
He said he was greatly honoured by the award from his alma mater.
Professor Hay was educated at Perth Modern School, the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Cambridge University. He held the chair of English at the UWA where he was also deputy chair of the Academic Board, was Dean of Arts and then Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Monash University. He was Vice-Chancellor and President at Deakin University and has been Vice-Chancellor at UQ since 1996.
Professor Hay is the only vice-chancellor to lead two universities —UQ and Deakin — to win the Good University Guide`s University of the Year Awards. He was honoured in 2003 when Deakin named the Dalgety building at the Geelong Waterfront campus the John Hay Building, in honour of his role in transforming the historic woolstores into a modern university campus.
He played a key role in the major post-merger restructurings of Monash, Deakin and UQ. At Monash, he established the National Key Centre for Australian Studies and since moving to Brisbane he has helped establish the Brisbane Institute (in conjunction with the Brisbane City Council, the Queensland State Government and The Courier-Mail).
He is a trustee of the QPAC and has been on numerous state and national committees on topics as diverse as including research and teaching in higher education, the Crossroads Review of Higher Education (as a member of Federal Education Minister Dr Brendan Nelson`s reference group), medical research, secondary education, economic development and innovation. Professor Hay chaired the Australian Universities Teaching Committee, and has recently been appointed Chair of the new Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. He is current chair of Universitas 21, an international network of leading research-intensive universities.
In 2004, he was awarded a Companion in the Order of Australia (AC) in the Australia Day Honours list.
Under Professor Hay`s leadership, UQ has enhanced dramatically its success in winning research funding. Its academic staff have also won or been short-listed for more Australian Awards for University Teaching than those of any other university.
Professor Hay has had exceptional success in attracting new sources of external funding, for projects totalling almost $400 million, especially from the US-based The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Queensland Government, for major research and cultural initiatives at UQ. These initiatives include:
• The $105 million Queensland Bioscience Precinct which houses UQ`s Institute for Molecular Bioscience.
• Three other major research institutes comprising a critical mass of research expertise — the $60 million Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology; the $60 million Queensland Brain Institute; and the Sustainable Minerals Institute, due to open in the $21 million Sir James Footes Building at UQ St Lucia campus in May.
• A major supercomputing facility.
• The UQ Centre, a $20 million cultural and sporting facility also used for University ceremonies.
• The $8 million Mayne Centre, which opened last year to house the first national collection of Australian art and self-portraits.
Professor Hay has published widely in the fields of English, Australian and comparative literature, is a regular judge of literary prizes and general editor of the Bibliography of Australian Literature.
Media: For further information contact Lorann Downer, Deputy Director of the Office of Marketing and Communications, on 3365 1088 or 0413 458 317.
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