The University of Queensland`s Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Hay, AC, has announced the appointment of Professor Deborah Terry as Executive Dean of UQ`s Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (SBS) from January 1, 2006.
She succeeds Professor Linda Rosenman, who has led the Faculty since its inception in 1997.
“Professor Terry has extensive and diverse experience in academia and in both government and the private sector,” Professor Hay said.
“She is recognised as one of the most highly cited psychologists in Australia and possesses a strong international reputation in her areas of research.”
Those areas centre on social psychology, attitudes, social influence, persuasion, group processes and inter-group relations. She is currently Head of UQ`s School of Psychology.
Professor Terry said the appointment was a tremendous honour and she was looking forward to building on the excellent work Professor Rosenman had done to establish a strong and vibrant SBS Faculty at UQ.
“We are now very well positioned to move the Faculty forward to realise the goal of being an internationally recognised centre of excellence in both teaching and research in the social and behavioural sciences,” she said.
Professor Terry is Chair of the Australian Research Council`s College of Experts in the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences and is President of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists.
A graduate of the Australian National University (BA, PhD), Professor Terry is associate editor of the British Journal of Psychology and the European Journal of Social Psychology and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
Professor Terry said she would work with SBS staff to strengthen the Faculty`s research and teaching links both within UQ and with relevant government and industry agencies.
“Preparing for the new research quality framework will be a significant challenge in the Faculty,” she said.
“This framework will constitute a major change for the higher education sector in Australia but it is one that should be welcomed given that it is in the national interest to shift the focus of research assessment from the quantity of outputs to the quality and impact of these outputs.
“With the Faculty Executive, my goal will be to continue to build the scale and focus of our research activities so as to enhance UQ`s research capacity and competitiveness in the social and behavioural sciences.
“We also need to ensure that we attract and retain the very best students and that we offer them the highest quality educational experience, drawing on and complementing the research strengths of the Faculty.”
Professor Hay said that as s a result of Professor Rosenman`s leadership the SBS Faculty could look forward to the future with optimism.
“I would like to acknowledge Professor Rosenman`s dedication to the University and her efforts in establishing a highly successful Faculty with a focus on innovative academic programs, internationalisation and with a significant research and commercialisation profile,” he said.
High resolution images of Professor Terry can be viewed here. To obtain an image please contact Diana Lilley (telephone 07 3365 2753, email d.lilley@uq.edu.au).
Media: For more information, contact Professor Deborah Terry (telephone 07 3365 6220, email d.terry@psy.uq.edu.au) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
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