The University of Queensland has today been recognised once again as the nation`s top teaching institution, winning a staggering one third of the 2005 Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) plus more than one third of Federal funds for excellence in teaching and learning.
The University was awarded more than $10 million of the total of $30 million given to five universities nationally in the top band of higher education providers in the Federal Government’s Learning and Teaching Performance Fund.
UQ received $10.424 million, the University of Melbourne $9.853 million, the University of Wollongong $5.108 million, the Swinburne University of Technology $3.852 million and the Australian Maritime College $1.143 million.
In the Australian Awards for University Teaching, UQ won four of 12 awards in the categories of Physical Sciences ($40,000); Teaching Large First Year Classes ($50,000); Enhancement of the Quality of Teaching and Learning ($50,000); and Approaches to Improving/Enhancing Assessment ($50,000).
Federal Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs Dr Brendan Nelson announced the funding and presented the prestigious awards today at Parliament House in Canberra.
The awards highlighted how the University’s lecturers devised innovate and unique approaches to teaching, including overcoming the nationwide problem of expanding class sizes and addressing the shortage of healthcare professionals, particularly occupational therapists.
Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay, AC, congratulated the winners at the ceremony.
In the AAUT’s Approaches to Improving/Enhancing Assessment category a group of academics from UQ’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences were rewarded with $50,000 for their efforts to increase the skills of occupational therapists.
Head of UQ’s Occupational Therapy Division Dr Sylvia Rodger said there was a growing demand for occupational therapists that would only increase due to Australia’s ageing population.
“With the changing population demographics and mental health issues, demand continues to outstrip supply, particularly in rural areas,” she said.
Dr Rodger said occupational therapists would play a major role in caring for Australia’s baby boomers during the next 20 years.
“Ageing brings with it a significant increase in disease and disability. Occupational therapists enable older people to stay at h
ome longer by assessing their functional capacity and risks and safety in the home,” she said.
Occupational therapists undertake capability assessments for the elderly and conduct rehabilitation programs for those recovering from injuries.
The UQ team was rewarded at the AAUTs for developing the Student Placement Evaluation Form (SPEF), which is able to deliver feedback to the students at various points throughout their compulsory fieldwork placements.
The SPEF is now licensed to eight of the 11 schools of occupational therapy in Australia and negotiations with the further three schools are underway.
Despite a shortage of Occupational therapists, many university programs such as Psychology attract increasing numbers of students and one of the major challenges lecturers face is being able to provide individual tuition to students enrolling in first year programs.
In the AAUT’s Teaching Large First Year Classes category UQ won the award for its Integrated Approach to Teaching First Year Psychology Courses. The project is designed to provide a “soft landing” into the University setting, according to senior lecturer Dr Virginia Slaughter.
Each year more than 800 students enrol in first year psychology courses at UQ but the unique approach adopted by the School of Psychology ensures these students receive one-on-one attention and individualised feedback on their work.
“Our tutorial program is structured around interactive, small group work and we provide constant feedback to students in tutorials and on their written work,” Dr Slaughter said.
The School of Psychology has also adopted a Lead Tutor model where relatively advanced tutors work closely with the lecturers and mentor newer tutors.
Dr Michael Bulmer, who won the $40,000 AAUT in the Physical Sciences category, said his Statistics course for first-year Biology students attracted about 600 to 700 students each year.
He said one of the challenges of the course was to teach statistics to students who had a science rather than a mathematical background. To do this he encourages what he calls “intellectual creativity”.
“Science is a very creative discipline. But the first year science program is very much about memorising information, so I try and keep creativity alive in the statistics course,” he said.
“At the start of semester the students have to think of their own experimental project to carry out, so they design it, carry it out in the first few weeks and then they have their personal data that they own and can think about through the rest of the course.
“It is great for the students to have that attachment, to get them involved in the course.”
Head of Chemical Engineering Professor Ian Cameron, who won the Prime Minister’s Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year in 2003, said introducing many of these innovative teaching techniques at universities often meant changing a long-standing culture.
“Changing a culture is difficult. Changing an engineering educational culture is nigh impossible,” according to Professor Cameron.
But a culture change is exactly what has taken place in UQ’s School of Engineering thanks to the innovative Project Centred Curriculum (PCC), which won an AAUT in the category of Enhancement of the Quality of Teaching and Learning.
The chemical engineering PCC was the first of its kind in Australia and centres around an integrated central spine of team projects where students undertake work experience, requiring interaction with peer and professional networks.
Professor Cameron said the team had been driven by a desire to significantly improve the undergraduate experience.
“This is a transformation that has taken 10 years, involving all staff and the student body. It has provided a major enhancement in the quality of teaching and learning within UQ,” he said.
Images of the winners can be downloaded from the websites listed below:
Approaches to Improving/Enhancing Assessment Award
Contact: Dr Sylvia Rodger (07 3365 1664)
Image: http://omc.uq.edu.au/images/AAUT/4885-083.jpg
Caption: Dr Rodger (centre) with Fieldwork Manager Katie Ward (left) and Clinical Educator Heather Allison
Teaching Large First Year Classes Award
Contact: Dr Virginia Slaughter (07 3365 6397)
Image: http://omc.uq.edu.au/images/AAUT/4885-031.jpg
Caption: Dr Slaughter (centre) and the School of Psychology team from left: John McLean, Andrew Tilley, Barbara Masser, Rod Ashton, Geoff MacDonald and Rosalind Roche
Physical Sciences Award
Contact: Dr Michael Bulmer (07 3365 7905)
Image: http://omc.uq.edu.au/images/AAUT/4884-059.jpg
Caption: Dr Bulmer with Biomedical student Emma-Kate Lock
Enhancement of the Quality of Teaching and Learning Award
Contact: Professor Ian Cameron (07 3365 4261)
Media: for more information, contact Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479 or 0405 734 996), email c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
