The University of Queensland is seeking to position itself for the future and is introducing significant changes to its organisational structure from 1 January 2014.
The changes relate to organisational structure, and do not involve changes to study programs, degree titles or courses.
President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Høj said the establishment of three new faculties would strengthen UQ’s research and teaching quality and create an effective structure for external partners to work with the University.
“This repositioning is about getting ourselves best-placed for even greater success in the future, because we are globally ambitious and want to build on our status as one of the world’s top 100 universities as assessed by four major independent university rankings,” Professor Høj said.
Two new health-related faculties will be established. The Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences (HABS) will focus on the health professions, while the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (MABS) will align UQ’s entities focused on pre-clinical and medical sciences.
“Creating two health-related faculties with a ‘one UQ health’ synergy will help develop a more responsive approach to health and translational outcomes,” Professor Høj said.
The UQ Diamantina Institute, the Mater Research Institute-UQ, UQ’s Centre for Clinical Research and the Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute will become part of the new Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences..
“Co-locating our four hospital-based institutes in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will profile UQ’s strengths in the broad medical sciences much more effectively than in the past, and will allow for new partnerships and collaborations to be developed in the future,” Professor Høj said.
“While you can see the scope of our attention to health, I stress we remain strongly committed to the non-health behavioural sciences as well.”
A new Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences will incorporate the Institute of Social Science Research..
“The larger scale of the new faculty will open up opportunities for staff, research and engagement, and mean that the natural synergies across the humanities and social sciences can be pursued,” Professor Høj said.
“As a result of the restructure, the bulk of UQ’s largest undergraduate program, the Bachelor of Arts, will sit within one faculty, bringing a more seamless student experience.”
The existing Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Health Sciences and Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences will be disestablished at the end of this year.
UQ’s other three faculties, Business, Economics and Law, Engineering, Architecture and IT (EAIT), and Science are largely unaffected by the changes.
Full list of changes:
UQ’s new Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences (HABS) will comprise the schools of:
- Dentistry
- Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
- Human Movement Studies
- Nursing and Midwifery
- Pharmacy
- Psychology
- Social Work and Human Services
The faculty will also include:
- The Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research
- The National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology
The new Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) will comprise the schools of:
- Education
- English, Media Studies and Art History
- School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
- School of Journalism and Communication
- School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies
- School of Music
- School of Political Science and International Studies
- School of Social Science
It will also include:
- The Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
- The Centre for History of European Discourses
- The UQ node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions
- The Institute of Modern Languages
- The UQ Confucius Institute
- The Institute for Social Science Research
The new Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (MABS) will comprise the schools of:
- Medicine
- Biomedical Sciences
- Population Health
It will also include:
- The UQ Centre for Clinical Research
- The Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development
- The Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute
- The UQ Diamantina Institute
- The Mater Research Institute
Media: Michael Duthie, 3346 7691 or michael.duthie@uq.edu.au
