THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA The University of Queensland CREATE CHANGE 2020 ANNUAL REPORT 24 February 2021 Acknowledgement of Country We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and their custodianship of the lands on which our University stands. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and descendants, who The Honourable Grace Grace MP continue cultural and spiritual connections Minister for Education, Minister for Industrial Relations to Country. We recognise their valuable and Minister for Racing contributions to Australian and global society. PO Box 15033 CITY EAST QLD 4002 Dear Minister I am pleased to submit for presentation to the Parliament the Annual Report 2020 and financial statements for The University of Queensland. I certify that this Annual Report complies with: – the prescribed requirements of the Financial Accountability Act 2009 and the Financial and Performance Management Standard 2019 – the detailed requirements set out in the Annual report requirements for Queensland Government agencies, July 2020. A checklist outlining the annual reporting requirements can be found at Public availability note about.uq.edu.au/annual-reports. This report, as at 31 December 2020, was produced by Marketing and Communication, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072 Australia; and is available online at about.uq.edu.au/annual-reports, or by calling +61 7 3365 2479 or emailing [email protected]. Yours sincerely The following information is available online at about.uq.edu.au/annual-reports and on the Queensland Government Open Data website at data.qld.gov.au: – Consultancies – Overseas travel. Interpreter service statement The University of Queensland (UQ) is committed to providing accessible services to people from all culturally and Peter N Varghese AO linguistically diverse backgrounds. Chancellor, The University of Queensland If you have difficulty understanding this 2020 Annual Report, please contact UQ’s Institute of Modern Languages on +61 7 3346 8200 to arrange for an interpreter to effectively communicate this report to you. Feedback If you have any suggestions about how we can improve this report, please complete the feedback form at about.uq.edu.au/annual-reports. ISSN 1837-6592 (print) ISSN 1837-6606 (online) CRICOS Provider Number 00025B © (The University of Queensland) 2021 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2020 Contents Vice-Chancellor and President’s review 4 – Year in summary 6 – 2020 Honour roll 8 Role and functions 10 – Basis of authority; Controlled entities; Mission 10 – Vision; UQ values; Queensland Public Service values 11 – Locations; Faculties and institutes 12 – Operating environment 13 – Key statistics 15 Operational performance 16 – Review of activities — Student experience 18 – Review of activities — Research impact 23 – Review of activities — Partnerships 27 – Review of activities — Diverse community 29 – Review of activities — Agile operations 33 – Review of activities — Sustainable finances 36 Human resources 39 Governance 43 – University governing body 43 – Executive management 45 – Organisation chart 46 – Public Sector Ethics; Risk management 47 – Human rights 48 – Information systems and recordkeeping; External scrutiny 49 Financial information 50 Annual Financial Statements 53 Glossary 126 THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2020 3 Vice-Chancellor and President’s review Resilience and agility. These are the qualities that shone through in our community, as we negotiated our way through the many challenges that arose in 2020. After a 6-and-a-half year absence, I was The UQ community also pulled together in Despite the challenges created by the incredibly proud to return to The University 2020 to provide much-needed support for pandemic, we ensured that the University of Queensland (UQ) in August this year to the thousands of students facing hardship finished the year in a relatively strong take up the position as UQ’s Vice-Chancellor as a direct result of the pandemic. financial position and we maintained around and President. 8,000 research projects – and continued to In total, $1 million in grants was distributed feed the research pipeline with the approval Given that my return occurred in the to 600 students via the UQ COVID-19 of 700 new projects this year. second half of 2020, I would like to start Student Emergency Support Fund. by acknowledging my predecessor, Meanwhile, an army of staff volunteers, led Importantly, our research is having a global Professor Peter Høj AC, and I want to thank by Student Services, pitched in to deliver impact too, with 32 UQ researchers being him for his leadership of the University – 9,000 food hampers and 28,000 free meals included on the Clarivate Highly Cited especially through the initial stages of the to students in need of support. Researchers 2020 list – up from 28 on the COVID-19 pandemic. 2019 list. While the pandemic created numerous disruptions for the University and our 2020 highlights community in 2020, I also want to Once again in 2020, our research and COVID-19 response acknowledge the remarkable resilience and educational programs had a wide-ranging In a year when the emergence of COVID-19 agility shown by our staff as we dealt with impact and UQ continued to enrich the dominated most aspects of our lives, UQ’s these challenges. communities that we serve. research community played a prominent role in improving our understanding of In Semester 1, for instance, our staff worked UQ either enhanced or maintained its position the virus and, importantly, informing the incredibly hard to shift 1,529 courses to in the major ranking systems of the world’s community response to it. online delivery in the space of just one universities released in 2020. Most of these week. In the weeks that followed, as the ranking systems place UQ among the world’s For instance, it was a UQ team working nationwide lockdown came into effect, top 50 and Australia’s top 3 universities. with CSIRO that developed a method of around 6,700 UQ staff quickly moved to detecting viral fragments in wastewater as The excellence of our teaching was working from home, while another 1,300 an early indicator of the virus being present recognised in February at the Australian remained on campus to maintain our in the community. Awards for University Teaching, where facilities and grounds, and to ensure the UQ received more awards than any other A number of other scientists from across continuity of vital research. university. Among the 8 awards won by UQ shifted their focus this year to work As we sought to keep the UQ community UQ academics, I was delighted to see that with clinicians to either study the virus’s connected and safe, the shift to digital Professors Blake McKimmie, Barbara Masser impact in a range of different scenarios delivery of our programs and events and Mark Horswill were jointly named the or to investigate potential treatments for became a consistent theme throughout Australian University Teachers of the Year. COVID-19. the year. The UQ Life Virtual Village was The shift to teaching online in Semester 1 Of course, the most high-profile of UQ’s established in April as an online forum for enabled the University to continue COVID-19 projects was the remarkable team students. In May, the UQ Theatre Festival developing the knowledge and skills of our effort that went into developing a vaccine and Reconciliation Week were both students, and prepare them for their future using the University’s patented 'molecular conducted online, while the School of careers. In total, we taught almost 55,000 clamp' technology. Music started live-streaming its lunchtime students in 2020, which was only slightly concerts. Then, in August, we held our first With financial support from the Centre down on enrolments in the previous year. fully online Open Day, attracting more than for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, 6,000 prospective students from However, one significant difference this as well as the Australian and Queensland 109 nations. year was that, due to the impact of border governments, the UQ team was able to closures, we had more than 9,000 students rapidly develop a vaccine candidate that who continued their studies purely online, proved to be safe and elicited a robust from an offshore or interstate location. immune response in Phase 1 trials. This meant we were able to support these students to progress towards graduation. 4 THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2020 Although the trials will not proceed Looking ahead Thank you beyond Phase 1, I want to acknowledge the While 2020 was a very challenging year, Finally, I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary hard work and commitment I am confident that UQ’s response to the members of the University Senate for their of the UQ vaccine team throughout 2020. pandemic has helped to instigate significant support and encouragement as I have They have been tremendous ambassadors changes that will benefit the University in settled into this role over the past 6 months. for UQ and for Queensland – and they have 2021 and beyond. consistently highlighted the importance In particular, I would like to thank the of science and the value of the scientific Certainly the sudden, mass adoption of Chancellor, Peter N Varghese AO, for his process. It will be fascinating to see how online learning will create new opportunities wise counsel and strategic guidance. The they apply their innovative molecular clamp for designing more flexible educational fact that he has been re-elected for a technology to the development of vaccines programs and experiences – and it will further 5-year term as Chancellor (starting in the future. enable us to offer students greater choice in July 2021) will be of great benefit to the how, where and when they study into University as we plot our future path – and the future. the contribution that UQ will make to pandemic recovery.