Higher Education… Why Bother?
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PANDEMIC Avian Flu — not if but when CREATIVE CONTROL How to capture the energy of the innovation generation ARRIVALS + DEPARTURES International students make a lasting contribution issue 01 may 2008 Higher Education… Why Bother? Growing numbers of students are deferring higher education to enter the job market. GGRIUN0799RIUN0799 RRedMag1_FINALedMag1_FINAL ARTART 18_4A18_4A A 112/6/082/6/08 110:32:300:32:30 AMAM Griffi th University VC Vice Chancellor and President issue 01 may 2008 Professor Ian O’Connor Snapshots 1 Higher Education… Why Bother? Where Have All The Students Gone? 4 Universities play a vital role in solving the most diffi cult Arrivals + Departures 10 problems the world will ever face — often harnessing intensely First Person 14 local experiences and knowledge alongside international and multidisciplinary research to be the catalyst for true Game On 16 innovation. They prepare future leaders equipped to manage tomorrow’s global issues. They prepare all manner of practitioners with the skills necessary to meet our economy’s Viewfi nder: Thiess Art Prize 20 needs. They enable social inclusion, where people from all walks of life have the opportunity to contribute to important Creative Control 24 cultural and political discussion. Australia’s new Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has announced a review of higher Sorry + Symbolism + The Sacred 28 education to inject diversity, choice and the highest quality into the sector. She sees education not just in terms of its The Next Flu Pandemic 32 obvious contribution to the economy, but its intrinsic value — “the capacity education builds in all of us for critical thinking Hallelujah 36 and refl ection and the capability to better understand our place in the world”. Our new Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Letter from London 38 Research, Senator Kim Carr, has also recently raised the spectre of Australia’s skills shortage in science and research as My View 40 holding back our future prosperity. We have an aging tenured academic workforce, combined with an overall decline in students starting higher research degrees — these are the very people who drive our quest for knowledge. These are the very people who need to engage with business and industry to secure future prosperity. The Griffi th University Art Collection Minister Carr sees “mission based compacts” as aligning Griffi th Artworks (GAW) is a small organisation that provides cultural the government’s expectations for education, research, asset management, curatorial services and research publication services to Queensland College of Art and Griffi th University on fi ve research training, community outreach and innovation with campus areas between the Gold Coast and Brisbane. GAW is also the each university’s diverse strengths. In effect, each university management authority for more than 3500 objects in the Griffi th University Art Collection and administers the On-Campus Exhibition will respond to the social and economic needs of the Program (OCEP) that displays the collection in thematic and curated community it lives within and serves. groups on more than 120 approved sites between the Gold Coast back cover and South Bank, Brisbane. Almost 20 per cent of the collection is on Davida ALLEN With all this in mind, Red opens a window on the world display at any given time, one of the highest rates of exposure for Portrait of Sam Neill of research and learning underway at Griffi th University. The any public collection of art in Australia. In the past 12 months some 1986 oil on canvas 84x100cm. very signifi cant gifts have been made to the collection, including a Gift of Davida Allen under the impact of this reverberates far beyond our University. suite of paintings and works on paper by contemporary Australian Cultural Gifts Program 2007–8 This edition leads with an examination of the critical painter, Davida Allen, a graduate of QCA. A suite of her famous ‘Sam Neill’ series from 1986 will feature throughout 2008–10 in the issue of declining demand for higher education at a time Griffi th Film School. of skills-shortages in many industries. This has long term economic and social consequences, entrenching the social exclusion of some members of a generation. I hope you enjoy Red’s coverage of issues impacting on our world, and the opportunities for higher education to help build a prosperous and equitable society. Red is published by the Offi ce of External Relations, Griffi th University Red is printed on paper made from Nathan Campus, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Qld, 4111 Australia. elemental chlorine-free pulp derived Director: Hilarie Dunn Managing Editor: Maureen Frame from sustainable forests. Editor: Kerry Little Photo Editor: Chris Stacey It is manufactured by an ISO 14001 certifi ed mill and has been produced Cover Photograph: Chris Stacey Design: Moody Design using waterless printing. Editorial inquiries to [email protected] This environmentally friendly process saves water and reduces toxins released CRICOS No: 00233E ISSN 1835-7830 into the air and entering our waterways. GGRIUN0799RIUN0799 RRedMag1_FINALedMag1_FINAL ARTART 18_4B18_4B B 112/6/082/6/08 110:32:390:32:39 AMAM Snapshots Insect alert Griffi th University scientists are studying insects and plants in the depths of Lamington National Park to test the theory that rainforest species can act as climate change warning agents, much like “canaries in the coal mine” once alerted miners to the presence of methane gas. The last of the fi eld surveys, which began in October 2006, was completed recently yielding valuable data on species distribution and change. The study Shark’s gasp helps humans will help to predict and measure early Fish species as diverse as coral reef- climate change impacts. Dubbed IBISCA dwelling sharks and catfi sh from the (Investigating the Biodiversity of Soil and Amazon River are providing clues to Canopy Arthropods), the Griffi th study is protecting vital organs such as the the project’s Australian arm, which also heart and brain during low-oxygen has sites in Panama and Vanuatu. conditions. Associate Professor Gillian Renshaw, from Griffi th University’s Heart Foundation Research Centre, has shown these species can reprogram their metabolism to cope with variations in their natural environment. Their rapid but reversible onset of energy-conserving ventilatory and metabolic depression could be useful to humans in extreme environments such as high altitude or in clinical situations such as birth trauma, heart attack or stroke. Hair’s-breadth to a whisker Never tell a quantum physicist that near enough is good enough. Australian Animal ethics for schools researchers have invented a technique A report on humane education has that, for the fi rst time, measures lengths recommended animal ethics be included as precisely as the laws of physics allow. in primary and secondary school curricula. In a recent paper published in Nature Dr Gail Tulloch from Griffi th University’s the Griffi th University-led team used Centre of Public Culture and Ideas said individual photons — single light particles humane education aimed to create a — to measure length differences less than more compassionate and responsible one ten thousandth the width of a human society by stimulating people’s moral hair. Project leader Professor Howard development. “Humane education is a Wiseman said there were fundamental way of introducing young people to the reasons scientists continued the quest for potential of animals’ capabilities and their ever-greater precision. “Measurement ability to experience emotions,’’ she said. underpins all science. Through history The report recommended developing we’ve seen that advances in precision guidelines for teachers and broadening measurement lead to unexpected the application of compassion to include scientifi c discoveries, which in turn lead to all animals — research, farm and feral new technologies and applications.” animals and fi sh — not just native wildlife and companion animals. RED ISSUE 01 1 GGRIUN0799RIUN0799 RRedMag1_FINALedMag1_FINAL ARTART 18_4118_41 1 112/6/082/6/08 110:32:400:32:40 AMAM Below: Lorraine Mazarolle Rich-poor divide A new report from Griffi th University’s Urban Research Program has named hot spots in Australia’s escalating rich- Luxury loses its lustre poor divide and revealed those suburbs Luxury brands are failing the corporate left behind by the economic boom. social responsibility test. A report, co- The study ranks hundreds of suburbs authored by Griffi th Business School across all state capitals according to a Associate Professor Jem Bendell, and unique General Deprivation Index, or published by environmental organisation GDI. This new index provides far deeper World Wildlife Fund, ranked the 10 insight than income statistics alone, as largest luxury brands on their social and researchers overlay many key indicators environmental performance. The report, of disadvantage to reach a numerical Deeper Luxury — quality and style rating. Sydney lays claim to the greatest Security world fi rst when the world matters, was based on divide; both Australia’s most advantaged the world’s fi rst systematic analysis of The world’s fi rst dedicated police and suburb, Milson’s Point, and most deprived, luxury brands’ social and environmental security research centre, the Australian Claymore, are located in the harbour city. responsibilities, performance and Research Council’s Centre of Excellence opportunities. Signs of this swing have in Policing and Security,