2020 ANNUAL REPORT 2 / 36 3 / 36 THANK YOU TO ALL OUR STAFF ACROSS UOWGE, WE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU! TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT US 4 CHAIRMAN & GROUP CEO MESSAGE 5 HIGHLIGHTS 6 STRENGTHENING OUR OPERATIONS 8 RECOGNITION OF OUR SUCCESS 9 OUR COVID RESPONSE 10 PEOPLE AND CULTURE 12 GLOBAL STAFF AWARDS 14 DELIVERING HIGH QUALITY LEARNING 16 OUR FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 18 A NEW CAMPUS IN DUBAI 19 INTRODUCING OUR GLOBAL EXECUTIVE TEAM 22 Winners of the 2020 UOWGE OUR GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE 23 Australia Staff Awards. UOW COLLEGE AUSTRALIA 26 UOW IN DUBAI 28 UOW COLLEGE HONG KONG 30 UOW MALAYSIA KDU 32 4 / 36 5 / 36 ABOUT US CHAIRMAN & GROUP HOW WE DO IT CEO MESSAGE UOW Global Enterprises (UOWGE) is vocational training, English language and The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented a subsidiary group of the University professional development programs, to challenges and disruption for the education sector. UOWGE experienced border closures, campus closures, social distancing of Wollongong and is aligned to the nearly 15,000 students annually. and lockdown measures across all of its campuses at some stage University’s strategic objectives of during 2020 and into 2021. While the virus threat is global in international student growth. Our commitment to quality underpins nature, the situation has been different and changing in each the UOWGE Strategic Plan 2020-2025 country we operate. This caused immense disruption to student recruitment, teaching and assessment in all of our institutions. Established in 1988, UOWGE owns and and is core to all operations across operates the University of Wollongong in UOWGE. The Plan has been developed Leadership teams across the UOWGE Group went to extraordinary efforts to ensure that the health and safety of staff and Dubai (UOWD), UOW College Australia to facilitate UOWGE’s continued success students remained our top priority. At the same time staff demonstrated innovation, determination and agility to pivot to delivering a high standard of online teaching and learning. The rapidity with which this occurred is a testament to the (UOWCA), UOW College Hong Kong and support our vision of being a leading dedication of our staff. Importantly, student satisfaction with their learning experience and retention rates remained high (UOWCHK) and UOW Malaysia KDU global education provider delivering for all our institutions during this period. (UOWMKDU). transformative student experiences. UOWGE, like the rest of the higher education sector worldwide, experienced a downturn in student enrolments predominantly in international students and English language courses. We commend the global leadership of UOWGE UOWGE is at the forefront of delivering Employing almost 1,300 staff globally, for the timely, swift and comprehensive response which saw the reengineering of our operating cost model to ensure quality higher and vocational education UOWGE has a strong culture of diversity the financial viability of the Group. We also thank the staff who contributed directly via a number of measures including and training on an international scale. and equity, based on our values, and the deferral of pay increases, purchased leave and direct salary reductions. This saw UOWGE group deliver a moderate consolidated result of $12 mil profit before tax. Our institutions offer more than 200 also advocates the principles of fairness, programs, including higher education, inclusiveness, and respect. Despite the difficulties of operating in a COVID environment the teams across the group delivered on a number of significant long term strategic projects. We also continued to invest in our future student experience with new built- for-purpose campuses now operating in Dubai and at Batu Kawan in Malaysia, and the acquisition of a new campus in Kowloon City Hong Kong. COVID innovations delivered in student recruitment, program structure, program delivery and program assessment have provided advantages to our institutions, most of which will endure beyond the pandemic. The outlook for 2021 for the sector continues with uncertainty and we look forward to the return of international students across our campuses. We believe that in order to remain relevant, we need to continue to reinvent the learning environments we create, including the continued expansion of digitisation and ways to make each student interaction engaging and meaningful. We are confident that new opportunities are available across the global education landscape. The Board is indebted to the staff and leadership across the UOWGE Group for your courageous response to the COVID-19 pandemic. You unfailingly put students first both in terms of their learning and their welfare. You were guided by our corporate values and had our utmost respect and trust. And we thank each of the Directors on our Board for their outstanding contributions and expertise as we navigated a year that we could have never envisaged. “Unlocking potential through learning” continues to be at the heart of everything that we do. Peter Robson Marisa Mastroianni Chair Managing Director & Group CEO Strategic Academic Financial We are aligned to High quality student We are a self- and support UOW’s experience and sustaining business strategic objectives of programs closely align providing a stable THE UOWGE DIFFERENCE international student to and enhance UOW’s and growing dividend We unleash the potential of our students, our staff, and our communities growth and provision reputation stream to UOW We are agile and responsive of pathways to the University We put ideas into practice and have the know-how to execute We provoke change in process and people We live our corporate values 6 / 36 7 / 36 HIGHLIGHTS WHAT WE DID WELL $161m DUBAI CAMPUS COMPLETED ON BUDGET $12m ACQUISITION OF NEW CAMPUS IN KOWLOON CITY HONG KONG Net profit before tax COMPLETION OF BATU KAWAN CAMPUS – MALAYSIA Revenue OUTSTANDING RESULTS FROM ASQA AUDIT – UOWCA VOCATIONAL 10% compound annual DELIVERED ON UOW MALAYSIA – 1ST YEAR TRANSITION PLAN growth over 5 years 21 NEW PROGRAMS ACROSS ALL INSTITUTIONS UOWCA RANKED 1ST IN AUSTRALIA IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE BAROMETER $269m First major Net Assets research grant $5m New group 5% Compound annual for UOWD – Dividend paid 2020 governance growth over 5 years AED 7 mil structure with $45m paid to UOW over subsidiary boards last 5 years for each institution UOWCHK secured HK $1.6m in external funding in first year of establishing research activity Introduction of full Government (CSP) scholarships for funding for UOWCA ATSI students at enabling and UOWCA Diploma courses UOWCHK graduates celebrate 8 / 36 9 / 36 STRENGTHENING OUR OPERATIONS RECOGNITION OF OUR SUCCESS Heather Thomas the Deputy GM/ Director Global Programs at UOWCA, DEI and WHS Committees established and active in each location. received the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) Award for Excellence in Leadership in 2021 – 2023 Well-Being Health and Safety Strategic Plan developed. International Education. Global and local career opportunities realised for staff within the UOWGE network. Positive results from annual staff surveys (pre and post COVID-19). Creation of Management Reporting Dashboard. Continued rollout of HR, Finance and CRM systems across the Group. Establishment of UOWGE Board of Academic Governance. Annual research census established. Implementation of UOWCHK new student management system. 14,898 213 6,032 STUDENTS PROGRAMS GRADUATES 1,297 74 0.86 STAFF STAFF VALUE AND LOST TIME INJURY SERVICE AWARDS FREQUENCY RATE Hong Kong Australia First time entrant and Gold award winner at the Recognised for the 19th Business Association Award, winner of Risk Management region’s Premier PR Awards. consecutive year. NSW Chapter. Winner for category. Business Excellence. 10 / 36 11 / 36 OUR COVID RESPONSE UOWD sanitisation procedure. Campus building entry via The COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented Governance structures were established to support a disinfection tunnel where challenges for UOWGE in each of the countries in which rapid transition to high quality online learning, including temperature is taken we operate. Our quick and comprehensive response the implementation of a blended learning best practice and recorded using facial guaranteed the safety of our staff and students and group established across the institutions. Assessment recognition software. ensured the ongoing financial sustainability of our was modified to enable it to be conducted online and operations. A Global COVID Health Officer was immediately technology was deployed to assure academic integrity of appointed to guide the executive team on the basis of the submissions. advice, guidelines and requirements of the governments in our campus jurisdictions. Our already strong learning analytics capabilities enabled early identification of students at risk. Analytics With changing infection rates and resultant changes evaluated levels of student engagement and determined to government regulations in each jurisdiction, each the effectiveness of subjects in translating to an online institution had to be flexible in responding to their current environment. environment. Daily reporting became the norm and high risk staff and students were identified and accommodated Staff worked tirelessly to deliver high quality and fully for. Active COVID cases were managed and supported. engaged learning experiences to students and we increased our investment in student learning support Communications and support strategies for staff and services to