Japan's Nihon University may establish campus in Newcastle

According to the Newcastle Morning Herald, Japan's Nihon University has chosen Newcastle as its first bricks and mortar university in Australia.

If you read the tone of the editorial, you will see that the paper is playing it's role as Newcastle's booster. I have no complaints with that, and indeed it is a sign of Newcastle's progressive maturation.

Newcastle has always had its own character, but for too long its been under the shadow of Sydney, a lesser city often ignored and indeed subsumed into a strange entity called Greater Sydney. It's been interesting watching the changes in the city over the last few years, including the growing role of the University of Newcastle in supporting change.

As the editorial notes, Nihon will add to Newcastle's depth without distracting from Newcastle Uni.

Do you know any stories or histories of the University of Newcastle?

Today’s post on my history blog, Alan Barcan, the Sydney Old Left and threads in New England’s history, looks at one thread in New England’s history. I know a fair bit about life and thought at the University of New England, almost nothing about Newcastle University.

I have been asking around for histories or memoirs, but with little luck. A New England New State Movement colleague said that there was a history of the Uni, but again I have not been able to find it via search.

Do you know of any books? I really would like to find some. Otherwise, the University of Newcastle vanishes from parts of my history.  

History revisited - the changing UNE story through the prism of its wardens/VCs

This History Revisited column, History revisited - changes at the helm of UNE, is the start of a new series on the history of the New England University College/UNE seen through a prism set by Wardens/Vice Chancellors of those institutions. I will add the links at the bottom as I go along. 

• First column -  History revisited - changes at the helm of UNE
• Second column - History revisited - approach of UNE's perfect storm

Hunter New England Health to take on 63 extra interns in 2014

In 2012 the Newcastle Herald complained that student doctors trained in the city were being forced to look overseas for work placements due to a lack of internships in the state health system.

Now I see from the Newcastle Herald that Hunter New England Health has taken on 112 graduate doctors for 2014, up from 63 interns last year.

Of that number 101 started their rotations this week and will move around different hospitals in the region including John Hunter, Belmont, Calvary Mater hospitals.

Five will be based permanently at Manning and Maitland hospitals and another 11 at Tamworth.

Manager of Hunter New England’s prevocational junior medical officer network, Jeanette Chadban, said the reason they’d increased their intake so drastically to deal with the high number of students graduating.

In earlier news, the University of New England reported in December that the long road to a medical career in the bush had started at the University as potential doctors swat up for their first step, the selection panel interview.

Admission into the 2014 Bachelor of Medicine – Joint Medical Program between UNE and the University of Newcastle, is so highly sought that students must pass a gruelling six-month assessment process designed to identify those applicants most likely to succeed in their studies and eventually make good rural Doctors.

Acting Head of UNE Rural Medical School John Nevin said a career in rural medicine requires more than just a record of outstanding HSC and undergraduate achievements.

“From more than 3000 students who sat the Universities Medical Admissions Test in May this year, only about 170 will be invited to enrol in 2014,” Professor Nevin said.

He said during selection week applicants will sit through eight separate interviews, designed to assess everything from reasoning, comprehension and expression to compassion, motivation and importantly, an understanding of the career they intend to enter.

“It’s a long road to graduation, so the assessment process is by necessity tough. We want to make sure we select people with the greatest potential to stick with the program all the way to the end.”

Abbott overrules Pyne on student fees

I see that the Prime Minister has pulled Minister Pyne into line over the abolition of compulsory student fees. While the imbroglio was going on, it was causing a real fluttering in the university dovecots since the previous abolition actually hit very hard in terms of campus services.

By way of background, these are the areas that UNE spends the money on. 

New England Passings - death of Mike Morwood

The untimely death of the archaeologist Professor Mike Morwood will, I hope, be properly recorded. The UNE coverage is here, although other places have claimed him too.

Mike's best known work was leadership of a team that in 2003 discovered a possible new human species, Homo floresiensis, nicknamed ‘the Hobbit’, on the island of Flores in East Indonesia, UNE VC James Barber notes that the discovery of the skeleton of a tiny woman, who died about 18,000 years ago, has been hailed as one of the most important finds in human evolution since the discovery of the Neandertals in the middle of the nineteenth century. "

I think that there is still debate on this point, but it was a remarkable discovery. During his 32 years association with UNE, Professor Morwood worked as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor of Archaeology, and Adjunct Professor, a position he stood down from earlier this year. His long and outstanding contribution to scholarship included research in the fields of human dispersal and evolution, culture contact and change, Aboriginal rock art, and ethnoarchaeology.

Since Isabel McBryde came to UNE as the first lecturer in archeology and prehistory, the University has established a proud tradition in these fields. It is also one that I can claim a tiny part as a member of Isabel's first prehistory honours group. All these years later, I am still writing in the area although as an amateur historian.

Necessarily, the University's focus broadened beyond Northern New South Wales, my main area of interest. That has actually left a gap. But I can take great pride in Mike's work and the contribution he made to students. That was very much in the UNE tradition.    

Around New England's Universities - February 2013

Just a round up this morning of recent news from New England's universities. On 16 January, the University of Newcastle released 8,096 Main Round Offers to prospective undergraduate students.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Andrew Parfitt, said to date the University had made a total of 8,410 offers to students to commence studies next month, an increase of 65 on 2012.

“There were more than 19,200 applications from students across Australia with at least one preference for an undergraduate degree at Newcastle, indicating a high degree of interest in our programs.

“Our first preferences are up by two per cent on last year and 79 per cent of the University’s 2013 offers were to students from the Hunter, Central Coast and Mid North Coast regions."

Professor Parfitt noted that the Joint Medical Program (Bachelor of Medicine) continued to attract most preferences with just over 3,000 people applied for 170 places (110 at Newcastle and 60 at the University of New England). The University of New England issued a parallel release, also focused on the competitive nature of the program.

The following day, the NSW Minister for the Central Coast, Chris Hartcher welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to bring a new University of Newcastle presence to the Gosford CBD. This formed part of the University's continued push into the NSW Central Coast.

A month later, Southern Cross University announced the opening of the second stage building on its Gold Coast campus. The competitive dynamics in all this are interesting. Newcastle is pushing into the Central Coast and also up the North Coast. SCU is pushing into the Gold Coast and down the North Coast. Meantime, the University of New England, blocked to some degree from its traditional feeder areas by the other two, has pushed well south past the traditional New England border into Parramatta. Apart from sponsoring the Parramatta Eels Rugby League team, in February last year UNE acquired the lease on two iconic buildings in Church Street to act as a base for its campus of the future.

Staying in Newcastle, the Medical School has continued its good work with the announcement of a potential break through that might lead to better treatments for asthma. In the meantime,  NU's Dr Marguerite Johnson, a lecturer in classics, titivated locals with a Valentine's Day presentation on love and lust in the ancient world.  The University of New England, too, has been maintaining an interest in the classics. On 7 March, Dr Beth Thompson will speak about a 4000 year-old cemetery cut into the eastern cliffs which border the Nile Valley c. 250 kms south of Cairo. The title of her lecture is ‘The Old Kingdom Tombs at Tehna in Upper Egypt.’ Dr Thompson has been studying Egyptology for 30 years at Macquarie University, and combines this with longstanding formal training in Art.

This will be the first lecture in this year's Aspects of Antiquity series; this series has now been running for twenty years. As a sometimes historian, its nice to see both Newcastle and UNE preserving the interest in the ancient world.

Staying with community outreach, Newcastle has launched the ‘Science in the Pub’ series, where the community can meet scientists and learn about new technologies and ground-breaking research. Sounds interesting.

All the universities have recently had Orientation Week activities. At Southern Cross, activities varied across the three campuses, Coffs Harbour, Lismore and Tweed.

Have you watched the BBC History Cold Case series? SBS has been running it. One of the key members of the Cold Case team, Dr Xanthe Mallett, has joined the staff at UNE. A biological anthropologist, Dr Mallett is lecturing in UNE's criminology degree program.

I have run out of time today and have barely scratched the surface of recent news. This includes the resignation of Richard Torbay as UNE's chancellor. I will try to do better in bringing you updates from our universities in future!.   

Fox replaces Williams as UNE's Deputy Chancellor

I hadn't caught up on the fact that Scott Williams had stood down as Deputy Chancellor at UNE. Just to embarrass him a little, this is a photo of a much younger Scott at the Aymever Christmas party. Aymever was our collective attempt to establish an Armidale based national/international consulting, training and information services business specialising in the electronics, aerospace and information industries. On the right of the photo are Phillip and Susan Mendes. Philip was our commercial and intellectual property lawyer. Further comments follow the photo.

I thought that Scott made a pretty good fist of his role as UNE's Deputy Chancellor, often in very difficult circumstances. UNE really has suffered more than its fair share of turmoil in recent years.

The University has announced the election of Dr Geoff Fox as its new Deputy Chancellor.

In the announcement, UNE Chancellor Richard Torbay said that Dr Fox brought a wealth of experience to the role, including a distinguished 27-year career with the World Bank, six years as Principal Adviser in Agriculture at AusAID, and positions as Adjunct Professor of Rural Science at UNE and Chair of the UNE Foundation.

He has a long association with UNE, having begun his tertiary education at the University in the 1960s.

“Dr Fox is a passionate advocate for education and the New England region, and his leadership on the UNE Council since his appointment in 2010 has been recognised with this appointment,” Mr Torbay said. “I think Dr Fox will make an excellent Deputy Chancellor, and I congratulate him on his appointment.”

In announcing the appointment, Richard once again thanked Scott for his work.

In another announcement on the same day, the University claimed now to be one of the fastest growing universities in Australia, with student numbers up more than 20 per cent over the last two years. That's good to hear. A post back in August on my personal blog ( Saturday Morning Musings - UNE alumni dinner) provides an insight into the frustrations that some of the alumni have felt about UNE's overall approach in recent years. May be things are improving! 

UNE, its future and that of its colleges

Back in July 2008 (Storms gather over UNE colleges) I reported on problems facing the University of New England College system. By then, failure to carry out proper maintenance had led to a $22 million back log in maintenance. By then, too, many of us with UNE connections had long begun to despair that the place could ever get its act together,

My own college, Wright College, had been closed over the opposition of its alumni because its "temporary" buildings had become to expensive to maintain and no one had any rebuild vision. Drummond College, the College named after my grandfather, had been closed, reopened, then forcibly merged with SH Smith House to form Drummond-Smith College. At least this made a little sense in that Smith was the head of Drummond's NSW Education Department when Drummond was minister.

One of the constant complaints of all of us connected with UNE's college system over decades was the failure of the University to allow the colleges to grow as independent entities in their own right and as key marketing vehicles for the university itself. They were seen as, and just treated as, residential vehicles, something absolutely anathema to the real ideal of a collegiate university.

On July 18 2012, the University of New England announced a major rebuild program for the College system.   According to UNE VC Jim Barber, “UNE aims to be the country’s pre-eminent collegiate university, and to do that we need modern infrastructure and greater student accommodation options.

The first stage of the University of New England’s residential college redevelopment will see a major modernisation of Robb College and a new 200-bed college built at UNE.

On 1, 2 and 3 October 2010, Rob College celebrated its fiftieth birthday, something Paul Barratt celebrated in Fiftieth anniversary of Robb College, UNE. Taken in 1960 from Paul's front door, the photo shows the first block of Robb College. In talking about the Robb modernisation, Professor Jim Barber said the Robb College plans would be respectful of the College’s rich history while also being modern in their design.

“We plan to keep the building that houses the dining hall and the common rooms, but to rebuild the three residential buildings on their existing footprints,” Professor Barber said. “Our unique partnership with UniLodge, in which we will maintain our contribution to the College’s operating costs, allows us to retain the UNE culture and lifestyle and avoid privatisation.

“We will not compromise on maintaining the positive aspects of the Robb College culture and lifestyle.”

In addition to the Robb modernisation, the new 200 bed college will be built on or near the site of Wright College. The whole project will be managed by UniLodge, a major provider of student accommodation services in Sydney.

What none of us know at this stage is just how all this will fit with the re-development of UNE and especially its Armidale campus as a truly collegiate university. It used to be, and then the place lost the plot. Or will the colleges become just halls of residence?

The older UNE alumni who are so fanatical in their support of the institution are so not just because they shared the vision of of the founders, but because they found the College and University as it was to be a good thing from deeply imprinted personal experience.

I have written a fair bit trying to bring the UNE experience alive and to explain its Australian and indeed global contribution to culture and thought. Still, I thought that I should leave the least word to Paul. In What a privilege it was ..., he said in part:

When I entered the University in 1961 it had about 600 full-time undergraduates on about 740 acres of land, effectively running less than one student to the acre.  The campus was spacious and attractively landscaped, with the beautiful Booloominbah at the centre and heart of it all. Everything was a short walk from everything else.

In those days the University was fully residential. All students were required to live in the on-campus colleges, the only exceptions being those who were living at home in Armidale with their parents (who had to apply in writing for this exception to be granted).  Want to play rugby, soccer or hockey? Attend training a couple of nights a week on the Consett Davis playing fields a couple of hundred metres away; run down there straight after college dinner, do a couple of hours training, run back to college, have a shower and back to the assignments. Want to play cricket? There is a lovely oval right over there near Robb College.

The staff-student ratio was extraordinary (something like 1.6:1 in 1961) and classes were small.  In my chosen subject of Physics there were about a hundred students in first year (it was a compulsory subject for Rural Science I), eight in second year, four in third year, and five in my honours year. In first year we had a tutorial every week. There were nine in my tutorial group. The tutor was the Professor of Physics.  This was no degree factory. No wonder so many of us prospered.

Professor Barber, we count on you to deliver a real vision.

New England unis & the university games

The university games have been on. The photo shows UNE's Kate Frizell looking to drive in a women's hockey match.

When I first saw the University Games all those years ago (I never played) there was just one competition. Now there are conferences, with top teams going on to the national University Games.

New England universities were divided by geography, with UNE and SCU playing in the Northern University Games, Newcastle playing in the Eastern Games.

This year the Northern Games were held in Armidale, the Eastern Games in Canberra, with both cities shivering in a marked cold spell. These sporting events are good business for Armidale, with 910 registered competitors.

At a purely personal level, eldest was playing for UNSW in the mixed netball. Just back to Europe and then off to Canberra! 

In the Northern Games, UNE came second overall after Bond. Southern Cross was seventh. In the per capita competition based on student numbers, UNE came first, SCU fourth.

For some reason, the Eastern Games do not presently allow me to check where Newcastle came.  

Ramblings

I have been bogged down on other things, so have not posted here. That will change.

Problems with literature & locale, a post on my personal blog, continues my exploration of aspects of New England's history.

I have been much involved in thinking about certain aspects of our relations with Australia's Aborigines. The posts that resulted were:

• Ken Parish, Legal Eagle & Andrew Bolt on Australia's Aborigines
• Sunday Essay - Bolt, Aboriginal culture & the nature of Aboriginality
• Issues raised by Bolt, Aboriginal culture & the nature of Aboriginality

As so often happens, these posts were strongly influenced by the New England experience.

Publish or perishing Australia's universities is one of a series of posts dealing with aspects of change in higher education that affect New England's universities.  As I noted there, this week's column in the Armidale Express will extends the discussion. I will bring the post up here in due course and then extend the argument with a specifically New England focus.

UNE's Life at Altitude

The University of New England is planning a special event - Life at Altitude - to attract students. The promo material reads in part:

"Friday 6 May 2011
Check out UNE courses, meet lecturers and get a feel for campus life at the open day on Friday 6 May 2011. You’ll have a chance to speak to our academic staff about your study options, join one of the University campus or college tours and take a look at UNE’s learning, living, and recreational facilities. Plus, there will be free entertainment and activities - we’ll even put on breakfast and lunch for you. In other words, Friday is your day to explore UNE and find out everything you need to make an informed decision about your future.
Saturday 7 May 2011
On Saturday 7 May, 2011 UNE launches into a massive event, with a huge day planned to help you get acquainted with the other great side of uni life - FUN! Channel V will be there with their giant silent disco and VJs. And of course there’ll be incredible live performances from the best Australian acts including Little Red, Children Collide, Operator Please, Amy Meredith, the Seabellies and great local supports. With amazing local food and plenty of stuff to see and do, this is more than just another University open day. This is Life at Altitude."

It does sound as though it might be fun, as well as educational. For those interested in learning more, the University has created a special web site.

UNE's strategic positioning

While I was away Thomas, one of my blogging friends, asked me about the latest strategic alliances announced by the University of New England. Thomas is just finalising his teaching qualification at the University of Sydney; his attention was drawn by the deal between Sydney and UNE that formed part of the package.

This is an interesting one in historical terms, as well as in the context of the changes taking place in Australian higher education. It is also important to New England. Our three major universities - UNE, Newcastle and Southern Cross - play a major part in New England life. Their survival and growth is important.

Historical Background

To provide a little historical perspective, when the New England University College was established in 1938 as the first tertiary institution outside a capital city, Australia had just six universities. By the time that New England gained full autonomy in 1954, the number had increased to eight. Depending on the way you want to cut it, this makes UNE either the seventh or ninth oldest university in Australia.

The new university was established as the Sydney University equivalent in the North. It saw its role in Northern terms, in bringing university education to a region that had not had proper access. It also saw its role in terms of facilitating the economic, social and community development of the North. However, it was also part of what it saw as the global and especially British Commonwealth community of universities. Its founders and founding staff had very firm views about the role of the university as a community of scholars.

The institution's early days were not easy. Funding was limited, and it had to struggle to establish itself in the face of indifference and even hostility. In doing so, it acquired a very particular character and ethos that made it a remarkable effective institution for its size. Just to list a few achievements from its first thirty five years:

• It established a network of adult education activities across Northern New South Wales, bringing further education to areas that had not previously had access
• It began the process of documenting the North's history and resources
• It expanded rural studies from community studies through rural science to agricultural economics. This was associated with the establishment of CSIRO research activities part funded in the North and linked to the University
• It pioneered distance education in Australia
• It established international linkages in part through its Colombo Plan students, playing an early role in Asian economic development activities
• It also established an enviable record in the standard of instruction and the results of its students.

In 1982, I returned to the University to do some postgraduate work in history. It was a much bigger place because of the growth in staff and student numbers during the late 1960s and 1970s. While it was still a good university, I found it somewhat insular, even smug. To some degree the sparkle had gone. The need to struggle, to be better, that had marked the earlier university had been replaced by a degree of complacency. I accept that I am generalising, but I couldn't help comparing it with the University of Wollongong, a relatively new university that was then going through the same type of establishment struggles that UNE had been through earlier. The University had also lost elements of its broader regional vision.

As it proved, this complacency meant that the University was ill-equipped to handle the turmoil that was now to burst upon it and that would bring it to its knees. At times, its very survival seemed uncertain. 

Times of Turmoil     

I don't want to go through the full history, although it's a classic case study of the way in which changes in public policy and in the market place can interact with institutional culture and with poor management responses to the point that survival is threatened. However, I do need to point to some key features.

At the time UNE was founded, only a tiny proportion of Australians went to University. The emergence of mass university education in the 1960s and 1970s affected UNE in two ways that were not fully clear at the time.

The first effect was an increase in the number of universities. As a now established institution, UNE's complacency blinded it, I think, to the longer term competitive threat posed by those new institutions. The second effect was a change in course composition, with a significant expansion in demand for vocationally oriented courses.

From a UNE perspective, demand for its largest vocational courses, teaching and education, was in decline because of the ending of the baby boom. The second largest group by number, agriculture related courses, was also threatened by rural decline. However, the University was not able to properly introduce vocational alternatives, in part because it could not obtain official approval and funding for courses such as medicine.

The University was also trying to manage Canberra policy dictates. There was a strong view in Canberra that university size must be increased in the interests of administrative efficiency. Canberra also wanted to remove the previous dual structure of Colleges of Advanced Education on one side, universities on the other.

This was also the period in which the corporate management ethos, the application of models borrowed from the corporate sector but combined with new ideas on public administration, was coming into its first full flowering. This not only conflicted with UNE's collegiate decision making processes, but was antipathetical to deeply held views among many UNE staff about the true role of a university. This resulted in internal conflict that continues to some degree.

In 1989, the University of New England was merged with the Armidale and Northern Rivers Colleges of Advanced Education to form the networked University of New England. Orange Agricultural College was added a little later.

The merger proved to be a disaster: University financial reserves carefully built up under VC Professor Ron Gates were spent on building up up other parts of the network; a new management layer was imposed; while there were conflicts over culture and objectives. In 1993, the network was broken up. Southern Cross University was formed and took over the coastal campuses, while Orange became part of Sydney.

The University of New England was now in a parlous position. It was broke, it had largely lost its coastal feeder areas, and its management had proved unstable. Between the retirement of Ron Gates in 1985 and the appointment of Ingrid Moses as VC in 1997, UNE had had four VCs.

Management problems were to continue, this time centred on the relationship between Chancellor and VC. The appointment of Pat O'Shane as Chancellor in 1994, the first indigenous Chancellor of an Australian University, created difficulties because of her sometimes doctrinaire approach and her willingness to use her power as Chancellor to block. The following Chancellor, John Cassidy, became involved in a fire fight with VC Allan Pettigrew of such venom that it made national news.

While many factors were involved in the fight between Messrs Cassidy and Pettigrew, varying ideas about the role of the University and of the relationships between Chancellor as Chair and VC as CEO were again central. John Cassidy made his position clear early. "This university is a business", he said in his first talk to Sydney alumni, "and must be run as one. That is my job." Unfortunately, skills honed in running one of Australia's largest construction companies did not translate well to a university environment where Mr Cassidy was in fact chair, not CEO.             

UNE alumni, especially those from the earlier period, are a pretty fanatic lot. I can't begin to describe the feeling of despair that swept us as we saw our institution being destroyed. It was in part concern about the sweeping away of the University's past, in part the constant instability as revolving door VCs searched for the new, in part frustration at failed experiments such as the abortive Turkey campus. Most of all, it was the destruction of a place that we loved.

Renewed Stability and new directions     

Ingrid Moses became VC in 1997 and held the position until 2006. The single most important thing that Ingrid did was to provide stability, to start the process of re-building, something that continued under Professor Pettigrew despite the problems between he and Chancellor Cassidy.

The challenges faced by Ingrid Moses were huge. UNE's biggest plus remained its history, its big grduate pool, along with its high student satisfaction rankings. To this day, UNE consistently ranks at the top or in the top of all student satisfaction surveys. However the University was simply tired. Worse, during the turmoil, it had lost its edge as the leading provider of distance education in Australia.

The University's 2002 strategic plan aimed to improve distance education, while improving the number and balance of student enrolments, especially attracting students to the on-campus experience. By the time of the 2006 strategic review, it was clear that the University was struggling to gain internal numbers.

Its key problem was simple. Unlike the US, Australian students generally prefer to go to a local university. Located in an area of stagnant population, UNE was competing against all Australian universities to attract those students prepared to travel for the University experience. Here its own troubles, the very competitive university environment, made life difficult notwithstanding the high student satisfaction rankings.

Poor Ingrid. At one point, and I was probably not alone, I peppered her with emails about directions.

My position, one that I still hold, was that UNE could not compete by adopting the strategies adopted by the metro universities. The immediate student base wasn't there, nor were all the local businesses and funding sources tapped by universities in a commercialised world. To compete in that way was to fail. Instead, the university should focus on its key strength, the fact that it was still a university, still offered a university experience, was not a mass vocational training shop. To this end, the University should maintain courses in arts subjects and languages, should offer a broader experience. The final university might be smaller, but it would offer a special experience. I saw this as the only way of longer term survival.

I extended these arguments during the 2006 review; these posts are listed at the end. In summary:

1. The university should focus on its role as a university in the traditional sense.
2. The university reinstate its focus on the broader New England/Northern NSW, not just the Tablelands and Slopes. To this end, it should adopt a conscious policy of alliances with and support for other New England institutions.

There were other things as well. However, the key issue is a reinstatement of the position of UNE as an institution that was both local/regional and global.

I am not pretending that my ideas had any influence. They did not. I am providing them for background.

The New MOUs

The three new MOUs represent the next stage in the evolution of UNE's strategic positioning.

Under current Government policy, all Australian universities are under pressure to increase their proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Sydney University has struggled to do this. It presently recruits 65 per cent of undergraduates from the eastern suburbs and lower and upper north shore of Sydney. Further, its enrolment of first-year students from disadvantaged schools was below 5 per cent last year.

By contrast, UNE's ethos and feeder area means that it has always had a far higher proportion of disadvantaged students, of students who are the first in their family to go to university. Further, the University has a very good teaching record with such students. From 1938, those students have matched their more privileged Sydney colleagues. UNE has also introduced alternative school based admission procedures in place of the centralised and rigid UAI rankings on which Sydney depends. These, the UAI rankings, automatically favour elite students from elite examination based schools.

As I understand it, the key features of the Sydney/UNE MOU are two fold:

1. Students can enrol at UNE in certain courses with the recognised understanding that if they pass first year at UNE, they can then transfer to Sydney
2. UNE will extend its non-UAI school based entrance arrangements to a wider variety of schools, including Sydney.

The benefits of this arrangement to Sydney are pretty clear. Crudely, UNE takes the risks, Sydney gets the students once they have demonstrated performance. But what's in it for UNE? Again crudely, UNE gets more first year students plus attached funding, but also expects to retain a proportion of those students once they have been exposed to the UNE experience.

The second MOU with the University of Western Sydney is easier to understand.

UNE is an expert in distance education. Under the MOU, UNE will effectively function as UWS’s distance provider, as students from UWS will be able to undertake online units from UNE and count them toward their degrees from UWS. This helps UNE, but clearly also helps UWS by widening both the courses and delivery options open to UWS students.

Details of the third MOU with TAFE NSW are less clear. At the launch, The NSW Minister stated: 

“UNE and TAFE NSW have a long history of collaborations - but this MOU will enhance the partnership and provide students with the opportunity to obtain both vocational and tertiary qualifications,” Ms Firth said. “This agreement between UNE and TAFE NSW makes UNE the first dual-sector university in the State.

If I understand this correctly, it essentially widens the opportunity for TAFE students.

Conclusion

From my viewpoint, each of these agreements is consistent with the ethos of UNE. However, we have to ensure that they do not detract from UNE's position as one of Australia's few, true, universities. 

Newspaper Reports:

• Sydney Uni in deal to take disadvantaged students
• New uni deal for poorer students to start in bush
• University of New England alliances prepare it for the future
• The future of higher education rolled out at UNE

UNE Strat Planning Posts

• Welsman, University of New England and Planning

• UNE Strategic Planning - Scoping Issues

• UNE Strategic Planning - markets and marketing

• UNE Strategic Planning - impact of new technologyUNE Strategic Planning - Impact of New Technology 2

Stats on university participation in New England

Today's post on my personal blog, Measuring regional disadvantage in higher education, looks at the latest report on the reasons for differential university participation rates across Australia. I just wanted to mention here that appendix five provides a breakdown by LGA. This allows the New England pattern to be analysed.

I am not sure that this will tell us anything that we don't already know in broad terms, but the detail is likely to be interesting in increasing our understanding of regional patterns within New England.

Unfortunately, I don't have the systems or skills to strip the data from the PDF. This means that I have to re-enter data by hand before I can do analysis. This takes time. In the meantime, those interested in New England higher education may find the report interesting.

Around New England's Universities February 2010

From time to time I do a round-up of news at New England's various universities. This seems to the right time to do another one with the new academic year just getting underway. It's very interesting, in fact, for the three institutions are very different because of location and history.

At Southern Cross University, the big news has revolved around the University's Gold Coast campus. Orientation kicked off at the new campus on 15 February, with the building officially opened by Deputy PM Julia Gillard on 17 February.

In welcoming Ms Gillard, the Chancellor Mr Dowd, said Southern Cross University had a very clear mission to deliver on the federal government’s education revolution.

“We have more than 16,000 students studying with us, and that number will grow exponentially with this new facility,” Mr Dowd said.

“Only 18 per cent of people at the Gold Coast aged between 25-34 years possess a Bachelor degree or above. This is around half the national average. Fifty-three per cent of all young people in this region are not pursuing any form of education beyond year 12.

“These stark realities stand in contrast to the sun and surf image of the region. We therefore need to add another ‘S’ to this image – that of scholarship."

Other SCU stories included:

• the launch of a carpool, 39 new scholarships under the rising stars program
• orientation week activities for around 3000 newly enrolled students for on-campus study and around 900 students who will be studying by distance education
• Southern Cross University and ChildFund lead cutting edge research on Vietnamese children. The  project involves interviews with 50 children from the rural province of Bac Kan, north of Hanoi. In a culture where children are traditionally ‘seen but not heard’, engaging children in having a say is both important and challenging.

Moving south, the University of Newcastle celebrates the graduation of more than 1,100 students the Central Coast campus. This is an integrated program involving the University, TAFE and the Central Coast Community College. Of the 1,162 students graduating, 931 have completed University of Newcastle programs, 210 have completed TAFE qualifications and a further 21 are graduating from the Central Coast Community College.

On 3 February, the University of signed an agreement with global education provider, Navitas, who are establishing the Newcastle International College on the Callaghan (Newcastle) campus.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nicholas Saunders, said the college would be pivotal in the University's growth.

"The University has been working to grow its student numbers. However, in an increasingly competitive market, it is vital that we increase the number of international students coming to Newcastle."

International student numbers at Newcastle have grown over the past five years by almost 30 per cent. Onshore international enrolments now comprise approximately 15 per cent of total enrolments, but this remains below the sector average, which stands at about 20 per cent.

"Working with Navitas as it establishes Newcastle International College will expand the base of international students to the University across a broad range of our programs," Professor Saunders said.

The college will provide programs to international students across a number of disciplines. Successful completion will enable graduates to progress directly to the second year of a university level program.

Other University of Newcastle stories included:

• Recognition for the work of forensic dentist Dr Jane Taylor in the award of an Australian Federal Police Operations Medal for her work identifying victims of the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Boxing Day Tsunami in Thailand in 2004.
• Formalisation of the The Making Educational Goals Sustainable (MEGS) program between the University, Hunter TAFE and NSW DET (Department of Education and Training). This aims to promote education amongst students from targeted equity groups. The new MoU will formalise the partnership and will significantly expand the program with over 650 Year 6 students and their parents visiting the University of Newcastle this year. For many, this will be the first time that they have been in contact with a university.
• The launch (photo) of a new data base intended provide schizophrenia researchers across Australia with access to new information to help them treat the condition. This automates data collected by the Schizophrenia Research Institute's University of Newcastle group and collects genetic, clinical and neurological information from up to 4,000 volunteers across Australia.

At the University of New England, new VC Professor Jim Barber has also been welcoming new students at the first day of orientation activities. 

More than 1,000  new students attended the official welcome, during which Alicia Zikan, the undergraduate student representative on the UNE Council, also spoke to them about the unique opportunities at UNE for meeting people - both students and staff members - and making friends.

“In your colleges you’re already part of a strong social network,” Ms Zikan said, adding that there were also social networks for students living in the town.

“You’ll have opportunities that students at other universities - sitting in a lecture theatre with 900 other students - can only dream of,” she said.

Professor Barber followed the same theme:

“Our mission at UNE is to change your life,” he told the new students who, together with parents and friends, gathered yesterday on the lawns of “Booloominbah” - the picturesque heart of the University’s campus.

Professor Barber predicted that, as well as acquiring “skills that will make your career” and “a passport to travel the world”, they would make life-long friendships - many even finding their life partner.

“I’m more confident of making these predictions about UNE than I would be about any other university,” he said, explaining that the strong and lasting friendships formed at UNE were something he had been aware of throughout his career.

“I hope you’ll be proud of being UNE alumni,” he concluded. “Welcome, good luck, and let your new life begin!”

The University also reported the results of an unexpected finding in a new research report on science education commissioned by the National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) at the University that involved around 590 teachers and 3,800 students throughout the country.

Despite the current serious decline in the proportion of senior high-school students taking science subjects, there has been no corresponding decline in students’ enjoyment of science, their appreciation of its importance to society, or their interest in science careers.

If I understand the results correctly, the crux of the problem lies not in lack of interest, but rather in a widening of school choices that has reduced the role of traditional science core subjects.

Other February stories included:

• The opening of a new state of the art $A6.3 million greenhouse complex for plant research. In outlining the structure and function of the greenhouse complex, Professor Gross said it included 25 separate rooms, in each of which temperature and watering could be controlled independently.
• Scientists and research students from five continents participated in the ninth annual Armidale Animal Breeding Summer Course, becoming familiar with the latest genetic technologies for predicting the performance of individual farm animals.
• Industry Placement Scholarships were awarded to 21 school leavers this summer giving them an insight into the career opportunities available to science graduates in primary industries. Each student attended a five-day “Science to Industry Camp” based at the University, extending to agriculture-related businesses and laboratories throughout the region. They also completed a five-day “industry placement” working with professional scientists.
• Andreas Mehl , a distinguished Professor of Ancient History from Germany, is to give a public lecture at the University of New England on 5 March entitled “How the Romans recorded, remembered, thought about, and used their past”. This will be the first lecture for 2010 in UNE’s “Aspects of Antiquity” lecture series, now in its 17^th year.

Three universities, three very different stories. Each reflects the different pasts of three very different institutions. In a later post, I will put this in historical context.  

Student offers out at New England's universities

University offers from New England universities came out during the week. You can find a full list of the UAI cut offs here. I don't have on-line access to the full list. These offers are on top of previous early admission offers.

Down in Newcastle, the Newcastle Herald reports that University of Newcastle has offered more places for undergraduates in 2010, although the extra spots have pushed down entrance scores across the board. At the release of the main round of university offers yesterday, about two-thirds of entrance scores had gone down by between 0.15 and 11.05 points. This was largely due to an extra 630 main-round offers made by the university in what was the first year of the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR).

In all, the University of Newcastle made 7712 main round offers, one of its largest offers to date. It included 1369 places in teaching degrees, 630 nursing places and more than 500 spots in engineering.

Moving north, I know that the University of New England has also increased its offers but, to my frustration, I have been unable to find the story giving details. That will teach me not to bookmark!

Moving east, the Northern Star reports that Southern Cross University is offering another 1,000 places in this round.

This year's student intake takes place against a background of fundamental change in the funding of Australia's universities that has led many to expand student offers in advance of funding. How New England's Universities will respond to this is a key issue for the future of higher education within New England.

The University of Newcastle has already indicated its intent to grow to a mega 40,000 strong student institution by 2020. Watch this space!      

UNE passings - death of Margaret Mackie (1914-2009)

I suppose that it is sad but inevitable that we should be experiencing so many deaths just at present of people connected in some way with the early days of higher education within New England.

It is now 82 years since the Armidale Teachers' College was established, 72 years since the New England University College was established, 61 years I think since the Newcastle University College was established. Early staff and student numbers were quite low, but then began to expand from the 1950s as part of the overall expansion within the Teachers' College and University sector.

In New England Story - new states, archives and the preservation of our past I spoke of Alexander Mackie,  a brilliant Scottish-born academic, who had come to Sydney in 1906 to head the newly established Sydney College. Alexander Mackie also became Professor of Education at the University of Sydney.

Margaret, Alexander Mackie's daughter, has just died.

Margaret came to Armidale in 1951, as a lecturer in education to Armidale Teachers' College . In 1955, when the University of New England established its external studies program, she became involved in teaching external students. She was to spend the rest of her life in Armidale.

Harriet Veitch's obituary of her in the Sydney Morning Herald provides a clear and interesting overview of her life. I will leave you to read it, but I thought that I should provide a few supporting comments.

Margaret Mackie was a very bright woman with a strong personality. I did not know her well, she was rather more a presence.

If you look at the photo, she was a very attractive young woman, but perhaps I am not reading too much into it in pointing to the firm line of her mouth.

If you look at my brief description of her father (link above), you can see that he was a man of firm views. Here I was struck by one comment from Harriet: Margaret ... went on to Oxford, "where her father had promised to send her in lieu of a dowry, and took an MA in ''Modern Greats'' (philosophy, politics and economics)."!

Margaret inherited both her father's interest in education and his emphasis on standards and excellence. Her contributions to education including distant education were significant, as were her private contributions to the community.

At the time Margaret entered teaching, career opportunities for women were limited. Teachers, for example, were still expected to leave teaching on marriage. Today, Margaret would have had more opportunities, but higher education in general and New England education in particular might have been the poorer.

Postscript:

In a comment, Kerith Power bought out the two sides to Margaret Mackie's personality. I thought that I should quote the second half of the comment in the main post because I thought that it was one of the best comments I have had.

Kerith, now a senior lecturer at Monash University wrote:

I owe her a lot. Here is the lyric of a song I wrote for her. She was the best teacher I ever had.

For a Teacher

Some people work with stone and steel
Their work is done; you walk among their buildings, travel on their roads
Some people grow and bake and sell, you taste the fruits, the food of earth
Some people make pictures, or tunes to lift our hearts and make us sing
Some people work with people and never know the alchemy they wring.

I find my touchstone in the New England granite, feel the bare bone under the skin
Walk on bedrock, feet fairly planted, see the end of all my meanings and where I begin.

The seasons turn, and turn again
And sheep like boulders graze among the monuments of stone
Each generation seeks the light, and there you shine, you see beyond the bone
Like New England poplars, new leaves are minted bronze with every spring
New children seek awakenings, and travellers return with dusty wings.

I find my touchstone in the New England granite, feel the bare bone under the skin
Walk on bedrock, feet fairly planted, see the end of all my meanings and where I begin

New England Story - new states, archives and the preservation of our past

By one of those accidents I so love about blogging, some did a blog search on Armidale. This led me to Paul Barratt's Jim Belshaw on Leslie Hubert Holden, a rather nice response to a post I had written. It also lead me to Archives Outside, a very good blog on archives across NSW.

Now I am often very critical of the what I see as the nonsense coming from the Sydney Government. But here I have to give credit where it is due. Our friends at the NSW State Archives have created a very good blog indeed for all those interested in regional history.

The photo of the New England flag comes from  “This is all very silly” : An interesting start to a regional archives, a post by William Oats on the  creation of what was, I think, the first regional archives in NSW. Dear the story took me back.

I quote:

In 1947, the Warden of the New England University College (NEUC), Dr Madgwick wrote to the Under Secretary of Justice of NSW stating ‘This was all very silly.’ He was referring to a decision that records located in the Armidale Court House could only be researched by NEUC staff and students  at the State Library in Sydney( over 500 kilometres away). Local access to historic records was forbidden.

The desire to preserve local and regional records was not new, reflecting a long-standing sense of Northern NSW or New England consciousness. To understand this, we need to look at some history and especially the the campaign to achieve self-government for the North and the way this interacted with other things.   

To set something of a context for this, the next photo from the same post shows a New State Float at Newcastle in 1963.

This was towards the height of the third wave of agitation to achieve self-government: the first took place in the 1920s, the second the 1930s, with the third starting following the end of the Second World War. During the second wave, the name New England was adopted as the preferred name for the new state. These waves set a context for the story that follows.

The story really begins in 1927.

The announcement in December that year that a Teacher’s College was to be established in Armidale, the first decentralized education institution, was not welcomed by all. According to CB Newling, the newly appointed principle, the Armidale proposal met active hostility within the Sydney press, among city interests and within the NSW Department of Public Instruction.[i] Perhaps most importantly, potential students fearful of the likely standards of the new college, were reluctant to leave Sydney for the bush.

The College had some powerful supporters who were fully aware of these reservations.

To David Drummond as Minister and also local member, the College was a chance to establish a country college for country kids. The College was also intended as one key building block in the creation of the infrastructure required to support a Northern State.

To S H Smith as head of the Department, the College was a chance to put his own ideas into practice.

Smith was then in his early sixties[ii].Handsome and intelligent, with a commanding presence and a beautiful speaking voice, he was also shy, fussy, sensitive and vulnerable to personal attack. A man of limited formal education, Smith had entered the teaching service in 1879 as a pupil teacher, and had worked his way up though the ranks, becoming Under-Secretary in 1922 upon the retirement of the famous Peter Board. There were those who affected to despise Smith because of his lack of formal education; Smith knew this and, sensitive on this point himself, was deeply wounded by it. Drummond’s awareness of his limited own education, he had left school at twelve, probably helped him to manage his new Permanent Head. Certainly he understood Smith, and the two men became close.

Smith had clashed with Professor Alexander Mackie, the head of Sydney Teachers, College and the stormy petrel of NSW education. Mackie, a brilliant Scottish-born academic, had come to Sydney in 1906 to head the newly established Sydney College. He was a man of strong views who believed that that the main emphasis in teacher training should be academic, that the independence of Sydney Teachers’ College must be preserved, and who had little time for financial or other constraints on his activities[iii].

Smith took a different view. Bound up in the day-to-day problems of State education, he regarded the College’s job as training those teachers the Department required in the way the Department required. Smith also disagreed with Mackie as to the most desirable form of teacher training: while not opposed to academic training, Smith thought that Mackie’s academic bias meant ill-trained teachers, and instead supported a more vocationally-oriented training.

These differences in approach would have made for difficulties anyway, but their personalities compounded problems. After Smith made a surprise inspection of Sydney Teachers’ College in 1927, Mackie wrote to him that such inspections could ‘only be done competently by a person with the necessary qualifications.’ He went on: ‘The inspection of highly qualified specialists on the College staff should be entrusted to men and women with similarly high academic qualifications and with extensive experience of College work.’[iv] Nor surprisingly, Smith found this letter ‘offensive’[v]. For Smith’s part, he later commented sarcastically to Drummond that Mackie had ‘that type of mind which is usually associated with the Scottish metaphysician.’[vi]

The combination of committed Minister and Under-Secretary would have been irresistible in any case. However, they were joined by two other men.

A W Hicks, the very able local inspector who became a key Drummond aide and who would later occupy senior positions in the Education Department, took care of local logistics, while C B Newling as the College’s first Principal provided very strong leadership. Newling’s authoritarian style, his nickname was Pop, would not be acceptable today but was critical at the time.

In combination, these men were determined that the venture would succeed. Drummond in particular pushed construction forward as fast as possible with almost obsessive attention to the most minor details, from the type of tap to be used in the washroom to the way in which pines should be planted in the playing fields.

The result was a magnificent building (photo).

It is in the focus on details of the College and in the associated attempts to gain political support that we can see the Northern influence.

The Northern press had welcomed the College’s establishment, looking forward to the establishment of a Northern university.[vii] For his part, Drummond matched the press comment with a carefully marshaled public relations exercise. The Mayor of Armidale, Morgan Stephens (another new state supporter), was asked to organize a dinner to mark the opening of the College: the dinner should be attended not only by people from Armidale, but from the North in general to mark the fact that this was a Northern occasion[viii].

Drummond’s move was both political and ideological. The ideology lay in his deep belief in the North and of the role of the people of the North in deciding their own future.

The same belief is shown in his request to the Department to obtain pictures for the proposed College gallery from the NSW Gallery, pictures that would illustrate among other things the history of the North.[ix] On that same day, he asked that a similar request be made to the National Museum for specimens for the College Museum. These should include ‘specimens definitely granted to the College to hold in trust for the people of the Northern Districts for all time’ and also ‘specimens which are intimately connected with the natural development and pursuits of the district’[x].

In 1938 after a final, sometimes desperate battle, the establishment of the Armidale Teachers' College was followed by the establishment of the New England University College. From the beginning, the new institution saw its role in part in terms of the promotion of New England and the recording and preservation of the area's heritage. Dr Madgwick's 1947 request for local access to historical records fits exactly within the New England tradition.

I won't spoil your enjoyment of Simon's post by providing the later history including the photos of University Archivist Alan Wilkes crossing streams on horse-back, a remarkable sight for anyone who knew Alan! I would add, however, that the University's role in the preservation of regional knowledge and history has been absolutely critical to the very survival of that knowledge and history. This is yet another story that deserves to be told.   

---

[i] C B Newling, The Long Day Wanes, L F Keller, Hunters Hill, 1973, p66ff.

[ii] The description of Smith is largely drawn from a letter Drummond wrote to Elizabeth Campbell on 1 March 1965. Copy in Drummond Papers, University of New England Archives, A248/1087/6.

[iii] Material on the relations between Smith and Mackie is drawn from E S Elphick, Armidale Teachers’ College: Its Background, Foundation and Early Years, Litt.B thesis, University of New England, 1972, pp70-94. Smith’s views of the clash between himself and Mackie are set out in his minutes to Drummond of 17 November 1927 and 18 September 1928. These minutes (contained in Drummond’s Ministerial Letter Book, Drummond papers, University of New England Archives, A248/Vol.2133, p6 and pp 44-47) give a clear picture of Smith’s attitudes and personality.

[iv] Mackie to Smith, 4 November 1927. Cited Elphick, op cit, p82.

[v] Smith to Drummond, 17 November 1927. Ministerial Letter Book, op cit.

[vi] Smith to Drummond, 18 September 1928. Ministerial Letter Book, op cit

[vii] See, for example, Northern Daily Leader, 29 December 1927.

[viii] Drummond to Morgan Stephens, 27 January1930.

[ix] Drummond to Department, 21 February 1930. Ministerial Letter book, p105.

[x] Drummond to Department, 21 February 1930. ibid, p106-107.

SCU, Charles Sturt possible merger disturbs La Trobe

In December in SCU, Charles Sturt University consider merger I reported on the proposed merger between Southern Cross and Charles Sturt Universities. Now I see that the merger worries La Trobe University.

La Trobe who wants to expand its own regional operations opposes the concept of broader regional universities. While I have personal reservations about the SCU/SU because of the way it is likely to fragment New England, I have no sympathy with La Trobe.

The moves by metro universities into regional areas through campus establishment and student attraction to metro campuses simply locks us into the current metro dominated system. They actually detract from the development of Regional Australia.

SCU, Charles Sturt University consider merger

The announcement that Southern Cross and Charles Sturt Universities are joining forces to undertake a feasibility study into establishing a new Commonwealth University left me with very mixed feelings.

I have long argued that New England's universities should cooperate more in the delivery of services within New England as well as the achievement of national and international reach. I am not sure that this message has really got across, perhaps it cannot be got across, in part because of the damage brought about by the creation and subsequent failure of the networked University of New England.

The problem with the new proposed merger is that it cuts directly across New England cooperation, creating new competitive pressures. On the other hand, as someone interested in a professional sense in competitive dynamics within the university sector, I find the proposal quite interesting.

Charles Sturt has always been aggressive and I think astute in a marketing sense. It has grown into a major institution by looking to broaden its base within regional Australia. At the same time, the University of New England badly damaged by the network experiment has tended to narrow its focus.

If we cut through the hype of the initial press release, the proposed new institution involves SCU, Charles Sturt plus a third as yet un-identified interstate university. The entire tenor of the deal is designed to play to current Federal Government pre-occupations - scale, addressing regional skills shortages, national yet regional, the need for Commonwealth control.

We can see this in the words of the press release.The proposal is, and I quote:

designed "to ensure the sustainable provision of quality higher education and research of particular relevance to regional communities in Australia."

“The new institution’s mission would be to expand high quality University educational opportunity in regional Australia, and nationally, through its dispersed campuses, using digital technology and by conducting research of particular relevance to regional Australia.

“It would provide access to the combined discipline strengths of each institution and an enhanced comprehensive course profile.

“Importantly, the integration of our institutions, while maintaining our existing regional campuses, would enhance opportunities across a number of disciplines for all regional students, including in national priority areas such as health.

“It would also contribute to a sustainable and professional labour force, networked knowledge communities, TAFE pathways and international engagement."

“Having the new University established under Commonwealth law would enable it to invite other interstate regional institutions with complementary capabilities to integrate and build on their strengths to ensure continuing access to high quality education for rural and regional students around Australia.

“Commonwealth Government support is essential to provide the national legislative framework for the new institution and to negotiate with state governments.”

I have rarely seen so many current buzz words in a single announcement. This is a cleverly designed ploy to attract Federal Government support, and indeed it is very likely to, with the Feds funding the feasibility study.

The selection of the third institution will be very interesting indeed, because that will set the competitive dynamics of the merged body. My instinctive reaction was to think of the University of Southern Queensland, because this would then give a broad broadly geographically integrated sweep with potential reach into high population growth areas.

All very fascinating, if also a bit depressing.

Postscript

Len Palmer, President of the NSW Branch of the National Tertiary Education Union, came in with a very interesting comment providing further information on the merger.

I have been meaning for a while to do an update on my various posts on change within the higher education sector, linking together the various things I have written. This may now be an appropriate time to attempt the task.