St John’s College Armidale & then Morpeth

Very few people know that St John’s Theological College in Armidale was, in fact, the first tertiary institution in the North. St John’s acted as a trigger for a post on my personal blog: Populating a landscape – writers and writing. This History Revisited post, History revisited – college a capital idea, tells a little of the early story.

“When the wisteria starts to bloom it is time to make your run; when the roses bloom it is too late”

This photo from Paul Barratt took me back. It was taken by his father in the 1950s. Further brief comments follow the photo. 

The photo is taken on Booloominbah's northern forecourt. The caption - “When the wisteria starts to bloom it is time to make your run; when the roses bloom it is too late” - captures the old exam message. The students with their books and gowns, the colour, captures a world now past.

UNE's response to the higher education funding cuts

Over on Personal Reflections I will be running a Monday Forum session on the Federal Government's school funding changes. This includes a cut to university funding. Here I just want to record the UNE response circulated in a staff email at 4:26 this afternoon.

Analysis will follow later. I do not know at this stage the Southern Cross or University of Newcastle responses.

"Dear Colleagues

On the weekend the University sector was blindsided by substantial funding cuts by the Federal Government.

The so called “efficiency dividends” on Universities over the next two years are to fund school reforms.

Our initial estimate is that the direct cost of these measures will be a cut in funding to UNE of $2.1 million next year, rising to $3.6 million in 2015.

However the indirect costs, such as a reduction in student demand given the removal of start-up scholarships and the removal of the upfront HECS payment, will make that figure even higher.

I find this a very difficult announcement to accept. Last year we were encouraged to take in much larger numbers of students and, after doing just that, are now told that we must also accept a reduced price.

It is like Australia selling coal to China at one price and when it arrives, China decides it won’t honour the price. This is not something any commercial business would tolerate, but it is the situation in which  Universities now find themselves.

UNE is in a more fortunate position than most universities because we have fought ourselves into a relatively healthy financial position. This will allow us to absorb some of the funding cuts, but in the face of a 7% annual pay increase claim from the National Tertiary Education Union and with CPI running at a little under 3%, eventually UNE would go into deficit.

I have asked the Chief Financial Officer to model the effects of the weekend announcement and to re-evaluate the major capital works program , including the college redevelopment, which we were about to undertake.

Also I cannot entirely rule out that the prospect of staffing and program cuts, but we will do everything we can to avoid this.

When UNE formulated its Strategic Plan in 2011, we recognized that we were too reliant on Federal Government funding and began making moves to diversify our business model.

If ever we needed confirmation that this is an urgent priority, then this latest government announcement must be it.

Regards

Jim Barber"

University of New England student numbers jump

  In today's UNE staff e-newsletter, Vice Chancellor Jim Barber reported on UNE enrolments at the close of UNE Trimester 1 enrolments.

The VV noted that at the close of enrolments, UNE had more than 700 additional students enrolled than at the same time last year. That’s a 4.5 per cent increase in enrolments.

Even better, the number of new applicants wishing to study at UNE rose 13.8 per cent, more than triple the national average growth in university applications of just 4.2 per cent in 2012.

Enrolments were up almost across the board - Arts, Education, Law, Nursing and Science Courses still remained popular with commencing students, with significant growth in other disciplines.

The biggest increases in undergraduate enrolments this year were in  the Bachelor of Ecology, Diploma of The Sciences, Diploma of Town Planning, Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Sciences, Bachelor of Pharmacy, Bachelor or Organisational Leadership, Bachelor of Agriculture and Bachelor of Education (combined).
In postgraduate studies there was significant growth in enrolments in the Graduate Certificate of Agriculture, Graduate Certificate in eLearning, Graduate Diploma in Applied Anatomy by Dissection, Master of Agriculture and Graduate Diploma of Applied Anatomy.

The story of higher education in New England 1 - introduction

In discussion with Greg on Charles Sturt University to open in Tamworth?, I realised that some of the things I write about New England's universities probably don't make a lot of sense in isolation.

To set the scene for the discussion that follows, this photo shows graduation at the Newcastle University College in March 1957 or 1958.

From left to right you have Sir Earle Page as Chancellor of the University of New England, Dr. Wallace Wurth, Chancellor, University of New South Wales (standing), then I think that on the far right in the front row is Robert Madgwick, then VC at UNE.

Why are there UNE people present? Well, at the time the photo was taken, Arts students at Newcastle University College were supervised from the University of New England in the same type of relationship that the New England University College had had with Sydney University. Indeed, this supervision was one of the two critical conditions under which New England gained its autonomy. The other was the introduction of external studies at UNE.

At the time, Newcastle was a college of the University of Technology in Sydney, now the University of NSW. However, the University of Technology did not teach arts. For that reason, the introduction of arts at NUC required support from another university. As had happened earlier with Sydney and NEUC and for the same reasons, the relationship between UNE and NUC was a sometimes troubled one.

Now the point of this little story is that this link between UNE and Newcastle is little known. Indeed, the whole history of higher education in New England is little known, fragmented. This affects the way that people judge stuff that I write, for while I write from a broader New England perspective, they look at the picture in terms of individual institutions or, sometimes, the higher education sector as a whole. The broad New England perspective is absent.

I have a further problem in that my own allegiances and family connections to UNE are well known. I write a lot about UNE because it is important to me. Just to take a very small example, at the NUC March 1959 graduation my father presented the Arts candidates!

Does this mean that I am UNE biased? At one level it does, but when I write from a broader New England perspective whether historical or policy I try to be balanced.

Does the absence of a broader New England perspective, of the entire historical background, matter? I would argue that it does. But then, I am clearly biased! 

Thinking about this, I have decided that I really need to consolidate my writing on New England higher education, adding some new material to fill gaps. I have now written hundreds of posts across blogs connected in some way with higher education. You will find a partial list here. In addition, there are the specifically New England posts.

Given my time constraints, I am going to focus on material already prepared. All I want to achieve is to provide information and analysis that people can use to make their own judgements.       

Around New England's Universities July 2010

I suddenly realised that I haven't done a news round-up on New England's universities since February. It seems an opportune time to do so now, for as I wrote in Are the wheels starting to come off in Australian higher education?, all Australia's universities face a period of fundamental change.

Starting with Newcastle, on 25 June the University released details of 901 mid year offers of places broken up as follows:

• Callaghan campus: 663
• Central Coast campus (Ourimbah): 165
• Port Macquarie campus: 7
• Distance education: 66

I haven't been able to find equivalent numbers for UNE or SCU.

On 1 July, more than 2,000 students from high schools across the Hunter, Central Coast, mid-north Coast and Tablelands-North West regions visited the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus for the annual Schools Visit Day. This type of visit is a major activity for all our universities as they seek to attract students.

On 10 July, Newcastle released details of a $100 million program including new on-campus accommodation of 750 beds, refurbishing and upgrading existing on-campus accommodation (960 beds), and 400 extra car parking spaces. The new accommodation facility will be located adjacent to the existing on-campus accommodation precinct.

One of the drivers here has been the high cost of rented accommodation for students within Newcastle. Sydney universities face similar if more intense problems; both the University of New South Wales and Sydney University are expanding student accommodation, increasing their competitive threat for New England students. 

One of the University of Newcastle's strengths lies in the engineering and technical arena. In this context, the University has appointed engineering heavy-weight Dr Alan Broadfoot as the director of the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER).

NIER will comprise laboratories, workshops, offices and five industrial-scale pilot plant workshops. The facility will encompass University Priority Research Centres and research groups that will explore energy production, distribution and efficiency. Research will also be carried out in the areas of mining, minerals and minerals processing. The $40 million NIER project is funded through $30 million from the Australian Government Education Investment Fund and $10 million from the University.

In another move, the University has announced that Researchers from the University of Newcastle will lead a new multi-million dollar Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence to pioneer new scientific approaches to geotechnical engineering design. With Australian Government funding of $14.4 million, the Centre of Excellence in Geotechnical Science and Engineering will focus on creating science-based tools for predicting the safety of offshore and onshore geostructures, including oil and gas platforms, roads, railways, tunnels, dams and port facilities.

Finally on Newcastle, congratulations to The University of Newcastle Chamber Choir for winning gold in two categories at the Sixth World Choir Games in Shaoxing China. Around 420 choirs with over 10,000 performers from some 80 countries participated in the Games.

Both Southern Cross and the University of New England featured NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) week activities. NAIDOC takes place across Australia during the first full week of July  and is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognise the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields.

At SCU, there were a variety of activities at the Lismore and Gold Coast campuses (and here), while at UNE the Oorala Aboriginal Centre organises a flag-raising ceremony every year as part of Armidale’s NAIDOC Week celebration.

This year’s NAIDOC Week theme focuses on “unsung heroes”. 

Speaking at the ceremony, student Kerrie-Anne Maunder celebrated the achievements of her grandmother, Vilma Ryan, as a political activist, community worker, lecturer, and campaigner on a wide range of Aboriginal issues including land rights, social equity, and the education and welfare of children.

Ms Lyn Walford, representing the local Aboriginal community, spoke about the highly successful, community-based Aboriginal Rugby League team based in Armidale - the Narwan Eels - as “unsung heroes”. She invited those at the ceremony to view an exhibition of photographs and memorabilia of the “Eels” on   display in the Oorala Aboriginal Centre while continuing their NAIDOC Week celebration over morning tea.

The photo shows from left the Acting Director of the Oorala Aboriginal Centre, Michael Brogan, Kerrie-Anne Maunder, Professor Jim Barber, and Lyn Walford.

New England has a very big Aboriginal community and especially in the North Coast and North West regions.

While I have always been interested in Aboriginal history, working with Aboriginal people over 2009 while also researching Aboriginal history as part of my broader history of New England has given me a much greater awareness of Aboriginal issues; see Return to country as an example.

Staying with Southern Cross, one feature of the University's press releases is an emphasis on the sea, not surprising given its location. Examples include:

• Southern Cross University to study Gold Coast and Tweed dolphins
• Capturing whale images is no fluke
• Art and science meet under the sea: art exhibition
• Innis Foundation scholarships presented to top surfing students

University press releases also feature outreach activities such as public lectures at main centres.

Finally with SCU, lobbying by the University has paid off with Coffs Harbour to be included in the 19 centres for the National Broadband second stage roll-out. The area including and around the University of New England was included in the first NBN pilot studies.

I sometimes not sure just how many New Englanders understand the importance of their universities to development across New England.

Turning to to UNE, the press releases again have a different feel. Monitoring the releases as I do, by the way, UNE actually has the best PR approach of all three.

If Newcastle is technical and industrial, Southern Cross sea, then UNE is agriculture. Of course, all three are more than this, but the rural side continues to come through strongly at UNE as it has from the University's early days. If we look at the media releases over July, we find:

• UNE experts develop model of disease spread in livestock
• Spotlight on new technology for monitoring livestock
• Students share summer scholarship experiences - a gathering of school students interested in agricultural science
• International perspectives on resprouting in plants
• Livestock researchers focus on a future full of change

However, looking at the pattern of press releases over time, UNE also has four distinctive features as compared to both Newcastle and SCU: the releases are more varied, while there is a greater emphasis on campus life, on international reach and on the humanities.

This partially reflects the University's history, but also its strategic positioning, for in some ways UNE is caught between a rock and a hard place.

Australian university students are far more stay at home than, say, their US equivalents. Lacking the bigger immediate local catchment areas available to Newcastle (Newcastle, Lower Hunter and Central Coast) or Southern Cross (Gold Coast, Northern Rivers, Coffs Harbour), UNE has to attract students and especially on-campus students from other places in the face of fierce competition. While UNE does compete with SCU and NU for New England students, it actually has to attract students from other places who would otherwise go to their local university or universities. This affects every element of the University's competitive strategy.

Train Reading - Keith Leopold's Came to Booloominbah

In spare moments during this moving period I have been reading Keith Leopold's Came to Booloominbah: a country scholar's progress 1938-1942 (University of New England Press, Armidale, 1988).

When the New England University College opened its doors in 1938 there were just eleven full time enrolments, eight men and three women. Of the eight men, six were on Teacher's College scholarships. They and their schools were:

• Lewis Border (The Armidale School)
• Thomas Harrigan (Marist Brothers, West Maitland)
• Max Hartwell (Glen Innes High School)
• Keith Leopold (Maitland Boy's High School)
• Patrick Thompson (Taree High School)
• Leslie Titterton (Kempsey High School)

Just a list of names and schools, one private, five public. But they came from all parts of New England. The Maitland boys found Armidale very small. It was also a long way from home - eight hours by train. The Kempsey and Taree boys may have found the distance even longer - there were no train connections here. They either went home by motor coach over the rough roads or, perhaps, by train to Sydney and then steamer.

I will write more on the first NEUC intake a little later. I find it interesting that they did so well in later life. Their story is also a story of a very different world, one about to end with war.

National infrastructure spend - New England universities' share

In The Rudd Government's $A4.7 billion nation building package - New England Projects I reported on the New England infrastructure projects that had received funding under the Commonwealth Government's new infrastructure package. At that stage I had no details of funding under the education component of the package.

NSW universities received $245 million in funding for special identified higher education projects. Of this, $210 million went to the Sydney universities, $35 million to the University of Wollongong.

New England universities did not receive any funding, although in an un-related announcement on the same day, the Commonwealth Government announced that the University of New England would receive $3.544 million as a result of its successful application for funding through the Government’s Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund.

New England universities will receive funding from the $500 million in general capital funding to be made available from 1 July 2009 to promote teaching and learning. $153.1 million of this will flow to NSW universities in proportion to their student numbers. Of this, New England universities will receive $29.5 million broken up as follows:

University	$ million
Newcastle	15
University of New England	7.9
Southern Cross University	6.6

$500 million has also been made available to fund TAFE and community college capital spending. However, this money will be allocated on a competitive basis based upon applications by individual TAFEs or colleges.

Further information on the university funding allocations can be found here, TAFE allocation processes here.

Calling residents of UNE's S H Smith House, Drummond College, Drummond & Smith College

Photo: Drummond & Smith College Students, University of New England 2007

Browsing round, I found the Facebook page for Drummond & Smith College.

Drummond & Smith College is the amalgam of two very different institutions.

S H Smith House was the women's residence for the Armidale Teachers College. The College became the Armidale College of Advanced Education and was then merged with UNE. Follwoing this, Smith House became co-educational.

Drummond College was a UNE college, the merged with S H Smith House. There is a logical connection between the two. D H Drummond was Minister for Education in NSW, S H Smith the head of his Department when he first became Minister.

Anybody care to share stories of their time at the two places. Or, for that matter, their experience in taking out Smith House girls? I have some very fond memories here!

Joint University of Newcastle, University of New England medical program starts

Photo: the first intake of medical students at UNE in the joint program with the University of Newcastle.

The first students ever to embark on a medical degree program at the University of New England have begun their studies, Monday 18 February 2008.

The 62 students, including three from New Zealand, nine from inter-State, and many from rural areas, comprise the "pioneer" cohort in UNE's School of Rural Medicine. The new School is the UNE component of the Joint Medical Program, run in collaboration with the University of Newcastle (UN) and Hunter New England Health (HNEH). This is the program's first year of teaching, with 100 students enrolled at Newcastle as well as the 62 at UNE.

Early on the first day before teaching began, the students were welcomed to the program by Professor John Fraser (Head of the School of Rural Medicine at UNE), Professor Alan Pettigrew (Vice-Chancellor of UNE), Professor Victor Minichiello (Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of the Professions at UNE), Professor Michael Hensley from the University of Newcastle (Dean of Medicine – Joint Medical Program), and Dr Nigel Lyons (Chief Executive of HNEH).

All the speakers emphasised the importance of the Joint Medical Program for the future recruitment and retention of medical practitioners in northern NSW (as well as other non-metropolitan regions), and its significance as the first collaborative venture of its kind in Australia.

"It's been very much a team effort," Professor Fraser said.

They also emphasised the scale of the achievement in turning what was a mere concept only two years ago into a reality, and thanked everyone involved. Professor Pettigrew remarked on the prevailing "sense of achievement" among the staff and "sense of excitement" among the students.

Professor Hensley thanked the students for "embarking on this career from which the community expects such a lot", and encouraged them to go on and "graduate at the end of 2012 as outstanding doctors".

He pointed out that, under the system of "problem-based learning" that UN had developed for its medical degree course more than three decades ago and now shared with UNE, students were required "to be doctors from day one". This teaching method requires students, working in teams of eight, to analyse and solve problems presented to them by a tutor. Dr Lyons, who was among the fourth intake of medical students at UN, told the students that "problem-based learning" would give them "skills that will last for life".

The students themselves were unanimous in their enthusiasm for the program. Daniel Tilley from Foster in Victoria and Emily Lewis from Adelaide were typical of many in welcoming this opportunity to train for medical practice in a rural area. They were also excited about what lay before them over the next five years. "We've got this brand new, amazing anatomy lab," Emily said, "and I'm excited about going there later today."

Sources:

• From Newcastle University
• From UNE

New England University Offers Out

New England's universities today released their first round offers of places to students under the centralised admission process. The benchmark here is the student's score on the UAI index, ranking students on a score out of 100 based on their Higher School Certificate (HSC) results.

Students have to nominate course choices at various institutions, and then gain admission if their UAI score is higher than that set by the institution for the course in question. In turn, this is dictated by relative demand for certain courses.

This is not the only admission process.

The University of New England, for example, has an alternative schools based admission process that allows students to gain admission in advance of the formal HSC results. This has become of increasing importance in recent years. Further, some courses have quite specific entry requirements independent of the HSC.

Looking at the UAI cut-offs, Southern Cross University has a UAI range from 60 to 90, the University of Newcastle from 60 to 93.6, the University of New England from 70 to 95.

All the universities have some course vacancies after first round offers, so there will be a significant second round once student choices from the first round are known.

New England's Universities - Academic Standards, Admission Marks and Competitive Strategies

I see from the Newcastle Herald (21 December) that the University of Newcastle's academic senate has expressed concern about the impact of lowering 2007 academic entrance requirements.

By way of background, at the start of 2007 the University reduced the UAI entry point cut-offs for entry by an average of 5.78 per cent in order to increase student numbers. This led to an 22.8 per cent increase in the number of offers made to students.

Without being fully aware of all the dynamics, I am inclined to share the senate's concern.

Each of New England's universities faces a different market problem. In my view, each has to aim for quality rather than quantity.

History of the University of Newcastle - a few notes

I have been browsing round trying to find material on the history of the University of Newcastle. While I found things of interest about people that I did not know or had forgotten with Newcastle connections, it proved remarkably difficult to find consolidated historical material about the University itself. I also could not find a decent photo to go with this story.

A few notes follow just to get some chronology down. With one exception that I will give in a moment, I am not giving links. The material is just too fragmentary.

The one exception? The Hunter Valley Research Foundation has a useful page setting out a chronology of some Hunter Valley historical events.

I have actually been intending to do a story on the Foundation. Founded in 1956 under the direction of Cyril Renwick, Professor of Economics at Newcastle University College, the Foundation has made a significant contribution to the Hunter, as has Professor Renwick himself.

A few dates follow.

1949 - Newcastle Teachers' College established as, I think, the third teachers' college in NSW. Griffith H Duncan became Principal of the College, a position he was to hold until 1975.

1951 -Newcastle University College established as a college of the NSW University of Technology (now University of New South Wales) on the Tighes Hill Newcastle Technical College campus.

As an aside, the NSW University of Technology itself was created in 1949 from the Sydney Technical College. 1958 the University changed its name to The University of New South Wales, and broadened its areas of study starting with a Faculty of Arts.

In Newcastle, Ralph Barsden who was Principal of the Newcastle Technical College from 1940 to 1959, also became Warden of the new University College, a position he was also to hold until 1959.

1965 - University of Newcastle gained autonomy - Shortland campus construction commenced.

1973 - Newcastle Teachers' College becomes College of Advanced Education.

November 1989 - College of Advanced Education and University of Newcastle amalgamated under the University of Newcastle name.

New England's Universities do well in Carrick Citations

I was pleased to see that New England universities did well in this year's Carrick Citations.

The Australian Government's Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education was established in 2004 to provide a national focus for the enhancement of learning and teaching in Australia. It receives $26 million annually from the Australian Government for its awards program, fellowship scheme, and grants programs.

Now in their second year, the Carrick Citations are designed to recognise people who have made a significant and sustained contribution to student learning. This year the Citations recognised the work of 253 academic and support staff from all parts of Australia.

The University of Newcastle received eight Citations covering four individuals and four staff teams, 18 staff in all.

The development of an innovative, hands-on program that places first-year law students in the court room was one of eight University of Newcastle programs honoured. Other Citations included leadership and creativity in developing an around-the-clock, flexible and innovative information and learning environment; and inspiring and motivating first-year science students through a nationally recognised, real-life approach to conservation education.

The University of New England also received eight Citations covering three individuals and five teams, 21 staff in all.

UNE's awards showed a strong focus on distance education.

A team lead by Adrian Adrian Kiernander received an award for sustained commitment and innovation over 15 years in devising and providing real world learning experiences for off-campus students in the practical study of theatre. I had a personal interest in this one since I was once a member of the Theatre Studies Department community consultative committee.

Other awards included for sustained excellence in scholarly activities and curriculum development which has enhanced the teaching and learning of first-year Ancient History both at UNE and internationally; overcoming the tyranny of distance in tertiary chemical education through innovative distance learning curricula and resources; and for going the extra mile: for sustained teamwork that brings geographically remote and disadvantaged students into our UNE learning community through personalised attention in access centres.

Southern Cross University received two Citations, one individual and one team, six people in all. SCU's library team received its Citation for the provision of innovative library and information services which are integrated with the changing teaching and learning needs of staff and students.

If my maths serves me correctly, 45 staff in all received recognition as compared to the national total of 253. Not a bad effort. My congratulations to all those involved.