Executive Dean’s Message - February 2024

Dear colleagues,

Our campuses are once again abuzz with students actively engaging with us, their peers, and their studies. It seems to be busier this year and colleagues tell me that attendance and engagement in the classroom has improved in some areas, which is wonderful news and a credit to our amazing academic and professional staff engaged in our teaching mission.

I had the pleasure of participating in several Faculty of Science O-week activities to welcome and chat to some of our new commencing students. It was wonderful to see our major convenors at the event in the UQ centre, talking to students about options for study in the wide range of programs and majors we offer. Thank you to everyone involved in both preparing for and participating in these activities including Aimee Clarke, Barb Mejias, Grace Li, Margeaux Chandler, Gurion Ang and our academic colleagues.

It was also wonderful to spend a day last week at Gatton, meeting with colleagues. I was delighted to see so many students on campus there also.

Congratulations

A huge congratulations to Fran Shapter (SVS) who has been awarded a prestigious Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. As many of you will know, Fran is an amazingly innovative award-winning teacher who has developed a self-directed learning ecosystem to support veterinary science students to acquire professional skills and build their confidence and effectiveness.

Congratulations to the following staff whose research has been recognized in recent media releases:

• Kirsty Short (SCMB), Meagan Carney (SMP) and colleagues related to the use of machine learning to help predict the risk of secondary bacterial infections in hospitalised COVID-19 patients
• Coen Hird (SENV) and colleagues for discovering a previously unknown mechanism that allows tadpoles in cold environments to mitigate the detrimental effects of ultraviolet radiation
• Bryan Fry (SENV) and colleagues for identifying a new snake species in the Amazon
• Mitchell Lyons, Chris Roelfsema (SENV) and their colleagues for their work on the size and nature of the world’s coral reefs.

Congratulations to the ‘Hottest 100’ Australian Scientists from the UQ Faculty of Science:

• Tamara Davis is an astrophysicist studying how dark energy is pushing the Universe apart, as well as a busy science communicator, who has represented Australia in Ultimate Frisbee. 
• Dorothy Hill (1907-1997) was a geologist and a palaeontologist - and the first female professor at an Australian university. 
• Ove Hoegh-Guldberg was one of first scientists to identify the threat to coral reefs from climate change. 
• Hugh Possingham is an expert in the mathematics of populations, an essential underpinning of conservation work. 

Congratulations to Associate Professor Karen Cheney and colleagues who received funding as part of the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation's Threatened Species Research Grants.

Congratulations to our Life and Earth Sciences researchers who have contributed to UQ being ranked 1 in Australia and 6 in the world in the CWTS Leiden Ranking Open Edition 2023, and congratulations more broadly for UQ’s ranking as 4 in Australia and 34 in the world overall.

Also, congratulations to Dr Aude Bernard, who was recently awarded the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Early Career Award (Asia and the Pacific) for her leadership and her work on internal migration.

Upcoming events

I am excited to announce that this year’s Faculty of Science Awards will be held on Wednesday 20 March! Please join me in celebrating our outstanding staff and students who were nominated, shortlisted, and awarded for their outstanding contributions to learning, research, teaching, service, mentoring, teamwork, and leadership of the faculty. RSVP to the event, or take a look at the full list of nominees.

News

On Sunday 25 February, the Minister for Education, the Honourable Jason Clare MP, released the recommendations of the Australian Universities Accord. This process aims to guide the first major reform of Higher Education since 2008.

There is a lot to digest, with 47 recommendations, but some excellent and ambitious recommendations that recognise and respond to many of the current challenges in Higher Education. For example:  

• Ambitious targets to drive improvements to national workforce participation and productivity, including a tertiary education attainment target of at least 80 per cent of the working-age population, achieved by more than doubling the number of Commonwealth-supported places from around 860,000 today to 1.8 million in 2050 (Recommendation 2). 
• Participation targets for students from underrepresented backgrounds to achieve participation parity by 2050, including linking these new attainment targets with Closing the Gap targets (Recommendation 10). 
• More Commonwealth-supported places available for postgraduate study in areas of national priority and skills shortage (Recommendation 17). 
• Set medium and long-term targets for Australia's overall national spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP (Recommendation 24). 
• Ensure Australia’s research capacity and capability has a high impact through ‘Solving Australian Challenges Strategic Fund’ to reward universities that work successfully to solve the acute and stubborn economic, social, health, climate and environmental challenges facing Australia (Recommendation 25). 
• Strengthen the fundamentals of the Australian research system, including additional investment in the ARC’s programs, setting a minimum percentage of national competitive grants that run for 5 years or longer and providing stable and ongoing funding for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) (Recommendation 26). 
• The Australian Government should substantially increase investment in the Research Training Program, including providing dedicated PhD scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships for First Nations researchers, ensuring that training in entrepreneurial, business, teaching and leadership skills is offered in parallel to research training (Recommendation 26). 
• An Australian Tertiary Education Commission as a statutory, national body to plan and oversee the creation of a high quality and cohesive tertiary education system to meet Australia’s future needs. Functions would include policy coordination and development, system planning, pricing authority, funding allocation and negotiation of mission-based compacts for universities (Recommendation 30). 
• The establishment of a Higher Education Future Fund, with co-contributions from public universities and the Commonwealth to fund future built and digital infrastructure (Recommendation 43). 
• Replacing the Job-ready graduates package with a new funding model and increasing government funding to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses.

Late last year Australia’s Chief Scientist Cathy Foley expressed concerns over falling participation rates in higher maths and physics courses at Australian Schools and the potentially devastating flow-on effects this could have for Australia’s expanding STEM workforce. This follows prior statements and calls for action from the previous Chief Scientist Alan Finkel and the previous Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University, Brian Schmidt. This has reignited a passionate national discussion on this matter, in which I have had the privilege of participating, or leading in the case of the Presidents of various Councils of Deans. Given this, I would greatly value your input on this matter so that I can ensure all voices and perspectives are heard.

The 2024 Pulse Survey will open on Monday 4 March via an email from the Vice-Chancellor with instructions on how to participate. I strongly encourage all staff including continuing, fixed term and casual staff to be involved in this important process to provide feedback on our workplace culture and help shape the future of UQ.

We were sorry to farewell Patrick Testa, our Faculty Executive Manager, last week as he departs UQ to take up a new and exciting role at Monash University in Victoria. The recruitment process for the Faculty of Science’s next Faculty Executive Manager (FEM) is now officially underway. I encourage you to either consider this role or share with colleagues within or beyond UQ who might be interested.

I am delighted to share that Mr Jurgens Liebenberg has been appointed to the important role of Finance Manager in the Faculty of Science and QAAFI. Jurgens was previously the Finance Manager supporting the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Science during 2023 and recently left to secure a CFO position outside UQ. Jurgens brings a wealth of finance leadership and experience with him and will look to re-commence from 1 March 2024. A huge thank you to Toni Hammond who has been a fabulous Finance manager in many areas of the university. Toni is retiring after many years of service to UQ and will be departing at the end of March. 

The 2024 Plan on a Page outlines what we will do this year to advance the UQ strategic plan and will guide the Faculty of Science and School priorities for the year. I look forward to engaging with you throughout the year to achieve these goals.

For those of you involved in assessment, I am sure you will be interested in the recently released discussion paper on assessment reform for the age of artificial intelligence if you haven’t seen it already, especially the Guiding Principles and Propositions.

And just a reminder that all staff in the Faculty of Science have been invited to make a submission to the School of Veterinary Science review committee by Monday 8 April 2024. Details and instructions can be found on the UQ Academic Board site.

Kind regards,

Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean - Faculty of Science