Executive Dean’s Message - April 2024

 Dear colleagues,

I hope you all had a good Easter break and are looking forward to the upcoming long weekend. It’s lovely to have some extra days to take a break from our busy schedules, although I remember and acknowledge the challenges this causes in timetabling Semester 1 activities!

Congratulations

Congratulations to Kirsty Short (SCMB) for being awarded an Australian Academy of Sciences Gottschalk medal for excellence in biomedical science, recognising her leading research on respiratory viral infections, which has contributed to global pandemic preparedness.

Congratulations to Edward Narayan (AGFS) for being awarded a UQ-Technical University Munich Global Visiting Professor Fellowship.

Congratulations to Annie Garcia (SCMB) for being UQ’s first Academy of Technical Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Boosting Women in STEM Elevate scholarship awardees.

Congratulations to staff in the Faculty of Science who were nominated for a Dean’s Commendation for Excellent Teaching in Semester 2, 2023, by our highest performing students. Fifty nominations were received with the highest number being for staff from the Schools of the Environment, Maths and Physics, and Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. Staff receiving the highest number of nominations included John Dwyer (SENV), Yongping Wei (SENV), Marina Fortes (SCMB) and Justine Gibson (SVS).

Congratulations to recent UQ Master of Environmental Management graduate Katherine Lopez who along with her team was awarded the Frank Arnott – Next Generation Explorer’s Award (NGEA) in the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s 2024 Challenge.

Congratulations to UQ's Dr Renjie Zhou, who has secured an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship. The program supports collaboration with industry on research, driving a resilient and inclusive Queensland economy.

Congratulations to UQ astrophysics students Ryan White and Katelyn Smith who have been awarded Uranus Program scholarships from the Andy Thomas Space Foundation.

And congratulations to staff working in the following disciplines that were recognised in the recently announced 2024 QS World University Rankings by Subject: Environmental Science (#18), Agriculture and Forestry (#19), Veterinary Science (#34), Earth and Marine Science (#46) and Chemistry (#46).

Events

The UQ Senior Leaders forum was held on 16 April. The event provided senior leaders with an update on the higher education sector and UQ, the Pulse survey and projects aimed at improving the efficiency of various professional services, including procurement.

The Group of Eight Deans of Science met at The University of Melbourne earlier this month. It was helpful to compare notes on the various opportunities and challenges and discuss strategies for responding to these, either individually or in partnership.

I have recently returned from a six-day Senior Executive Mission to China to explore opportunities for research partnerships, joint PhD and articulated bachelors and bachelor-masters programs. A highlight was meeting many prospective students and alumni at events in Shanghai and Beijing, and benefitting from Grace Li’s (Senior Manager, International, Faculty of Science) comprehensive and deep knowledge of and relationships across the university sector in China.

I also had the privilege of meeting with groups of 8-10 students studying science at Gatton and St Lucia this month. It was wonderful to hear how their studies are going and how we can support them through their program and extracurricular activities.

Thanks to staff who attended the academic promotion information session a few weeks ago and I am looking forward to seeing staff at Gatton this week. If you were unable to attend either session, please contact capscience@uq.edu.au for a copy of the slides.

Other news

As you may be aware, the Bachelor of Science program is being reviewed between the 26 and 29 August this year. Staff are encouraged to engage in this process by sharing views with the Faculty BSc Review Planning Committee (chaired by Karyn Johnson), for example by attending one of the recently announced town hall meetings. Staff (and students) are also encouraged to make a submission to the BSc Review Committee. Submissions should be sent to the Review Coordinator (email: uqreviews@uq.edu.au) by 22 July 2024. Please contact the Review Coordinator via email or on 3365 3041 if you have any questions.

The Faculty and all of our schools are currently in the midst of the mid-year budget planning process. This continues to be challenging as budgets a constrained through a combination of ongoing impact on the pandemic, Job Ready Graduates program and the softening of demand in some programs on revenue and significant increases in the cost of everything impacting expenditure. I commend the leadership of our schools and Faculty portfolios for their prudence and citizenship through this process.

Thank you to everyone who completed the recent Pulse survey. Preliminary quantitative results have now been shared with university leaders and at a whole of faculty level, it is very pleasing indeed to see significant improvements in a number of areas. These include: enacting UQ Values (+5%), prioritising workplace health and safety (+16%), staff feeling motivated to do their best (+10%), staff feeling consulted before decisions that affect them are made (+15%), staff feeling listened to (+12%), staff understanding how their work contributes to UQ’s strategic goals (+7%), staff maintaining a good balance of work and other aspects of their life (+7%) and workloads being manageable (+6%), and continued high scores for staff in organisational units working collegially, staff feeling supported by their supervisor, staff being provided helpful feedback on their performance, and flexible work opportunities. Thank you to the very many staff who have contributed to this significant improvement in workplace culture in the Faculty of Science!

We do continue however to have challenges in some other areas, including the visibility of how we manage unacceptable behaviours, the management of university-level change, and confidence in UQ’s senior leadership team, along with declines in others, including staff feeling informed about what’s happening at UQ (-9%) and progress on implementing UQ’s Reconciliation Action Plan (-7%). These and other areas with low or reduced scores will be prioritised in our action planning in response to the survey. Schools and units will commence discussion of the survey outcomes in their areas over the coming weeks.

Following previous commentary on secondary school mathematics teaching, I am pleased to share that he Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute and partners have recently published a report on out-of-field teaching in Australian Mathematics. The relevant documents can be found here and here.

It was wonderful to see the release of The Queensland Commitment Roadmap, which has detailed 58 strategic actions UQ will take towards more equitable access to education by 2032. The Roadmap clearly defines how we will continue to work in partnership with alumni, schools, communities, and all levels of government to make this a reality. It also outlines how we can adapt as an organisation to help more Queenslanders access the transformative impact of education.

Kind regards,

Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean - Faculty of Science