University performance: where we are now

Sector-wide challenges

Transparent budgets

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and edX

Improvement of our administrative systems

Most Canberrans appreciate the important role their city’s universities play educating our youth, contributing to the culture of this city and in the expansion of knowledge through research. But very few of us, however, appreciate how critical higher education is to the Canberra economy as a major industry. ANU, the University of Canberra (UC), the Australian Catholic University and the Australian Defence Force Academy have combined budgets of approximately $2 billion. This is money largely spent in the ACT community. After government, they bring more money into the ACT than any other industry.

Our universities enrol approximately 30,000 students, approximately 8,000 of whom have come from overseas, and a further 8,400 who have come from other states. The ACT is unique in Australia that so many of its students come from interstate or overseas. This means that ACT universities are a major export earner. In fact, our universities are the second largest export earners for the ACT after government. Each student who moves to Canberra to study pays fees, purchases accommodation, invites their friends and family to visit and spends money in the ACT economy.

They bring an estimated total economic benefit to the ACT of approximately $500 million a year. They help support retail, tourism, hospitality, construction and other sectors.

This means a significant part of our economy is dependent on the continued success of our universities – a particularly important consideration for Canberra at a time when we are facing the likelihood that the public service will shrink in coming years. I believe this will be the case regardless of which party is in power, and so in a city so dependent on government for its economic future, Canberra will more than ever before look to the economic input of its universities to support the economy.

Students are only one part of that economic equation. Research and the commercialization of research is also playing an increasingly important role in our economy, with real growth occurring in the number of high-technology start-up companies in the ACT. It is still early days, but as Australia’s best educated city with major research capability in our universities, Canberra is well placed to carve out a unique place in Australia as an incubator for innovative ideas and businesses.

ANU and UC are well placed to continue to attract the brightest students from interstate and overseas, and grow that contribution to the ACT economy.  The international reputation of ANU as a highly ranked research institution means it has capacity to keep building and commercializing its research, and attracting innovative people and businesses to the ACT.

The ACT Government understands the critical role ANU and UC play in our economy and is supportive of growth. Universities are not corporations, but in addition to being institutions of enormous intellectual and cultural influence, they are big business and big employers, with a profound impact on the economy.

In Australia, universities are deeply impacted by changes in government funding, and I expect that we will see that funding constrained in coming years. Just this week we have seen the Commonwealth Government announce major cuts to university funding which will have significant impacts. This will mean we increasingly need to find private sources of funding for the growth and quality of research and education that is so important to our prosperity. Despite a high Australian dollar and enormous competition from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, Australia’s universities and those in Canberra, in particular, continue to grow international student numbers. I expect this to continue in the future. Similarly, I expect post-graduate education, largely funded by students who wish to enhance their skills, will continue to grow.

Canberra has a real opportunity to stamp its mark as a place renowned for education, research and innovation, just as Boston, Silicon Valley, London and Melbourne have done.

But to do this we need more than publicity. We need to harness the international and national reputation of our universities and ensure Canberra is recognised as a vibrant and inviting destination for smart students, researchers and entrepreneurs. This is eminently possible, but, more than ever before requires a true partnership between our universities, the ACT Government and the people of Canberra. Together, we can create an economy for our national capital which ensures ‘Canberra’ is shorthand for something well beyond Parliament House.

While investing in school education is to be applauded, I don’t believe it is good policy to make large cuts to part of the sector to fund the other. The two are interlinked. The quality of Australian education and research, and its contribution to the economic growth of this nation, requires investment in the entire sector from kindergarten through to PhD. We can’t be a clever country without excellent education and research. And a changing global economy means we can’t afford not to be the clever country. Short-changing education and research means short-changing Australia’s potential to manage uncertain global times.

The cuts will likely have a significant impact on the ANU budget, and affect many of our students directly. While there is limited information available at the moment, we estimate the direct impact on the ANU budget to be $8 million in 2014 and $5 million in 2015, a total of $13 million. The sector-wide cuts include:

•  Efficiency dividend of 2 per cent for 2014 and 1.25 per cent for 2015 ($900 m for the sector)

•  Conversion of student start-up scholarship to HECS loan ($1.2 b for the sector)

•  Removal of 10 per cent up-front payment HECS discount ($228.5 m for the sector)

Be assured that we will work with our community to ensure that ANU maintains excellence in what will be a difficult financial environment for the whole sector.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Margaret Harding

Acting Vice-Chancellor

I’ll be holding a series of discussion forums for the ANU community from Friday 15 March through Thursday 21 March, and would be delighted to have you participate. You can register here.

The forums will be an opportunity to discuss the year ahead for ANU, and, indeed, for our sector.

While our students have just started the first weeks of classes, we’ve already had an extraordinary start to 2013.

The bushfire at Siding Spring Observatory tested our community and our fire preparedness. We can be very glad that no one was hurt, and the core facilities suffered limited damage. We can be especially proud of our community response to the crisis – the staff who responded to the fire and its aftermath, and everyone who generously contributed to the ANU Bushfire Appeal, which raised more than $25,000 for ANU staff who lost homes and belongings in the fire.

It was also my very great honour at the beginning of February to announce the generous $50 million gift from Graham and Louise Tuckwell to support the transformational Tuckwell Scholarship program.

There is much to look forward to at ANU this year, and I look forward to speaking with you in coming weeks.

Earlier this week, in a National Press Club Address, Universities Australia Chair Professor Glyn Davis announced a public campaign to raise awareness of the critical role played by universities in promoting the national interest, ensuring Australia remains internationally competitive and the need to maintain or indeed extend public investment in the sector.

This announcement coincided with the release of A Smarter Australia:  An agenda for Australian higher education 2013-2016, which sets out a framework for unleashing the full potential of Australia’s universities to contribute to the long-term prosperity of the nation.

The sector faces significant challenges in the coming years. While our competitors increase their investment in education and research, Australia is in the bottom 20 per cent of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for public investment in universities.  Our nation, one of the strongest economies in the world, ranks 25 out of 29 developed economies for public investment in higher education.

It is because universities are so critical to our future that Universities Australia has taken the unprecedented step of releasing a policy statement and commencing a public campaign.

To read a copy of A Smarter Australia:  An agenda for Australian higher education 2013-2016 visit http://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/docs/UniversitiesAustralia_ASmarterAustralia_2013.pdf

edX and the other MOOCS have received enormous publicity and have enrolled huge numbers of students. In the case of edX, 700,000 students have enrolled. Courses have between 40,000 and 150,000 students. The enormous demand has been because of the calibre of the universities as well as the fact that the courses are free and open entry. These are not, however, “courses” in the usual university sense. Although there is assessment, there is no authentication to verify who actually completes the online assessment. As a result, the partner universities do not give credit for completing the courses. They also distinguish the courses from their standard offerings by the use of the “X” nomenclature. Therefore, one has HarvardX, MITx, BerkeleyX and soon ANUx courses.

So, why has ANU joined edX and what does it mean for us? I believe there are a number of reasons why we should be part of edX. Some of these are summarised below:

• This is a wonderful way to further strengthen our reputation. Our courses will be side by side with the like of Harvard, MIT, Berkeley etc. This clearly positions ANU as a world leading educational institution.
• Hundreds of thousands of students will have the opportunity to try an ANU course. There is no better way to show our alumni and the world the quality of our staff.
• ANU staff will have the opportunity to share experiences with colleagues in the other “X” partner universities involved in the edX courses.
• ANU will have the opportunity to use what we learn from edX and the edX platform for the development of our on-campus degrees.

Much of the publicity around MOOCs has involved speculation that this free model of education will “sweep away traditional bricks and mortar” universities. Interestingly, this is not the view of the CEO of edX Anant Agarwal. In selecting new partners for edX an important criteria is that institutions must be committed to on-campus education. He sees the edX experience as complementary to on-campus education. As he says, the two are very different.

From my point of view, we are entering a time where experimentation with new forms of education will be common. It is likely that the ways we deliver both online and on-campus education will change dramatically in the coming years. I certainly can’t predict what university education will look like in say 10 years. However this develops, I want ANU to be a leader. This is part of the reason ANU joined edX – to ensure we are part of these new developments and not watching them from the side lines.

For ANU, the program will have enormous benefits. Firstly, it will attract outstanding students from across the nation to ANU. The process to identify these students will be quite involved, with a final step in which the top 75 applicants will visit ANU for interview. Of the 75, 25 will receive Tuckwell Scholarships. Our expectation, however, is that many of the others, once they have had an opportunity to experience the ANU environment, will also decide to enrol.

Possibly the biggest impact on ANU and our student body, however, will be the “spill over” effect of the Tuckwell Scholars. They will be chosen both on academic merit and their record and desire to contribute to society. Graham and Louise Tuckwell are very clear that Scholars will have a desire and a duty to contribute broadly to society, both as students and in the future. This may be a financial contribution, following the example of the Tuckwells, but it also may be a contribution of their time, intellect, energy etc.

For me personally, it was very inspirational to spend time with Graham Tuckwell and see, first hand, his commitment to use his position and wealth to shape the next generation. For all of us now, we have the responsibility to deliver on his vision. In our busy lives, we should not forget that one of the great joys of working in a university is that we, too, shape the future of our students.

Along with the Director of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Matthew Colless, counselling and human resources staff, I met yesterday in Coonabarabran with affected ANU staff and their families, a number of whom have lost their homes.

The University’s priority at the moment is the wellbeing of our staff and the safety of the site. The Observatory will remain closed for the next two weeks. 

The University has established a staff emergency relief fund to enable members of the ANU community to provide support for affected staff and their families. You can contribute to the fund from this link. University House, with the generous support of its suppliers, is hosting a Bushfire Appeal Dinner next Friday evening, 25 January. Details are posted on the University House website.

The University will also make a contribution of $25,000 to the Warrumbungle Shire Mayor’s Bushfire Appeal in recognition of the local community’s long and supportive relationship with the Observatory.

I know that the wishes and support of the ANU community are much appreciated by our colleagues and their families affected by the fires.

The year began with our first students taking up residence in Lena Karmel Lodge, the most recent of our ANU Exchange accommodation buildings. There are now 5,000 beds on or near campus for ANU students, and the ANU Exchange has transformed the City West precinct, making it a thriving hub for the whole ACT community, as well as students and staff.

Academic Board was reinstated, forming a key element of academic quality assurance at ANU and the University was one of the first institutions in Australia to submit a reaccreditation portfolio to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). This portfolio and the enormous amount of work which went into ensuring all our programs were appropriately positioned for this process required the dedication and hard work of staff across the institution.

During the year, a number of staff won very prestigious international awards. These include:

• Professor Ken Freeman – Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics – Prime Minister’s Science Prize
• Professor Bill Gammage – Humanities Research Centre – Prime Minister’s History Prize and Victorian Premier’s Non-Fiction Prize and the overall Victorian Prize for Literature
• Professor Kurt Lambeck – Research School of Earth Sciences – Balzan Prize
• Professor Howard Morphy – Research School of Humanities and the Arts – Huxley Medal

ANU Chancellor, Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC was awarded an AC in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

ANU alumnus Dr Anne Gallagher AO, was named a Trafficking in Persons Hero by the US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

The Crawford School of Public Policy was renamed to signify its role in the development of Public Policy at ANU and its university-wide Institute of Public Policy was launched. Dr Ken Henry was appointed as Chair of the Institute and a range of both academic staff and members of the Australian Public Service were appointed as ANU Public Policy Fellows. The Institute aims to bring together staff active in public policy from across the University. In keeping with its outreach role, more than 20,000 people have attended public policy events at Crawford during the year.

The year also saw a number of changes in senior positions across the University. Professor Mandy Thomas, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & Research Training) left to take up an appointment in Queensland and Professor Liz Deane, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning, Teaching & Students) retired. Professor Lawrence Cram stepped down as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) to take up the position of Master of University and Graduate House. Dr Brok Glenn announced that he would retire at the end of 2012 after a distinguished career at ANU, particularly in the administration and planning portfolio.  To all of these colleagues, and also to Professor Robin Stanton, Pro Vice-Chancellor (e-Strategies), I give my personal thanks.

New appointments to the Executive included Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) who joined ANU from Monash, Professor Margaret Harding, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) from UNSW and Dr Erik Lithander, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International & Outreach) from University College, Dublin. Professor Jenny Corbett, of the Crawford School, was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & Research Training). Professor Aidan Byrne resigned as Dean of Science and Director of the ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences to become CEO of the Australian Research Council and was replaced by Professor Andrew Roberts as College Dean and Professor Richard Baker as Director, Science Education. Professor John Hosking also joined ANU as Dean of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science having previously been at the University of Auckland. Professor Michael Coper finishes as Dean of the ANU College of Law this year, to be replaced by Professor Stephen Bottomley.

The many outstanding new academic appointments at ANU include three ISI Highly Cited Researchers (top 0.5% of their field in the world by citations). They are Professor Craig Moritz, Research School of Biology; Professor Matthew Colless, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Professor Bob Costanza, Crawford School of Public Policy. Eminent Philosopher Professor Philip Pettit from Princeton will also re-join ANU.

The year saw remarkable research successes with excellent results in ARC and NHMRC competitive grant rounds. 4 out of 17 Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellowships went to ANU scholars, Professors Sue O’Connor, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, David Lindenmayer and Eelco Rohling who will relocate here from the University of Southampton. The success rate for ARC Discovery applications was more than 30 per cent, the highest in the sector for the second year in a row. The recently announced Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) results also saw ANU clearly positioned well ahead of other institutions. The year saw ANU improve its position in all the major international ranking systems (Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS and Times).

The year was not without its challenges. The year saw us undertake a major restructure at the School of Music. This was a controversial process but one I believe was absolutely necessary. The School had been under financial strain for many years and was in a state of gradual decline. The restructure now provides the School with a sound model for future growth. Importantly, the new structure maintains one-on-one tuition for performance students, as well as community music by students. Consistent with the traditions of ANU, the new School of Music curriculum is research-led and academic staff within the School are now expected to be research active. Professor Peter Tregear joined the University from Monash as Head of School, and I am sure all staff will join with me in supporting Peter in his mission to build a world class School of Music contributing to both research and education in the discipline of Music.

The campus continues to be transformed as the building activities of recent years are completed. We have seen the new Jaeger 8 building opened for the Research School of Earth Sciences and the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) building completed with its Fujitsu super computer – ranked 1 in Australia and 24 in the world for speed.

In keeping with ANU tradition of quality education, innovative ANU double degree combinations were launched, providing new combinations of degrees, including the first “vertical” double degrees, bringing Bachelors and Masters together. The very successful ANU Secondary College, which provides the opportunity for gifted secondary school students to undertake ANU courses during their final year was expanded, enhanced and renamed “ANU Extension”.

Like other research-intensive universities, ANU was significantly impacted by Government decisions to curtail research spending in a tight financial environment. The Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE) program was both delayed and reduced in magnitude and the future of research infrastructure was impacted by the decision to not continue funding for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

The enhanced effort in building our Alumni & Philanthropy programs was instrumental in securing a major donation of $2.5M from the Harold Mitchell Foundation.

The contributions above are only a small part of the full activities underway across the University. I am sure all staff at ANU will join with me in congratulating their colleagues for both personal achievements and the team effort required to develop a great institution.

Thank you and congratulations.

A number were thanked for their outstanding contribution at the annual staff awards. Please join me in congratulating them.

PUBLIC POLICY AND OUTREACH

Associate Professor Donald Kris Anton, ANU College of Law

Dr Shiro Patrick Armstrong, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

Emeritus Professor Allan Douglas Barton, ANU College of Business & Economics

Team Award

Dr Natalie Balfour and Dr Michelle Salmon

The Australian Seismometers in Schools project team, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

CAREER ADVANCEMENT

Ms Margaret Eichholzer, Finance & Business Services

Mr Rana Ganguly, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

INNOVATION AND EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE

Mr Michael Avent, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Dr Susanne Holzknecht, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Dr Dierdre Pearce, Student Enrichment Programs

Ms Melinda Walker, Facilities & Services

Team Award

Ms Sophie Bierbaum and Ms Kathleen Rolfe

Marketing and Communications Team, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

RECONCILIATION

Professor Nicolas Peterson, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

25 YEAR SERVICE AWARD

Mr Michael Aggett, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Professor Desmond Ball, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

Mr Anthony Beasley, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Mr Darren Boyd, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

Ms Jeanette Cashin, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Professor Bruce Chapman AM, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

Mr David Clarke, Information Technology Services

Ms Pam Cohen, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Ms Kathy Collier, Division of Information

Dr Paul Cooper, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Professor Simon Easteal, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Mr Jack Egerton, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Mr Lino Fiorese, Facilities & Services

Dr Alastair Greig, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Mr Clive Hilliker, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Professor Michael Hutchinson, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Ms Trish Jacomb, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Ms Gay Kennedy, Student Services

Dr Rick Kuhn, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Mr Craig MacLeod, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Ms Leena Messina, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Professor Elizabeth Minchin, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Mr Alan M Muir, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Ms Hua-Jun Ni, Scholarly Information Services

Dr Elizabeth Ormerod, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Mr Andrew Papworth, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Dr William Sanders, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Mr Bill Speed, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment and ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Professor Matthew Spriggs, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Ms Helen Taylor, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Professor Alan Welsh, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Dr Kevin Windle, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

40 YEAR SERVICE AWARD

Mr Gabe Bloxham, ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Mr Graham Edwards, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Mr Kerry McAndrew, ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Professor Robin Stanton, Pro Vice-Chancellor (E-Strategies)

More information about the awards can be found here:

http://hr.anu.edu.au/career/staff-awards