From the Chancellery
Peter Høj
Vice-Chancellor and President
Winning against the economic downturn
As
many consider how to best allocate their Federal Government Economic
Stimulus payments and the Global Financial Crisis continues to wreak
new havoc on economies around the world, the role of universities in
securing the wealth of our nation once again comes to the fore.
Strengthening South Australia’s economic base through the provision of qualified professionals is one of two core aspirations at the very heart of UniSA’s founding Act. The second is to open up tertiary pathways to those who have suffered disadvantages in education due to geographical, cultural or socio-economic factors.
Since the establishment of UniSA, our total student numbers have increased from 20,000 to more than 36,000; international student numbers have increased from 450 to over 13,000; and in less than 18 years of operation, we have delivered more than 100,000 qualified professionals to the economy.
Indeed, we celebrated our 100,000th graduate this year. Given our commitment to student equity, it was fitting that this graduate, Charlotte Mukamuberwa, left her war-torn country of Rwanda to further her education in Australia, and graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce at our Adelaide ceremony in April.
Universities also support the economy through their research and consultancy. From a humble base of $4 million in 1991, UniSA now generates more than $50 million in research revenue. The flow-on effects of this, via the generation of new products and export markets, are even more considerable.
The University is also a major employer with over 2500 continuing and fixed-term members of staff. And, we are attracting some outstanding minds to our State. At UniSA we are delighted to welcome our newest recruits - Professor Michael Roberts, Research Chair in the area of Therapeutics and Pharmaceutical Science, most recently from the University of Queensland; Professor Kerin O’Dea, Director of the Sansom Institute, most recently from the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin; and Associate Professor Desmond Lun, a specialist in bioinformatics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, who has come to us from Harvard University in Massachusetts. These follow other outstanding appointments in 2008, including Professor Elspeth Probyn from the University of Sydney; Professor John Lynch from McGill University in Montreal; and Professor Lee White from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Universities are also substantial investors in educational infrastructure. In the past five years alone, UniSA has invested about $255 million in capital works projects. Our most recent addition, a $20 million Environmental Science Building at Mawson Lakes, will host some of the most important environmental research ever undertaken in our State.
So, while there is widespread concern about the current state of Australia’s economic climate, we at UniSA are feeling motivated and focused on the task of bringing about a more sustainable and productive world. We are very proud of the role we have to play in sustaining the local economy, and are confident that our students and researchers of the future will find new ways of turning our present challenges into ground-breaking opportunities.