Internationalisation of teaching and learning and leadership in the promotion of overseas mobility was celebrated at the announcement of five 2011 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Internationalisation during The University of Queensland’s (UQ) Teaching and Learning Week 2011.
The awards were presented at a special ceremony on Wednesday, November 2, in the Eleanor Room of The UQ Club at the St Lucia campus as part of the University’s annual Teaching and Learning Week celebrations.
UQ’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International) Dr Anna Ciccarelli said the awards, created in 2009, recognised those organisational units and individuals who had shown leadership in areas that furthered internationalisation of the University.
Dr Ciccarelli said she was delighted the 2011 awards had received the highest number of nominations to date.
Awarded in three categories: organisational unit; staff member; and exchange partner and exchange student of the year, the 2011 winners were as follows.
Organisational Award Ochsner Clinical School, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences for “Internationalising teaching and learning and encouraging and promoting overseas staff and student mobility”.
In 2008, UQ’s School of Medicine partnered with the Ochsner Health System in New Orleans to form the Ochsner Clinical School Partnership led by Professor David Wilkinson, Dean of Medicine and Head, School of Medicine, and Professor William Pinsky, Head of Ochsner Clinical School and Chief Academic Officer, Ochsner Health System.
Since 2009, more than 130 UQ medical students from a range of countries have travelled to New Orleans to complete clinical rotations, giving them valuable exposure to the US health system.
This collaborative partnership therefore encourages staff cooperation and mobility. Academic staff from both sites and all medical disciplines have travelled to their partner discipline to train, assist and share best practice procedures.
Staff Awards • Professor David Carter, School of English, Media Studies and Art History for “Internationalisation of Teaching and Learning”.
Professor Carter has had a major impact in the area of lifting the profile of the University’s Arts programs in both China and Taiwan. UQ is now recognised in China as a major centre for Australian Studies’ teaching and research.
As a Visiting Lecturer and Guest Professor, David Carter has taught Australian Studies and delivered seminars to undergraduate and graduate groups at many Chinese universities over the past decade. His work in China has resulted in a significant number of Chinese scholars also coming to UQ.
Since 2003, Professor Carter has been Manager of the Australia–China Council’s Australian Studies in China program and one of the Directors of the Australia Foundation which will manage this position in collaboration with the Council.
• Brendon Lutwyche, Faculty Manager of International Development from the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture & Information Technology for “Encouraging and promoting overseas student mobility, internationalisation of teaching & learning and encouraging and promoting overseas staff mobility”.
Mr Lutwyche has been a key player in developing new international opportunities for students, ensuring both inbound and outbound students are provided with the best possible support for their study programs and facilitating effective academic staff engagement with the faculty’s internationalisation activities.
Under his stewardship, the Faculty has been involved with the development of the first Australian double degree in engineering through an arrangement with the prestigious Ecoles Centrales which has five campuses throughout France.
He is currently in negotiations to replicate this double-degree arrangement with universities in Germany and Italy. His contribution goes well beyond conventional international student recruitment and marketing.
Exchange Partner of the Year Eric K Federing, Creator of the Uni-Capitol Washington Internship Program for “Encouraging and promoting overseas student mobility and internationalisation of teaching and learning”.
The program is a unique international exchange between Americans and Australians taking place in the United States Congress. Each year, a small group of Australian university students are given an opportunity to undertake an eight-week congressional internship.
Mr Federing said UQ had been an exceptional partner in the exchange program.
“You have only to glance through what some of your students have done after their internships to know the value these experiences have brought them beyond the particulars of two months spent in a wintery corner of the northern hemisphere,” he said.
“I routinely tell the students that I believe I get the best part of this bargain. I get to give something of value back to Congress and to Australia.
I get to engineer it all as well as I believe it can be done in a pro bono exercise. I get to be their cheerleader, with many scores of lasting friendships made along the way.
“To say this effort of 13 program years has been a privilege is to understate its intrinsic value to me by many fold. I have so enjoyed working with everyone at UQ over the years. I thank you for your continued partnership, trust and, today, recognition.”
Exchange Student of the Year Dr Mohd Zul Rahim, of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences for “Internationalisation program/activity characteristics and community engagement”.
Dr Rahim completed a masters by coursework in occupational therapy contemporary practice in the early 2000s. In the interim, he returned to Malaysia then returned to UQ four years ago to undertake his PhD.
He has been a UQ ambassador since his masters’ days. His vision is to improve the quality of education and therapy services’ delivery to children and adolescents in Malaysia who have learning, attention issue and other disabilities. Working with teachers of students with learning disabilities in Kelantan Malaysia via a written survey, he was able to gather more than 1000 responses from regular and special needs teachers.
Aside from his PhD studies, he took on significant leadership responsibilities as Chair of the Malaysian Student Flood Relief Centre both during and after the January 2011 floods in Brisbane.
During this time, Dr Rahim’s concerns were less about his own home and family and more for his fellow Malaysian students, some 300 of whom were dislocated.
Media: Shirley Glaister at UQ Communications (3365 1931 or s.glaister@uq.edu.au).
