Lumen Autumn 2017 - Flipbook - Page 2
From the Vice-Chancellor
Facing the winds of change
As Vice-Chancellor Professor Warren Bebbington
concludes his 昀椀ve-year term, he re昀氀ects on what
lies ahead for the University of Adelaide.
O
f my 40 years in universities,
I cannot think of a moment
that ever presented as many
challenges and opportunities as the
present one. The next few years will
sorely test the resilience of the University’s
mission and values as it faces new
circumstances on every front.
Change will be far-reaching. Across
Australia, students will increasingly travel
interstate to a university of their choice
rather than defaulting to their local
campus. Indeed, already major eastern
state universities are intensively recruiting
students in our Adelaide schools.
Students from China and India
seeking to study abroad will increasingly
outnumber the flow we have had for
40 years from South East Asia, but the
strong position Australia has enjoyed as
a destination for them will be increasingly
challenged by energetic recruitment
campaigns by first-class universities in
Europe and Asia.
Meanwhile, untold numbers around
the world will seek access to university
education, not by travelling abroad, but
by enrolling from their own countries, free
and online, through the Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOCs).
At the same time, our governments
will increasingly look to universities for
innovation and ideas that will grow
national economic prosperity in the postmining boom era, as well as for great
numbers of the digitally-savvy graduates
they see in ever greater demand in
the workforce.
To confront all this will be the great
challenge ahead for the University of
Adelaide. But we need not lose heart,
for we are well prepared: with our
international ranking position now in
the top 150 universities of the world
in all three of the major ranking tables,
we have never been so attractive to
international students.
Through ‘small group discovery’,
greatly enhanced by online learning
resources, we now offer a unique learning
proposition, distinct from many others and
a far cry from the massed, impersonal
lecture experience common on many
larger Australian campuses.
To ensure our uniqueness becomes
known, we are ramping up our recruitment
activities. We are piloting our first
interstate recruitment campaign this year,
and also launching a new international
recruitment roadshow, our first to the
leading schools in India.
In the MOOCs, through the leading
global provider edX, we've now had
over 400,000 enrolments from over 200
countries registered for online units with
us – and I confidently predict we will reach
one million students through MOOCs
by the end of 2018. We are becoming
a major player in this emerging global
phenomenon of digital learning.
Increasingly too, we are offering
state-of-the art facilities to our students.
Our new Health and Medical Sciences
building, opened near the new Royal
Adelaide Hospital a few weeks ago, is
the largest building we have ever built.
It incorporates our Medical and Nursing
Schools and the new Adelaide Dental
Hospital and is the latest example of our
physical transformation. And over the next
few years, once stage one of our new
20-year masterplan is commenced, we
will offer new buildings for Law, Business,
Economics, Arts and Music, as well as
enhancements at Waite and Roseworthy.
Addressing the National Innovation
and Science Agenda head on, a new
innovation hub, ThincLab Adelaide, will be
opened mid-year, bringing researchers,
business and financiers together in
partnerships to translate our discoveries
to the world. This will later develop into a
new 8000 square-metre building at the
old Royal Adelaide Hospital site. And our
new commercialisation arm, Adelaide
Enterprise, is also driving licensing and
start-ups rapidly ahead.
But how do we ensure that each
change will strengthen the University? In
our age of globalisation and rapid change,
it has not been universities attempting
to adapt to fashion and fad that have
flourished. It has been those universities of
strong identity, who are clear about their
mission and values, and have projected
a strong sense of geographical and
cultural place.
In the Beacon of Enlightenment
strategic plan, we have articulated the
historic roots, mission and values of the
University of Adelaide more strongly
than ever before. It is a great basis
against which to test whether changes
we propose to make align with what the
University stands for. I wish the University
wisdom as it faces the future.
