Campus Review Vol 29. Issue 6 June 2019 | Seite 22

VC’s corner
campusreview.com.au
Professor Tim Brailsford. Photo: Bond University
Doing things differently
Bond University celebrates three
decades of learning and innovation.
By Tatiana Carter
T
hirty years ago, the announcement
of Australia’s first private university
sparked national headlines across the
country. Years later, Bond University’s birthday
milestone has once again created buzz
around the world.
One thousand Bondies gathered from
across Australia, and the globe, to celebrate
the institution’s 30th anniversary during
Homecoming Week.
At the helm is vice-chancellor and
president Professor Tim Brailsford, who
celebrates his eighth year as head of the
university. After working with a number
of institutions in Queensland, Brailsford
has noted strong support for Bond and
its students.
“One of the first observations I made
at Bond was the passion and unwavering
support for the university among its
stakeholders. I have worked at and visited a
lot of universities, and at Bond, there really is
something special in the water,” he says.
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“We’ve always been thinking of ways to be
ahead of the curve. We’re the first university
in Australia to offer the accelerated program,
so that whole ethos and drive to innovate has
always been with us.”
Brailsford says part of the buy-in can be
attributed to Bond’s controversial history
and the decisions people made to join the
university in its infancy.
“I remember the controversy around the
establishment of Bond University. I was a
young academic cutting my teeth at Monash,
and I recall there were anti-Bond posters
everywhere and some real animosity to the
concept of a private university.”
He recalls a conversation with a colleague
at the time: “Bond was recruiting academic
staff. In the tea room, a senior colleague said
something like, ‘Don’t even consider it. If
you go up there, no one in the Go8 will ever
employ you again.’ I was surprised at such
strong sentiments.”
He adds it would have been a brave and
courageous decision for the early students
and staff to choose Bond as their preferred
option, but this conviction has created a
‘Bondy’ culture of rusted-on loyalty.
“I’m not aware of many other universities
in this country, or around the world, whose
alumni have a great sense of passion about
their institution – not just while they’re here
but well after,” he says.
Before taking the reins at Bond, however,
Brailsford embarked on a career that took
him through four of the Go8. He rose quickly
through the academic ranks at Melbourne
and was appointed to his first professorship at
the ANU. Within a little over a year, he found
himself in the position of dean.
“I was extremely fortunate. The ANU was
seeking to be more progressive and it was
looking for a younger person.”
After almost a decade at the ANU, he
moved to the University of Queensland
to take up the foundation deanship of the
newly formed UQ Business School, where he
stayed again for almost a decade.
Working within some of the country’s most
progressive universities, Brailsford picked up
a rich mix of skills under higher education
icons such as Deane Terrell, Ian Chubb and
John Hay.
“Professor Hay was the vice-chancellor
at the time of my appointment at UQ. I
remember him telling me early on that my
role was to help UQ punch above its weight.”
The doubts people once held about
the new institution have since been
removed – Bond University has prevailed as
Australia’s first not-for-profit. Brailsford and
his predecessor Professor Rob Stable have
served a combined term that exceeds more
than half of the university’s existence. It is
a far cry from Bond’s early days when the
institution was on its fifth vice-chancellor at
the end of its first decade.
Brailsford is proud of the engagement
between current students and alumni –
his eyes light up when the recent 30th
Anniversary Gala Ball is mentioned.
“It was an incredible night. We sold out
– 1000 tickets were snapped up within a
couple of weeks – and then we had a long
waitlist. Alumni came from every Australian
state and territory, the Americas, all over
Asia, Europe, the UK, Japan, Fiji and even
Botswana – it was wonderful.
“I was so pleased with the alumni response,
as it spoke to their keenness to engage with
their alma mater and each other.”
As part of the 30th anniversary, Brailsford
commissioned a large sculpture titled
Limitless. It now sits beneath the iconic arch
on campus and has inscribed in it the name
of every graduate of the past 30 years.
“Limitless was pretty bold. We had to trawl
through old paper records, utilise the alumni
network and make sure we got it right. The
response has been outstanding, and not