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QUT vice chancellor Margaret Sheil . Photo : Supplied
Work in progress
The challenges of creating a university culture in the real world .
Margaret Sheil interviewed by Martin Betts
Margaret Sheil recently joined the HEDx team to outline where QUT is up to in refreshing its blueprint strategy . As the university with the most well-known brand position in Australia , promoting that in a post-COVID era is a priority for Margaret as VC .
She outlines where the significant organisational change is up to and how the focus now is on rebuilding the culture at QUT to allow the strategy to be delivered , and her concern for staff in adapting to change .
MB : Where are you up to in leading the refresh of the QUT blueprint strategy , and resetting the university for the very different world we ’ re currently in and are likely to see in the future ? MS : In terms of the commercialisation of research and engagement with industry , and with end users , QUT is incredibly well positioned . It has been always a part of our research strategy to engage with partners , be they industry , government , or other universities . One of the things that QUT has done , from at least the last 10 years and probably earlier , is consciously taken our research further along the translation pathway than universities traditionally do .
So , if I take the examples of hydrogen and batteries , we ’ re building pilot plants , we ’ re building prototypes before we necessarily engage with industry . So , we ’ re closer to industry before we even start the engagement , and that ’ s quite a different strategy to many places .
It ’ s certainly one that I think is going to position us well into the future . That ’ s one thing , the second thing is to have your team and the roles in the team sorted so that academics have got the support they need to engage with industry or to commercialise their IP or to negotiate contracts and partnerships .
What we ’ ve done there is position our business development team to have industry engagement , commercialisation of research , and philanthropy and fundraising , because all those three things often overlap in different ways .
We ’ re pretty happy with the way we ’ ve done that . We ’ ve got both the mindset and the structures to support that . That ’ ll be a key part of our strategy going forward . We ’ re not the leader of the pack there , but we ’ re moving at a steady pace .
Where I think we ’ re positioning ourselves differently to others is that , in the restructure we did last year , we moved away from the separation of research and education . So , we moved away from the model of taking funds from one part of the university and investing in research in another part , and tried to align our teaching
We ’ re trying to think about what the real world might need into the future .
and research efforts as carefully and as closely as we can .
We ’ re reinforcing things that have been part of QUT ’ s history , such as our commitment to inclusion , the recent emphasis on empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples , and a number of those elements will also feed into the strategy as well . After all , we are also a university of technology , so underpinning everything is how technology can impact on the future and the health and wellbeing of the citizens going forward .
What are QUT ’ s next steps going to be , and how will you get the support needed ? The university for the real world is a tagline , but it ’ s well and truly entrenched in everything that we do and how we look at both our teaching and research . It ’ s a brilliant strategy that was here well before my time . But it ’ s not just a tagline . It ’ s completely entrenched in the way people think . So , what we ’ re trying to do in formulating our new strategy is think about what the real world might need into the future , and what kind of skills , what kind of citizens , what kind of educational programs .
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