VC’S CORNER
campusreview.com.au
More points
of interest
At Central Queensland University, it’s been
a big year for opening and developing new
sites to grant ever-expanding access.
By Scott Bowman
I
grew up in Northamptonshire in the UK. Both my parents had
left school when they were young, because of the war, and had
then become factory workers. There were lots of toys in our
house but not many books.
I ended up in a rough school and didn’t do that well at it; not well
enough to get into university. I just scraped the marks I needed to
do radiography training at Northampton Hospital. After completing
this course, I was a radiographer around London for a few years.
From this, I moved into teaching radiography at Guy’s Hospital. I
was interested in politics at the time, so as radiography transitioned
into a university discipline, I studied for a master’s in politics and
government. As one of the few radiography teachers with a
master’s degree, I managed to get a head of school position young.
I then studied for a PhD and an MBA, and was recruited to Australia.
I was lucky that David Battersby, who is now at Federation
University Australia, recruited me when he was dean at Charles
Sturt University, to head up CSU’s clinical sciences. I then went
down to the University of South Australia to head up its Whyalla
16
campus. Then up to James Cook University in Cairns, eventually
becoming deputy vice-chancellor, services. Seven years ago, I was
appointed VC and president here at Central Queensland University.
Between then and now, CQUniversity has focused on increasing
our number of physical access points, enhancing our online
presence, combining our traditional university offering with local
TAFE operations and developing a 360-degree community giveback program.
In those regards, it has been another big year for us in 2016.
We’ve had many developments going on; for example, this is the
year we have bedded down our new campuses in Cairns and
Townsville; in Townsville, we’ve commissioned a new building.
Also this year, we have geared up for our new Perth site, including
employing staff for that campus.
Our student numbers have grown rapidly again this year as
well. It’s been a challenging year when it comes to our VET/TAFE
operation, because we are dual-sector and we have seen the
decline in vocational student numbers across the states.
It’s been an interesting year in terms of the federal election,
but I think we’ve done well. We received some quite substantial
funding, including about $10 million for community sports facilities
in Mackay and $10 million for a new trade training centre in
Gladstone, so that has been good.
It’s been a year of activity, growth and new initiatives.
Over recent years, the university has developed into a national
one. For almost 25 years, CQUniversity has had campuses in
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which were predominantly