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The
president of the Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS), Professor Robert
Norris, has just been appointed dean of Science at Monash.
Professor Norris, who is currently dean of Science at the University of Wollongong, will commence at Monash in January.
Highly committed to science education, Professor Norris said that science needs to move with the times.
"A recent turning point was the release of a study, Trends in Science Education, commissioned by the ACDS and conducted by Monash's Ian Dobson and Angel Calderon," he said.
"Not only did we delineate the widespread problem of declining interest in science in both secondary schools and at universities, but we also recognised that we had to address this issue as a matter of urgency."
Professor Norris said two approaches to the solution involved raising the profile of science in government circles and raising the level of training and enthusiasm of science teachers.
"Money alone will not fix the problem," he said.
Looking forward to his time at Monash, Professor Norris said he was very impressed by Science Forward, the document developed by Science staff earlier this year that set out the directions for science at Monash.
"I want to make sure that the targets in Science Forward are met, that Science becomes more broadly based and that there is greater collaboration among Science and the other faculties," he said.
"We need to prepare our graduates for careers in science, but also equip them with the generic skills they need for a changing world.
"As a faculty we must keep a high research profile and strengthen our industrial and international ties."
An internationally recognised scholar himself, Professor Norris has an outstanding record of achievement in science.
He completed a science degree at the University of Sydney in 1966, where he gained first class honours and the University Medal in organic chemistry.
A PhD at Sydney in 1970 was followed by a Diploma of Imperial College at The University of London in 1975.
He was awarded a DSc by the University of Sydney in 1988 when he was acknowledged as 'a leader on the international scale' for his substantial volume of research and publication.
Vice-chancellor Professor David Robinson said he was delighted Professor Norris had agreed to join Monash.
"It's an outstanding appointment at a significant time for science at Monash," he said.
"Professor Homer Le Grand and Science staff have developed a blueprint for a very positive future for science.
"With Professor Norris as the new dean, the faculty will be very well placed to move forward."
Ensuring best practice for pharmacyTwo video cameras installed in the ceiling of the new Sigma Pharmacy Practice Room will keep watch over the counselling practices of emerging pharmacists at the Parkville campus. Launched recently by Mr Michael Lazarow, general manager (sales) of drug manufacturer Sigma Company Ltd, the practice room has been built to simulate the environment of a real pharmacy for some 550 students at the Victorian College of Pharmacy. Pharmacy Practice head Associate Professor Louis Roller said the room included state-of-the art furniture and equipment, including computers, a data projector, split-screen technology, the video cameras and other facilities. Sigma contributed the forward-dispensing bench and seven consoles each seating up to five, where students would be expected to work out medication regimens for various ailments and identify any problems. "The cameras mean we can tape students role-playing both as patient and pharmacist. We can play it back, and the students can make comments on inappropriate use of language or body language," he said. Associate Professor Roller said the practice room was strategically located in the new pharmacy complex, with direct access to the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and the Pharmacy Board of Victoria. "The new room replaces another counselling room we had which was about half the size. Students from first to fourth years will use the new room," he said. "Additionally, the room will be used for the continuing education of pharmacists." Launching the new pharmacy practice room are (from left) Associate Professor Louis Roller, head of Pharmacy Practice; Mr Mike Lazarow, from Sigma Company Ltd; and Professor Colin Chapman, dean of the Victorian College of Pharmacy. |
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Practitioner-teacher
Bruce Arthur (centre) with |
Monash Law School is the first in Victoria to offer a practical legal training course, with its first intake of students commencing on 10 July.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Skills and Ethics (PDLP) is a practice-based postgraduate course that enables graduates to be admitted as practitioners after 21 weeks.
Previously, law students wishing to be admitted to practice had to undertake the articles of clerkship year or enrol in the practical legal training course conducted by the Leo Cussen Institute.
On completion of the postgraduate diploma, graduates are entitled to a limited practising certificate that permits them to practise only as an employee solicitor.
On completion of a further period of six months as an employee solicitor, they are then entitled to a full practising certificate.
Associate Professor Gaye Lansdell will head the course, which will be taught and assessed by experienced practitioner-teachers, backed by the full resources of the faculty and its clinical program.
The program is unique in that it draws upon the faculty's extensive clinical programs at Springvale Monash Legal Service and Monash-Oakleigh Legal Service, and will systematically address issues of ethical conflict and professional conduct throughout the course.
- Fleur Haberfield
Nursing exchange with JapanMonash University's School of Nursing will play a major role in the development of the nursing curriculum in Japan through an extended staff exchange program. Peninsula campus nursing lecturer Ms Robyn Fairhall will spend the next year at the Japanese Red Cross Junior College in Akita. "Nurses in Japan undertake a two-year diploma, then sit a national registration exam before they can practise," Ms Fairhall said. "However, like many countries in the world, Japan is facing a shortage of nurses. In order to increase the profile of nursing as a career, colleges are looking at developing degree programs in nursing." Ms Fairhall said one of the exchange's main aims was to improve students' comprehension of English. She said the college considered fluency in English a key criterion in the professional development of nurses, since many graduates from Red Cross colleges went on to positions at Red Cross missions world-wide. Japanese nurses already have a strong relationship with Monash's Peninsula campus through the English Language Centre, which has run intensive English language programs for students from Musashino Red Cross College for the last two years. Through its current arrangement with Monash, Akita College will also send students to the Peninsula campus to undertake the language program. "During their four-week program at Monash, the students also visit a range of health care facilities, including hospitals and community health care centres, giving them a background in the way the Australian system operates," Ms Fairhall said. - Julie Ryan |
Monash Medical Centre's Department of Paediatrics is seeking volunteers to help with a research study on infant sleep.
The department specifically needs mothers who smoked during pregnancy with healthy term babies to participate.
The study will look at arousal responses to a sensory stimulus (a puff of air) and a chemical stimulus (mild lowering of oxygen levels).
The research will be carried out at Monash Medical Centre, when the babies are two to three weeks, two to three months and five to six months of age.
Information about baby sleep will be available.
For further inquiries, contact Dr Rosemary Horne on telephone 9594 4504, or email rosemary.horne@med.monash.edu.au
A new name and structure is in store for Monash's Faculty of Medicine after its approval at Monash University Council on Monday night.
Dean Professor Nick Saunders said the faculty would be renamed the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences to better reflect its wide range of disciplines.
"It will recognise that we are far more than just the Faculty of Medicine - we have a number of health professional courses including radiography and nutrition and dietetics and we have large numbers of students in science and biomedical science as well," he said.
The faculty will be restructured into six schools - School of Biomedical Sciences, School of Nursing, Central and Eastern Clinical School, Southern Clinical School, School of Primary Health Care and School of Rural Health.
It will also have a joint School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine with the Faculty of Science.
Moving to a schools structure would allow better cross-disciplinary links and sharing of resources.
"Some of the disciplines have changed over the past decade so the research and work being carried out is overlapping in many cases," Professor Saunders said.
Under the restructure, the Department of Community Medicine and General Practice will be renamed the Department of General Practice and the Department of Anatomy will be renamed the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.
The changes will officially take effect from next year.
More than 1300 students and 1000 staff responded to two surveys recently conducted by Information Technology Services (ITS).
The surveys were part of the university's information technology strategic planning process.
The survey results showed:
More than 91 per cent of students have a PC at home, and 86 per cent of staff have a PC at home.
76 per cent of staff are satisfied with the level of IT support provided to them.
75 per cent of staff agree or strongly agree that the computer on their desk is adequate for their needs.
88 per cent of staff say that email is useful or very useful in assisting them to do their job.
97 per cent of staff say that the web is useful or very useful in assisting them to do their job.
45 per cent of staff rank their faculty/department IT support as the first place they turn to for assistance with computer problems.
41 per cent of staff say a colleague is the first place they turn to for assistance with computer problems.
96 per cent of all respondents said their computer skills were average or better.
Full results of the staff and student surveys can be viewed online at www.its.monash.edu.au/monash_only/survey/
ITS wishes to thank all staff and students who responded to the survey.
Classrooms and offices were deserted at Berwick campus last week, as about 600 staff and students lined the front entrance to see the Olympic torch go past.
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