Dear staff,
With Semester 2 exams currently underway, there is a fairly quiet and studious atmosphere across our campuses at the moment.
But, over the coming weeks, we’ll shift our focus to hosting a number of end-of-year events and activities, including the UQ Thanks You staff appreciation events (starting at Herston this Friday) and the All Staff Forum on Thursday 30 November. These staff events will be followed by 23 graduation ceremonies at our Gatton and St Lucia campuses from 7–16 December.
EA access period now open
I’m delighted to say our proposed Enterprise Agreement (EA) 2021–2026 is now available for staff to review. The access period is open until 5pm AEST on Monday 20 November. It will be followed by the ballot period for eligible staff, which will run from Tuesday 21 November until 4pm AEST on Monday 27 November. I’d encourage all eligible staff (Professional HEW Levels 1–9, and Academic Levels A–E) to review the materials and to vote in the EA ballot.
The proposed EA includes a $1,500 uplift to this year’s annual base salaries if the ballot is successful. The uplift will be applied in the first available full pay period after a successful employee ballot. This will be followed by five consecutive salary increases of 2% that will be applied every six months, from January 2024 to January 2026, as well as a number of new benefits for eligible staff.
I’d like to thank the teams from the National Tertiary Education Union, Together union and UQ for their commitment and collaboration over many months. This is a significant milestone for staff and for UQ, as it gives certainty on pay, conditions, and benefits through until 2026.
UQ to build world-leading mRNA vaccines
Early last week I welcomed the Deputy Premier, the Honourable Steven Miles MP, to our St Lucia campus, to announce an expansion of our BASE facility and to help launch the Queensland Vaccine Symposium.
The expanded BASE facility at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology will produce the next generation of mRNA vaccines and therapies in a dedicated laboratory – from initial design through to clinical trials. This is an important step that will cement UQ’s reputation as a global leader in the growing mRNA industry.
Storm impacts at Gatton
I’d like to express my sincere thanks to the team at our Gatton campus, who have done such a great job in responding to – and recovering from – the severe storm that swept through the Lockyer Valley last Friday evening. The storm caused significant damage to crop and field unit research trials and fodder crops including some irrigation and crop netting infrastructure. There was water damage to a number of buildings across the campus and, unfortunately, some farm animals were also injured.
The UQ Gatton community responded swiftly to ensure that most areas of the campus remained open and exams proceeded as scheduled this week. Special thanks to Susan Frost (Gatton Campus Director) and Felicity Ray (Acting Science FEM) who lead the local response, as well as the Gatton farm team, P&F staff, and the Vets team for the work they did over the weekend to minimise the impacts on animals, research and campus infrastructure.
Celebrating success across UQ
Last week, UQ was recognised as the nation’s leading institution in 30 fields of research by The Australian’s 2024 Research Magazine, a position that placed us second nationally. The annual publication also named 21 UQ researchers as the leading researchers in their fields. The Australian uses in-depth data analysis to rank university impact scores across 250 fields. Congratulations to our faculties, institutes, and researchers on this achievement.
Also last week, 2 UQ academics were elected as Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), among the 21 new Fellows announced by ASSA. Congratulations to Professor Nicholas Aroney from the TC Beirne School of Law, and Professor Jonathan Corcoran from UQ’s School of the Environment, on this thoroughly deserved recognition of their work.
My congratulations also to our former colleague, Professor Alastair McEwan – until recently UQ’s PVC (Research) – who has been appointed to a senior leadership role at the Australian Research Council as Executive Director for Biological Sciences and Biotechnology.
UQ’s Master of Sustainable Energy was recently recognised with the ‘Next Generation Learning and Skills’ Award at the 2023 Green Gown Awards. This is the second consecutive year that this program has taken out this award. Congratulations to Dr Tony Heynen for his leadership in this area. The UQ Art Museum and UQ Sustainability were also finalists in the ‘Creating Impact’ category at the Awards, for their work in achieving carbon neutral certification for last year’s Oceanic Thinking exhibition.
UQ was well represented at the prestigious Falling Walls Science Summit 2023 in Berlin last week, where the IMB’s Soils for Science project, led by Dr Zeinab Khalil, was announced as one of the winners of the Science Engagement category. Additionally, UQ PhD student Dr Emma-Anne Karlsen was recognised as one of the three winners (out of 100 participants) in the Falling Walls Lab Emerging Talents category.
Three UQ alum have also been awarded 2024 John Monash Scholarships that will enable them to pursue postgraduate studies overseas. Congratulations to Famin Ahmed, Emerald Gaydon and Emma Beal on receiving these prestigious scholarships. Famin and Emerald are heading to the University of Oxford, while Emma will pursue further studies at MIT in Boston.
I’d also like to reiterate my congratulations to all of the finalists in this year’s UQ Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, which were held a couple of weeks ago during T&L Week. I’d especially like to acknowledge the recipients of the 2023 Awards for Teaching Excellence – Dr Peter Crosthwaite, Dr Roma Forbes, Associate Professor Jason Lodge, and Dr Michael Thai.
HaBS interim Executive Dean appointment
Congratulations to Professor Louise Hickson AM who has been appointed as the Interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences (HaBS). She will commence in this role from 1 January 2024. Professor Hickson has extensive experience of the Faculty and her leadership will be invaluable as we undertake the work related to creating our new combined health faculty over the course of next year.
With Louise’s appointment confirmed to begin in the new year, Professor Bruce Abernethy will transition into his new role leading our Olympic and Paralympic endeavours from early 2024. I’d like to thank Bruce, once again, for the extraordinary contribution he has made to UQ as Executive Dean of HaBS over the past decade.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the week.
With best wishes
Debbie
