Dear staff,
With Semester 1 exams currently underway, there’s a particularly studious atmosphere that’s returned to our campuses – and that’ll continue through to the end of the exam period at the end of next week.
QS World University Rankings 2025
I’m pleased to share the terrific news that UQ has jumped 3 places in the QS World University Rankings for 2025 to be ranked number 40. UQ has now risen 10 places in the QS rankings over the past 2 years, and we have maintained our position in the top 3% of the 1,500 universities that are ranked by QS.
This result really speaks to the strength of our academic reputation, as well as the impact of our research and innovation. I’d like to thank you all for your contributions to this outstanding result.
A point of Pride – LGBTQ+ Inclusion Awards
UQ was again recognised as a Gold Employer at the Australian LGBTQ+ Inclusion Awards, which were hosted last Friday by Pride in Diversity. And, on top of that, UQ also received the 2024 Trans & Gender Diverse Inclusion Award.
The Gold Employer ranking recognises UQ's efforts towards LGBTQ+ inclusion in 2023 against a national benchmark, the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI). We were originally recognised as a gold employer in 2022, but this year’s recognition is even more significant given that the AWEI is now using higher benchmarking standards to assess organisational culture and performance.
While this recognition reflects the collective efforts of people from right across UQ to create a truly inclusive culture, I’d particularly like to acknowledge the great work of the UQ Ally Network and the Workplace Diversity and Inclusion team.
Queensland Emory Vaccine Centre
We were delighted to welcome the Hon. Grace Grace MP, Minister for State Development and Infrastructure, to UQ last Friday to publicly announce that a new global hub for vaccine discovery and development would be established at our St Lucia campus.
This new vaccine research hub, to be known as the Queensland Emory Vaccine Centre (QEVC), represents the next big step in UQ’s long-standing partnership in drug discovery with the US-based Emory University.
Established with the support of the Queensland Government, QEVC will be a collaboration hub where researchers from UQ and Emory will work with a range of industry partners to accelerate the development of vaccines and therapeutics that will have an impact globally.
Strategic Government and Industry Partnerships
I am pleased to announce that we have decided to merge 2 UQ teams – Government Partnerships & Policy; and Research Partnerships – into a new function that will now be known as ‘Strategic Government and Industry Partnerships’.
This newly merged function will help our faculties and institutes develop and scale new and emerging opportunities that align UQ expertise with the interests of our industry and government partners. The team will be led by Shannon Willoughby and will report to Professor Mark Blows, DVC (Research and Innovation).
I am sure you will join me in offering Shannon and the team your full support, as we continue to strengthen our links with industry and government – and broaden the impact of those partnerships.
Activism on campus – next steps
As mentioned in my previous staff email, we have committed to hosting a dedicated speaker series and developing a university-wide Anti-racism Commitment, which would cover all forms of racism, including antisemitism.
These initiatives were agreed and supported by representatives from Camp Shalom, UQ Muslim Students for Palestine and the UQ Student Union, to enable more respectful dialogue and debate and to help drive greater understanding and acknowledgement of different perspectives within our community. It was also agreed that these initiatives would be co-created with representatives from the groups.
Professor Heather Zwicker, Executive Dean of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, will be playing a lead role in these initiatives and will be reaching out to representatives from Camp Shalom, UQ Muslim Students for Palestine and UQU in the coming days to participate.
We will continue to keep the community updated on these important initiatives as they progress.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the week.
With best wishes
Debbie
