UNE Vice-chancellor Professor Chris Moran discusses the historical significance of Australia's first regional University as well as the future of education.
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00:14 So in the 70 years, the 70th anniversary, what are some of the major changes that the UNO has seen in that period of time?
00:23 I think from the beginning where there was the big focus on agricultural economics, agriculture, and then the broadening of the university to be a comprehensive force of knowledge delivery for regional Australia,
00:34 I think that would encapsulate for me the fact that the vision had almost no end, and today we have a university that really represents that breadth.
00:44 You mentioned in a video on YouTube I saw this morning about the sameness, I wasn't aware of this, but the sameness of universities across Australia, or at least that's the perception.
00:54 Is that from international students? I'm not sure, but how does the UNO in that regard stand out from other Australian universities?
01:01 I think to some extent, as I've mentioned in a number of other forums, to some extent we've all converged, and really there's an interesting moment here for our university and for all universities
01:13 where the community, the political system, and to some extent I think the students are saying, we think that perhaps you've had your eye too much on where you are in global rankings terms,
01:24 and how attractive you might be to international students, and what your kind of power is in research, your breadth of power.
01:30 Perhaps there needs to be some more refocus on the community benefit, the student benefit, and maybe focusing on research.
01:38 And I think UNE has been very good at that over a long period of time. We have very good research areas, but they are quite focused, and I think doubling down a little bit on that.
01:48 Now we have an issue that the regulator actually regulates us all to have a broad involvement of quality research across the institution, so that's a conversation I think we need to have in Australia.
01:59 I think the other thing is changing this notion of going to university. So going to university in the city means leaving your home mostly with your parents, getting on public transport or driving, and going to campus.
02:13 Going to university in Armadale means locating, for many people, to another place, living in a college, and committing to do that for three or four years.
02:22 And I think we need to have a rethink about whether the online community we've got, the distance education, whether we need to change a little bit of that perception of what the university campus is about and how accessible it is.
02:34 And again, whether those who come, if you like, full-time to the campus, whether they have to be here full-time all the time, or whether we can actually show a bit more flexibility around that involvement in the physical location in this incredible environment.
02:49 That's an interesting point. I guess that's the uniqueness of the university here, in a sense, is that it's a smaller, it's a regional area, it's not metropolitan.
02:57 So with that in mind, is retention of the university students to then practice their profession in the local community higher on the agenda?
03:07 And has that community involvement from the early days, is that still a large part of the university process?
03:13 I think we can do better. I think we can do better in the sense that very few metropolitan city dwellers actually have very much of a rural experience in their lives anymore.
03:25 You know, I think the fundamental culture of our nation comes from the bush. And I think we're losing, as a society, we're losing connection with that.
03:34 And I think we haven't perhaps tapped into those people who haven't thought about that, not just coming to a university in a rural area, but living in a rural community and having experience of rural community.
03:48 And also the reverse of that, which is people from rural communities who feel compelled to go to the city for the education.
03:55 We lose a lot of rural people who go to the city and they don't come back, or they visit, or they come back later in life.
04:00 But from the point of view of your question of the professionalism and their involvement in professions, I think we have a bit of loss.
04:07 So we're not getting the gain from those people who come to a rural area and go, "Wow, this is a place to live. I'd just like to stay in rural Australia."
04:15 And those who go away and don't find their way back. So we have, I think, a responsibility to deal with both sides of that.
04:23 And to the other part of your question, I do think we need to re-find the community and the business of Armidale and the surrounding cities.
04:31 There are big cities around us. There's Coffs Harbour, there's Warwick, there's obviously Tamworth.
04:37 There are many centres where the businesses in those places want people with education and higher education staying in the community.
04:46 So I think we can work a lot more with those businesses. We can understand their needs much more clearly and plan together.
04:53 So a lot more coupling of the university with the business dimensions of the big cities and the big industries that are out here.
05:01 And on top of that, this being the middle of the renewable energy zone, as we go through establishing that, it will be here probably for 100 years in one manifestation or another.
05:13 There's some tension in the beginning of that, but over a period of 20, 30, 40, 50 years, that will become normalised.
05:20 And so the energy and the associated industry associated with renewable energy, that will change agriculture a little bit.
05:31 It'll change a little bit the nature of those businesses. And therefore, the university has to integrate in, drive where it's reasonable, follow where it's necessary.
05:40 And I think really help define the future in lockstep with the community in a very different way.
05:46 A lot of ideas there for the next 70 years of university life.
05:49 I hope so. And a whole lot of possibilities for us to be leading again in the way we interact with and find those students who are out there that are missing opportunities.
06:00 And honestly, I think probably getting some superficiality about the university experience by dislocating from the country and relocating to the city.
06:11 There's some great experiences they'll have, but there's some superficiality about that.
06:15 Where a rural and country life authenticity, I think, has a longer term value for many people and they're not getting it.
06:24 And we need to find ways to help them get it.
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