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Issue No 76 Gardens Point, Kelvin Grove, Kedron Park, Carseldine Campuses and Nambour Centre 2 October 1991

Jail no answer to crime increase

(Photo: Suzanne Burow)

Bird land comes to the Grove Musician Elliott Dalgleish will

be one of the young artisans featured in the final concert of the live jazz series tomorrow night (3 October) at the Kelvin Grove campus.

Elliott, 20, a final year QUT business student, plays alto sax in the Artisans Workshop, an inno­vative ensemble specialising in contemporary improvised music.

Together with trombone and electric bass player Jon Diamond and drummer Ken Edie, he draws together other musicians as part

Final concert in live jazz

of the "workshop" concept. They will team with John Babbage

(soprano sax), Sam Keevers (piano) and John Rogers (violin) for tomor­row night's performance.

The live jazz series has been a pi­lot project involving the QUT music program, 4MBS-FM 103.7 and the

Jazz Coordination Committee of Queensland.

It aims to provide on-going sup­port for local performers and composers.

Jazz committee coordinator Ms Lynette Irwin says she hopes the series will continue next year with State Government funding.

The final concert will be held in the music concert studio in M Block at the QUT Kelvin Grove campus. It starts at 6pm and will be broadcast live on 4MBS-FM 103.7.

QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 864 2999

Faculty of Arts Dean Professor Paul Wilson was in Melbourne's notorious Pentridge Prison last week. But his trip to the so-called "Bluestone College" was as key­note speaker at a seminar.

The high-profile QUT academic, an outspoken criminologist, told an audi­ence of prison officials and members of the public that Australia should fol­low the West German approach to crime and punishment.

During a five-year period West Ger­many recorded a 3.5 percent reduc­tion in its prison population compared with a three percent average increase in other European countries, Profes­sor Wilson said.

This had been achieved by remand­ing fewer alleged offenders in custody and by sentencing fewer convicted lawbreakers to jail terms.

In West Germany there had been a fundamental questioning of the effi­ciency and moral legitimacy of pre­trial detention, and the discretion of prosecutors had lowered the propor­tion of offenders subject to formal prosecution.

The decline in prosecutions was due to a belief, especially by judges, that custody for ~·oung offenders in par­ticular was of no use and could be counter-productive.

Professor Wilson said mass media support and special conferences organ­ised by lawyers had helped in the dis­illusionment with imprisonment as an effective means of reducing crime.

The decrease in West Germany's prison population was not due to of­fenders receiving shorter sentences or serving less time in prison.

Public opinion in West Germany was increasingly against the belief that the threat of imprisonment and the sen­tencing of large numbers of non-vio­lent young offenders led to a safer so­ciety.

Germany now had its lowest rate of rape since World War II and there was a substantial drop in homicide and bank robberies, Professor Wilson said. He stressed that the figures he had compiled related to Germany before reunification.

"The lesson is clear. Prisons do not lead to a safer society . Reducing the prison population will not lead to more crime," he said.

In Australia there had been a "wor­rying" rise in prison numbers across the country in recent years. Some of this was due to an increase in crime but much of it was due to the sentenc­ing practices of courts and a lack of alternatives to prison.

In June this year there were 14 045 prisoners in Australia. Of these 13 373 were male and 672 were female.

Professor Wilson advised a reduc­tion in the use of remand, saying it was perfectly possible to have fewer prisoners on remand without threaten­ing society or increasing crime.

He said: "All sections of the crimi­nal justice system and the community must question the legitimacy of pre­trial detention, especially for young people, and short-term imprisonment.

"We must educate the judiciary and the legal system generally about the experience of West Germany and other countries."

Prosecutors should have a range of powers so they could divert young of­fenders away from formal court pro-

ceedings, he said. Earlier in the week Professor Wilson

warned that following the American "law and order" approach to crime control in Queensland would force up the crime rate.

The concept of more police, more prisons and stiffer jail terms had failed in the United States where there had been a sharp rise in crime.He was ad­dressing the Queensland Council of Social Services at Brisbane 's Gazebo Hotel.

"The more money we throw at the criminal justice system, the more it fails," Professor Wilson said.

"It is time that we stopped throwing

• Continued page 6

Ethics pic of

lecture Ethics and public life will be the

focus of a public lecture by leading Australian ethicist Professor Max Charlesworth on 24 October at the Parliamentary Annexe.

The lecture is sponsored by the QUT Ethics Network and the Unit for Applied Ethics and Human Change.

Unit spokesman Dr Noel Preston says Professor Charlesworth is re­nowned nationally and internation­ally for his work on ethics.

Formerly the Dean of the School of Humanities at Deakin Univer­sity, Professor Charlesworth deliv­ered the ABC Boyer Lecture in 1989 on the topic Life, Death, Genes and Ethics. He played a leading role in the establishment earlier this year of the Australian Bioethics Associa­tion which convened the first bioethics conference in Melbourne.

Active in the Australian peace movement in Australia, he has taken a research interest in Aboriginal culture and lectured widely in ap­plied ethics in law, business and phi­losophy of science.

Now retired, he is a visiting pro­fessor at Bond University.

The lecture will be held in the Par­liamentary Annexe conference room on level five at Spm.

Professor Charlesworth will also attend the next meeting of the ethics network on 23 October at the Kel­vin Grove campus in L Block, room 132, 1-2.30pm.

Ethics in education

• Page 4

Registered by Australia Post- Publication No. QBF 4778

Vice-Chancellor's comment More emphasis on postgraduate studies

Demand for postgraduate study at QUT has grown significantly in recent years. In 1992, 3600 postgraduate students will be included in the total student enrolment of 23 000.

Demand for postgraduate education and training will continue to grow rapidly in response to the trend towards postgraduate qualifications for beginning professionals and the increasing need for formal courses covering mid-career and research training. The projected shortfall in academics to maintain and develop an expanded higher education system also will have implications for doctoral level study in a number of disciplines.

QUT can forecast with certainty a rapid expansion in course work master degree enrolments. Research training to doctoral level also will be a priority . The university ' s initiatives must take note of the strengths and weaknesses of existing policies, procedures and practices that apply in Australian uni­versities. As a new university we must be responsive to the needs of students and we must maintain standards . Restricted funding implies the need for integration rather than fragmentation in the coursework area.

The coursework master degree proposed by the Education Faculty is a good QUT model. It aims at mid-career development for professionals work­ing in an important area of QUT activity. It allows specialisation, building upon a common core of studies, providing students with flexibility.

At doctoral level we need to avoid the pitfalls of high attrition and long completion times. Ongoing supervi­sion within a planned program of read­ing, advanced coursework and a well prepared research plan are the key el-

, ements. In my view the coursework and thesis professional doctorates be­ing planned by a number of faculties are welcome innovations. In establish­ing our postgraduate programs we must build upon the university's strong professional links and be innovative at the coursework master degree and doctoral levels. Most of all we must do things because they are needed, not because other universities do them.

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Professor Dennis Gibson • The threat of jail no deterrent to crime - see page 1 and 6

Letter to the editor Kedron Park campus has strong community feeling

I wish to respond to the recent an­nouncements that Kedron Park cam­pus is likely to be sold. I have worked as a lecturer on this campus for five years and am presently with the School of Communication and Organisation Studies.

It would be a very sad thing to lose this institution because I think that it offers something of value to the com­munity and the academic community that would be costly to replace.

Kedron has old, high maintenance buildings and all who have worked there have bemoaned the crowding and problems with certain fa-

ing the social and physical environ­ments. These proposals sound like a "Volkswagon Loading Competition".

A strong argument in favour of this concentration is the acknowledgment that no faculties have elected to stay there. Well, these are decisions that must be judged in toto and in time context. With high rates of change and uncertainty in our internal working environments it is natural for decision makers to want to be close to the deci­sions. At this very beginning of a new university, a departmental head and lecturing staff, particularly from a

its to some US and Latin American campuses. This approach would en­courage the development of more small campuses rather than fewer.

A third and related point of view is to take a community-centred position rather than an administration-centred position. A university is an enriching institution and as the national Ideas Summit sponsored by the Australia Council endorsed in 1990 - universi­ties and academics need to communi­cate with the wider community, open the doors. Centralising decreases this.

This mini-institution proposal has to overcome specific defi­

cilities. But Kedron has some redeeming virtues, strong enough to make it the best workplace I have ever encountered. It has space - playing fields, car parking and a green corri­dor. It is small, with an es­tablishment of about 2000

'Ked ron for all its faults has had a small, highly

networked, positive learning environment.'

ciencies in order to suc­ceed. Kedron is isolated from the hub. I believe ur­ban and organisational vi­ability in the next 20 years will depend upon our vi­sion in using electronic communication and energy efficient transport. I sug-

staff and students, it is a community and it fosters relationships. Communication within the local or­ganisation is good and problems gen­erally are easily approached and solved. It is not air-conditioned; which is something a proportion of people prefer for health reasons. It is located in a suburban community and students coming from that community can gravitate to the local university.

What bothers me is that these issues of quality are unaccountable, and can't be weighted in the "business decision" that looks like scrapping this learning environment for $7 - $10 million. I think that there are some negative con­sequences and lost opportunities to this decision.

If Kedron closes and the staff and students move to Garden's Point, fur­ther stress will be added to a crowded environment.

When I read of the proposal to de­velop Kelvin Grove to a capacity of 16,000 I thought: "There goes a learn­ing community to become another vast University of Queensland style anony­mous juggernaut". I recognise the need for increased numbers and I'm sure that Kelvin Grove and Kedron could be further developed without degrad-

small "outpost" like Kedron, would be fooli sh to not nominate one of the bigger campuses as their home base. But in two or three years the need may be different. I make this claim in light of the fact that a fair proportion (I can't claim to speak representatively) of my co-workers, academic and administra­tive, have said that they would rather work at Kedron except they acknowl­edge the needs of decision making (or­ganisation needs).

I think that there are a number of possibilities left. The first is to ask the question: "What are the organisational conditions necessary to encourage fac­ulties to use the Kedron campus?" and then supply that encouragement. This presupposes that having a presence at Kedron is a good thing and I believe that in the long term it is.

A second perspective is to attempt to see what it is that has been so suc­cessful at Kedron and replicate it. Kedron for all its faults has had a small, highly networked, positive learning environment. With more funding it could have expanded its research en­vironment as well. Small institutions sometimes attract talent and incubate development, as I have noticed in vis-

Page 2 INSIDE OUT, 2 October 1991

gest that it is more energy efficient to keep private transport away from the city, to use shuttles to move people and to minimise that movement by giving campuses autonomy and de­veloping sophisticated networking and teleconferencing facilities. These and other developments could assist in re­moving the barriers that exclude deci­sion makers who are not 'on site'. Another basic development in this process is to create a culture based on trust. With its excellent sporting fa­cilities and convenient decentralised location Kedron may be attractive to other faculties such as human move­ments, arts and community studies.

I have tried to introduce a few alter­native criteria into the decision-mak­ing process. I trust that these comments will entice a few other people to look at their decisions differently and to voice their opinions.

Mr Jim Chapman Communication and Organisational Studies.

Editor's note: Out of fairness to Ke­dron Park this letter was not cut. All future letters must conform to a 250 word maximum.

''Student say ... ,, Inside QUT asked students from the Law Faculty their views on the fairness

of today's legal system.

Karen Greenwood (right), 2nd year Law.

"The majority of the time I think the legal system works quite well but there are instances when some people get stuck in the system.

Sure there's inequality and although I'm not fully aware of legal costs and fees I know from personal experience of people who were thinking of hav­ing something like a will drawn up put it off because they can't afford the le­gal fees involved.

I believe the legal system should be accessible.

Nathalie Frost (right), 4th year Law.

"I do think the system works but it is a lengthy process that is not often easily understood by the public unless they have some degree of training.

It therefore requires a degree of trust in the profession and it isn't al­ways easy to explain why things have to occur in a certain way and that's why I think it's so easy for people to say the system is not working in their best interests.

I accept that it is hard for some peo­ple because costs are so high."

Hayden Bentley (left), 2nd year Accountancy/Law.

"In most cases the legal system does move very slowly especially when

/court action is required. There is also a discrepancy in what people can af­ford.

For example a prolonged litigation case in most instances can only be af­forded by the wealthy or those that qualify for legal aid.

It means that average income earn­ers or those in the "middle" of these two groups are disadvantaged."

David Mackie (left), 3rd year Ac­countancy/Law.

" I think the present legal system is working quite well but unfortunately I think the media grabs something and shakes it 'till it is dead. Like The Cou­rier-Mail attacking lawyers for being unscrupulous and I think it's sad that a few unscrupulous ones can taint the whole profession.

I'd like to think that any reforms the government is thinking of making about abolishing QCs to make barris­ters fees more affordable to everyone would be implemented."

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·Government backs access plan A $200 000 one-year joint universi­

ties program to encourage access to higher education and graduate employ­ment for people with disabilities be­gan on Saturday 30 September.

Taking part in the program with QUT are the University of Queens­land and Griffith University.

Initial funding has been provided by the Federal Government through the Department of Employment Edu­cation and Training.

Chairman of QUT's Access Com­mittee Mr Barrie O'Connor said the

Envoy aims at bridges

Singapore's High Commissioner to Australia Mr Tan Seng Chye has urged Australia to become more involved in the Asia-Pacific region .

Speaking at a reception in Old Gov­ernment House at the Gardens Point Campus, Mr Tan said there had al­ways been close ties between Australia and Singapore.

But people in the region did notal­ways know very much about Australia because of Australia's closer ties with Europe and the United States.

"Australia needs to become more involved in various areas in the re­gion," he said.

There would be many benefits in such regional cooperation, he said, adding that student exchanges would provide "bridges" between countries.

project was initially viewed as having federal funding for one year.

It was envisaged, however, that with the support of participating institutions and groups the intiatives would con­tinue into later years.

The project is aimed at students with disabilities who appear to have the potential and have expressed a clear interest in undertaking tertiary study, those already involved in ~tudy and those who are graduating and seek employment.

Two full-time project officers have

been appointed to the program. They are Ms Sharon Hensby (Project Of­ficer, Education) and Ms Louise McPake (Project Officer, Employ­ment). Both are located at the Univer­sity of Queensland.

Ms Hensby said the initial educa­tion impetus would be through outreach programs in schools and com­munity organisations.

Computerised telephones were available to help with inquiries by the hearing impaired and taped informa­tion could be provided to the visually

impaired. Ms McPake said the program would

try to work through existing employ­ment facilities to find placements for disabled graduates.

"We don't want to set up a special employment service.

In fact we've had a lot of interest from existing employment agencies and corporate personnel officers but they say they rarely get graduates with disabilities applying for positions," she said.

It was imperative these graduates

made people aware of their career as­pirations, Ms McPake said.

The program is based on the con­cepts of a 1990 discussion paper A Fair Chance for All which stated: "All Aus­tralians have the right to access the services and benefits our society of­fers and to contribute to our social,cultural and industrial endeav­ours."

For further information about the program contact Ms Hensby on (07) 365 1504 or Ms McPake on (07) 365 1506.

Down Under welcome for Taiwanese

QUT has hosted the first visit to an Australian university by senior Taiwan education officials who were in Queensland from 22 to 28 Sep­tember.

Dr Michael Lee, Director, Bureau of International, Cultural and Edu­cational Relations and Mr Tony Lin, Protocol Chief of Taiwan's Minis­try of Education, established links with the Queensland International Education Forum.

The forum comprises the state's six universities, T AFE and the Queensland Education Department.

The visit was organised by QUT International Relations Unit coor­dinator, Ms Jennie Lang who vis­ited Taipei in March this year.

Ms Lang said that traditionally students from Taiwan had studied in the UK and the US.

The visit signalled a change in this trend as Australia developed closer links with Taiwan through business initiatives, trade and education. Earlier the QUT Vice-Chancellor

Professor Dennis Gibson spoke of the "Eurocentricity" he had noticed dur­ing a visit to Europe earlier this year.

"It was as if Asia, Australia and the Pacific did not exist," he said.

Acting Head of the School of Economics and Public Policy, Associate Professor Peter Cassidy with Singapore High Commissioner Mr Tan Seng Chye, Mrs Tan and Singaporean student Eugenia Tan. (Photo: Suzanne Burow)

"Universities in Queensland are seeking to internationalise their campuses by attracting private over­seas students," Ms Lang said. "QUT and the University of Queensland have signed a number of exchange agreements with universities in other countries so that Australian students can study for 6 to 12 months in another country as part of their course."

He said Australia's future lay in Asia and educating Australian students for this had to be a priority.

Commission in Canberra in the early 1970s.

to exchange staff and postgraduate stu­dents. There was hope that the agree­ment might eventually extend to un­dergraduate students. Mr Tan and his wife attended the

reception at QUT during an official visit to Queensland.

He took up his appointment as High Commissioner in October last year, with concurrent accreditation to Fiji.

The High Commissioner's visit pro­vided an opportunity for QUT staff to outline the growing links between QUT and Singapore's Nanyang Tech­nological University and the possibil­ity of extending them.

Professor Cassidy said the Dean of the Business Faculty at NTU Profes­sor Tan Teck Meng had indicated strong personal support for develop­ing a three-way exchange between QUT, Nanyang and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. He previously served as Second and

First Secretary at the Singapore High

Acting Head of the School of Eco­nomics and Public Policy Associate Professor Peter Cassidy said QUT and Nanyang currently had an agreement "At present Nan yang is funding four

First overseas PhD graduates

An "intelligent" computer system designed to improve construction management and reduce costs has been a fo­cus for QUT's first engineering doctorate.

Dr Jay Yang will also become QUT's first overseas PhD graduate when he crosses the stage at the Performing Arts Complex ceremony on 17 October.

After three years of research, DrY ang 's work has culmi­nated in the development of the Project Analysis and Con­trol Expert System (PACES) which runs off an average personal computer.

DrY ang says the system will assist decision making and project analysis. It will therefore help reduce costs and construction time, and improve quality of building projects.

Dr Yang says that although computer systems are al­ready used within the construction industry, few incorpo­rate the "expert" dimension - an arm of artificial intelli­gence.

"One of the unique features of PACES is its flexible knowledge representation structure which allows users to incorporate their own expertise into the system to suit indi­vidual needs," Dr Yang says.

By using this system, a construction company can link all its project development information before work com­mences.

PACES uses human knowledge and expertise to give a step-by-step analysis of all information through project development phases -from feasibility study through to con­ceptual planning, design, and construction.

"Most of the commercially available packages only ad­dress an individual problem area of the whole project man­agement tasks, such as planning or estimation," he says.

"My research will continue to explore and develop the technique to provide linkages between computer packages already in use."

After completing a Bachelor of Engineering in China in

Dr Jay Yang (Photo: Suzanne Burow)

1985, he began postgraduate study in civil engineering at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, in late 1987.

The study was supported by the Heavy Engineering Research Association of New Zealand which will use the PACE system as a demonstration model.

Head of the QUT School of Construction Management Professor David Scott supervised the research. Professor Scott at the time was working at Canterbury University.

Dr Yang transferred to QUT when Professor Scott took up his present position.

Now as a senior research officer, he is trying to apply the PACES technique as the basis for an integrated project information system for Australian construction compa­nies.

full professorships at MIT and in the next two years half of MIT's Business Faculty will spend some time at Nanyang," he said.

Professor Cassidy said that later this year the three institutions would join together in a satellite link-up business seminar.

One of the participants would be the Dean of MIT's Alfred Sloan School of Management Professor Lester Thurow, a world-renowned economist.

Mr Lee and Mr Lin will see some of Australia and experience first­hand Australian cultural and social activities. Taiwan, a country smaller than Tasmania, has a population of 19 million.

Campus quickies As part of a campaign to attract non-teaching graduates into a one­

year graduate diploma teaching course QUT advertised in the University of Queensland's University News ... but Griffith Gazette chose to forego the advertising revenue.

0 0 0 Routine testing of fish for the Japanese market gave QUT physics radio­

activity expert Dr Brian O'Leary the chance to really make a meal of a recent consultancy. More fish were delivered for testing than were needed and the extra ones were too good to throw away. Brian ended up with curried fish for lunch ... nice work, if you've got the stomach for it.

0 0 0 We fully understand the extensive renovations and structural altera­

tions being carried in U Block at Gardens Point cannot be done without noise, dust and some inconvenience to those trying to go about their administrative duties. We've actually become quite fond of the furni­ture and fittings stacked in the entrance lobby and have developed an adroitness at dodging massive sheets of plaster and planks of wood while moving from one office to another .•. now begins the game of guessing which department has moved into what office on which floor.

0 0 0 While on that subject ... 20 years ago the only means of transport avail­

able to the Gardens Point campus buildings and ground staff was a wheel­barrow, but they learned to improvise. Foreman carpenter Bevan Ruhle says they became adept at getting delivery drivers from various suppliers to look the other way while foreign materials were loaded and unloaded, the staff guiding trucks to the campus exit via round-a-bout routes. And buildings and grounds supervisor Graeme Whitney recalls flying foxes rigged be­tween building tops to transport materials, a practice safety officials surely would frown upon today.

0 0 0 Over drinks to mark the Division of Research and Advancement consoli­

dation on the top level of U block, the lack of air-conditioning was high­lighted. The division, charged with making real world deals for QUT, proposed raising money for the external painting of U block ... in return for cool air.

Page 3 INSIDE OUT, 2 October 1991 ' ' '

A candid look at the tough questions

T he word "ethics" comes from the Greek word ethos meaning character or cus­tom. In recent years the word has per­haps been redefined, not only in Queens­

land but world-wide. Now a renewed awareness of ethical conduct, both within the political realm and beyond, seems to have rekindled a general public interest - even a public demand.

At QUT, a group of scholars from a range of disciplines have teamed to bring the issue of ethics into a more prominent educational focus.

Having gained momentum since late last year, the ethics network now draws together academic staff from most fac­ulties across the university.

The network's purpose is to encour­age the teaching and research of eth­ics. It also aims to foster a strong multi­faculty cooperation which will push the discussion of applied ethics be­yond the sometimes narrow, humani­ties-based perspective.

The study of ethics is already under way at QUT within business, justice studies, law, nursing and teacher edu­cation.

Spokesman and ethicist Dr Noel Preston, who comes from an educa­tion background, says the question of ethics has a particular challenge for QUT.

"We have reached a point in human history where the human capacity to determine what we can do has out­stripped our ability to decide what we ought to do," Dr Preston says.

what it is, what it entails and to pro­vide guidelines f<;>r ethics course de­velopment.

As part of its consultancy and teach­ing agenda it plans to provide short­term courses for professional and com­munity groups.

Those within the unit also hope to contribute to the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advance­ment of Science conference to be held at QUT next September. One of the prominent themes will be ethics in sci­ence and technology.

Dr Preston sees the work of both the unit and the ethics network linking with the university's mission to act with social responsibility.

He also hopes that programs for ethi­cal education develop slowly.

'T d be rather nervous about flavour of the month approaches. We need to develop a solid base.

"Applied ethics requires a sound philosophical basis which examines the contemporary human context and goes to support constructive social change."

Ethics in education

"Here at QUT we are part of an ex­citing new university. We have two feet on the ground in the technologi­c;al culture.

"That's necessary but it's not enough. We need also to open our eyes to the questions about what a techno­logical culture does to the human con­dition."

Dr Preston says the growing con-

'We have reached a point in human history where the human capacity to determine what

we do has outstripped our ability to decide what we ought to do.'

cern for the environment, bioethical questions in medical practice, corrup­tion within political and public admin­istration, plus recent failures of cor­porate high-flyers point to the need for a thorough examination of ethics in all university courses.

"The challenge for QUT is to make use of its scholarship to raise ethical questions in dialogue with our techni­cal practice," he says.

"The study of ethics is not opposed to vocational objectives. It is a ques­tion of widening those objectives so that the kind of graduates we produce will be good general, critical thinkers - who not only know about how the real world is, but have some capacity to think about what the world should become."

Dr Preston has teamed with senior lecturer Dr Peter Isaacs and lecturer Mr David Massey from the School of Humanities to establish the Unit for Applied Ethics and Human Change.

Formed within the Faculty of Arts, the unit will soon be joined by Dr Gail Tulloch from Deakin University and Dr Trevor Jordon from the University of Queensland.

The unit's initial research project next year will explore ethical educa­tion in an attempt to define exactly

Dr Noel Preston

I n the light of the recent string of colossal corporate col­lapses, some may cynically conclude that ethics and

business are mutually exclusive. Mr Myles McGregor-Lowndes, an ac­counting legal studies senior lecturer and one of the ethics network mem­bers from the Business Faculty, says the two need to go hand-in-hand in the professional preparation of stu­dents.

He says the real world of tax avoid­ance, tax evasion, "creative" account­ing and industrial relations deals will all pose ethical dilemmas for business graduates.

What about the accounting gradu­ate who suddenly discovers that the land to be used for a unit housing de­velopment was once a toxic waste site? What does that accountant do when the client refuses to publicly disclose the information?

"In our ethics courses within the faculty we aim not to lecture to stu­dents about what is right, but to give them the skills, the vision, the knowl­edge and the expertise to see that there are a range of solutions to any prob­lem," he says.

"We aim to show students that the decisions they make are not purely technical and economic, but have so­cial implications as well."

Mr McGregor-Lowndes says he has observed a changing willingness in students to discuss ethics since the sub­ject was first introduced as a compul­sory component of the Masters of Busi­ness Administration in 1988.

As part of a study on securities mar­kets, students watched the film Wall Street starring Michael Douglas as the stock market tycoon Gordon Gekko who espoused the philosophy "greed is good".

"At that time the entrepreneurs were hailed as the heroes and people saw it as a kind of hero movie. We had to tease a fair bit out of the students.

"When we showed it this year, the students had an entirely different atti­tude given the recent corporate col­lapse.

"They didn't see Gekko as a hero at all, but much more as an anti-hero."

Page 4 INSIDE OUT, 2 October 1991

Mr Myles McGregor-Lowndes

W hat does a lawyer do when he or she be­lieves a client is guilty? Worse still, if

a client confesses in confidence? Where is the fine line between a

lawyer's duty to a client and duty to the court?

When does legal advice end up look­ing more like criminal conspiracy?

Is our legal system becoming more and more a privilege open only to the rich?

How does the legal system place a value on "beauty" as seen in the thorny new area of environmental law?

These are some of the tricky ethical dilemmas confronting the law as posed by ethics network members Ms Sue Tongue, Mr John Pyke and Ms Helen Endre.

As Ms Tongue explains, ethics in law is a "slippery subject where the grey areas often get greyer".

Professional ethics for lawyers is taught within the faculty in both the undergraduate and legal practice courses.

"Ethical questions are not answered by straight legal rules. They are an­swered by the ethical views of society about human life. It is quite problem­atic," Ms Tongue says.

"There is a general feeling in the community, particularly in Queens-

Ms Sue Tongue

land, that things have not been as they should be ... that lawyers have played their part along with many others in allowing corruption to flourish.

"So we are trying to reflect that in our courses and inject more awareness of ethics."

Ms Helen Endre has a particular in­terest in the interface between envi­ronmental law and legal theory. Part of her on-going research is to identify the underlying morality of both sides of the conservation/development de­bate.

The individual human right to a clean and healthy environment as pro­posed by the United Nations is an­other focal point, along with the ethi­cal question of rich nations exploiting the natural resources of developing nations.

"Another area is the way the Aus­tralian Federal Government is trying to put some meaning into the term 'sus­tainable development'.

"How will the legal system deal with valuing monetarily unquantifiable 'as­sets' and the intrinsic worth of leaving land untouched and undeveloped?"

A number of speakers will address a seminar on Ethics and the Environ­ment on October 30 from 10.30am-12.30pm at the Gardens Point cam­pus. The Academic Staff Development Unit will advise a venue.

T he galloping pace of to­day's science and technol­ogy poses more ethical questions now than per­

haps ever before. The far-reaching ramifications of yesterday's science are just as profound.

Dr David J Allan, one of the scien­tists in the ethics network, says the need for a broader examination of eth­ics within science is consequently be­coming more urgent.

A cancer researcher within the Cen­tre for Molecular Biotechnology, Dr Allan has a background in both veteri­nary and human medicine, and pathol­ogy.

Already ethics is taught within QUT science courses particularly concern­ing the use of animals for scientific purposes and the confidentiality of test results.

But Dr Allan sees the need for the development of specific subjects which address the bigger ethical pic­ture.

He says a philosophical and histori­cal perspective of science needs to be taught in a formal way following the European tradition .

"One of the difficulties in science is that it is often impossible to know what the development of a particular tech­nology will lead to in the future," Dr Allan explains.

"One can certainly see more clearly from history where the developments of science and technology have at later times produced issues we could not possibly have predicted in the early times.

"So the study of history is very much a part of the study of ethics."

Dr Allan says it is all too easy for researchers competing in a highly com­petitive environment to push aside the question of ethics as a lofty extra.

"Just becoming a good scientist takes a lot of energy. It is very easy not to consider the broad issues on a day to day basis.

"There is a lot of pressure today in simply being a good scientist."

Dr Allan says the QUT Biomedical Ethics Committee already scrutinises all research proposals involving hu­man or animal experimentation.

"We don't, however, have the same consideration for non-human and non­animal research."

Of all scientific advances, Dr Allan points to molecular biology and ge­netic engineering as the most serious in terms of ethical considerations.

"Very soon we will have the tech­nology to diagnose many genetic dis­eases and even test whether a person is a carrier.

"This poses all kinds of questions. When is it appropriate to ask someone to be tested, or even to force such a test?"

Dr Allan says students are already asking the big ethical questions- more so than students in the past.

For this reason alone, he says, the trained ethicist and the trained scien­tist need to work together.

"We scientists are very well trained in diagnosing our own scientific prob­lems. It is rather more difficult to ana­lyse ethical issues with the same pre­cision."

Dr David J Allan

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Lecturers' PEP First Aboriginal health leave aids UN textbook is published Ugandan plan

Senior lecturers in the School of Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations, Mr Terry Euler and Dr Chad Perry, are helping senior pub­lic servants in Uganda rebuild their country after years of dictatorship and occupation.

Mr Euler and Dr Perry used Profes­sional Experience Program (PEP) leave to work on a United Nations­sponsored project aimed at introduc­ing modem management techniques into Ugandan enterprises.

Dr Perry said the eight-year terror reign of the infamous dictator, Idi Am in , and years of occupation by for­eign " liberation" forces had left Uganda devastated. Reigning Presi­dent Yowari Museveni had, however, restored a large measure of law and order and the country was running "al­most democratically".

"All industry had collapsed," he said. "Aid from organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and other outside agencies established a number of quango-(quasi-autono­mous national government organisa­tion) like bodies called parastatels.

"These parastatels are run mainly by the state but with some private in­put," he explained. "It was decided that too much government money was going into these bodies without any real demand for them to be efficient."

The assistance program has in­volved two visits to date- one late last year and a second in June this year. A third visit, probably early next year, is expected.

The project involved running man­agement development programs and policy planning workshops at the Pub­lic Industrial Enterprises Secretariat (PIES) and the Public Enterprises Sec­retariat (PES) in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

"These bodies are rather like one of our State Government departments," said Mr Euler. "Their role is to foster industrial development.

"An option being considered was privatising the parastatels, but they had no clear models on how they should operate."

Mr Euler said he and Dr Perry were

contracted by the United Nations to look at the problem and to train the Ugandans so they could take over run­ning the revamped organisations them­selves. The method chosen was simu­lation training, a program which al­lows the student to run an imaginary company by computer.

"We use simulation training in our strategic management courses here at QUT," said Mr Euler. "The partici­pant must make all decisions about running the company. The computer then offers feedback so the partici­pant's performance can be quickly as­sessed.

"Students usually find the exercise so absorbing they even forget to take meal breaks.

"Our philosophy was that .:e didn't want to propagate something that re­quired on-going Australian involve­ment.

"We wanted to promote a self-help situation and from reports we've re­ceived our students are continuing very successfully."

Dr Perry and Mr Euler won the con­tracts after being recommended by former QIT economics lecturer, Mr Bill Miller, who is now based in Kam­pala as Chief Technical Adviser for the project to the United Nations.

Mr Euler said his two visits to Uganda had made some lasting im­pressions of charming people, colour­ful costumes and fascinating contrasts.

"The clothes of people in the street are almost extravagant, yet they live in mud huts," he said.

"One wonders where they keep their clothes.

"Although the people are charming theft is rampant and there are guns everywhere. Many of the buildings are full of bullet holes.

"Seeing Entebbe Airport is a shock. It's almost unchanged from the film when the Israelis freed the hijacked El AI aircraft."

Mr Euler said his most memorable moments in Uganda were finding him­self encircled by a herd of some I 00 elephants during a trip to a game park, and taking a boat trip up the White Nile from Lake Victoria.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Janice Reid has compiled the first ever textbook on Aborigi­nal health.

The Health of Aboriginal Australia has been published for health and welfare students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Launched by the Federal Minis­ter for Aboriginal Affairs Mr Robert Tickner on 6 September as part of National Aboriginal and Islander Day, the book is also aimed at con­tinuing professional education in health-care settings.

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal authors from a range of professional and academic backgrounds includ­ing public health, anthropology, psy­chology, medicine and sociology have contributed.

Chapters embrace the history and politics of Aboriginal health, drug and alcohol use, food and nutrition in Aboriginal communities, mental health, and the socio-cultural con­text of well-being, illness and heal­ing.

The text also outlines contempo­rary Aboriginal public health issues and gives a review of Aboriginal health status.

Professor Reid says the book bridges a gap which has existed in medical and health curricula for at least 20 years.

Although detailed research has been documented in a variety of health issues, she says it is scattered in a number of journals and inac­cessible to many students and work­ers.

In an attempt to rectify the situa­tion, Professor Reid and co-editor Ms Peggy Trompf began work on the book three years ago through the Centre for Cross-Cultural Stud­ies in Health and Medicine at the University of Sydney.

Before taking heF- current QUT position Professor Reid was Profes­sor of Community Health at the University of Sydney.

The book was funded through a Department of Employment, Edu­cation and Training (DEET) pro­gram for curriculum development in cross-cultural health studies in Australia.

Professor Reid points to adult mortality, along with mental health, as the most serious health issues in Aboriginal Australia.

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Professor Janice Reid and her new book

The disproportionate rise of Abo­riginal suicide and deaths in custody are also enormous, well-documented problems.

She says the reasons are complex and multi-factorial.

"It's to do with living conditions, with emotional and mental suffer­ing, diet and a constellation of is­sues which arise out of the colonised status of Aborigines and the depri­vations of the past 200 years," Pro­fessor Reid says.

One of the least understood issues, according to Professor Reid, is the idea that Aboriginal people are more likely to suffer certain diseases.

"Aboriginal people are not pecu­liar in the diseases they suffer and their current life status is not sim­ply a matter of lifestyle and mi­crobes.

"It is not genetic, it is not cultural, and it is not wholly environmental. It is political in its nature."

Professor Reid says Aboriginal people shared the same health problems as other indigenous, "conquered and colonised" penple throughout the world.

Assimilation policies and the disruption of communities and families have all led to immediate or delayed health problems.

She says many health profession­als working in Aboriginal commu­nities and Aboriginal Medical Serv­ices are sympathetic and aware.

"But people who come in contact with Aborigines in mainstream health services are often prejudiced

and ignorant of Aboriginal and Is­lander culture and needs."

Professor Reid cited a recent in­cident at a NSW country hospital where Aboriginal women about to give birth were separated from white mothers.

In this case it was alleged that the Aboriginal women could be Hepatitis B carriers.

"That is simply absurd and highly racist.

"But these sorts of things are quite common."

The central role of the extended family within Aboriginal communi­ties in urban, rural and remote set­tings is another key factor in Abo­riginal health care.

Professor Reid says the solutions to all Aboriginal health issues lie within the Aboriginal communities themselves.

"But the resources lie within the white community," she says.

"It is incumbent upon the white community, and its politicians, to make sufficient resources available and loosen the bureaucratic stran­gle-hold on Aboriginal communities which prevents them from making effective and enduring decisions."

The book now stands as a com­panion to The Health of Immigrant Australia: A Social Perspective, also edited by Professor Reid and Ms Trompf.

Both published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, the books come with teacher manuals and a com­prehensive reference section.

Study aims to save the bush An investment rate with s ta i n a I

An inter-disciplinary team of QUT experts has been awarded a $60 000 joint Federal and State Government grant to help Queenslanders solve their environmental problems.

QUT's team will develop and run courses for the staff of government departments and other bodies in­volved in community-based nature conservation.

The grant has been made by the Queensland Depart­ment of Environment and Heritage, and Federal Gov­ernment's Save the Bush scheme.

The project will be an exercise in cooperation among the Institute for Land Environment and Development (!LEAD), the Social and Environmental Educational Research Unit (SEERU) the Faculty of Education and the Communication Centre.

A substantial handbook combining a wide cross-sec­tion of expertise will be compiled as part of the project. Contributors will come from QUT, other tertiary insti­tutions including the Land Use Study Centre of the University of Southern Queensland at Toowoomba, Gatton College of the University of Queensland and Griffith University, and elements of industry and gov­ernment.

Project leaders will be the Associate Director of !LEAD Dr Jim Davie and the Director of SEERU Dr Roy Ballantyne.

Dr Davie said the aim of the courses would be to take the environmental message far and wide .

It would promote new State Government legislative initiatives.

"The courses will promote community action and community awareness not only of rural environmental problems but also of urban problems," he said.

"They will outline the conceptual base and provide tools for people to solve problems themselves."

For more information, phone extension 2432 or 229 1388. Or call in at the office on Level 3, Community Building, Gardens Point.

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until November 30 1993, not just a few months. They're a rock solid investment for amounts between $1,000 and $200,000,

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Page 5 INSIDE OUT, 2 October 1991

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Teachers need language skills education base

Adult literacy teacher education courses need to be developed at QUT, says the Head of School of Language and Literacy Education Associate Professor Bill Corcoran.

He says the demand is highlighted by the fact that one million Austral­ians have significant literacy problems. Seventy percent of the group speak English as a second language.

Professor Corcoran was responding to the new Australian Language and Literacy Policy announced by the Fed­eral Government last month.

The policy will boost spending on literacy programs by $100 million to $333 million during the next three

Brisbane business

• sem1nar A seminar expected to attract

1500 Queensland secondary school students to Brisbane City Hall on 4 October has QUT business students among its organisers.

Prominent business world person­alities including the editor of Busi­ness Review Weekly Mr Robert Gottliebsen, Professor Denis Kiellerup of the Syme Centre for Enterprise Development in Mel­bourne, and the former chief execu­tive officer of National Mutual Mr Eric Mayer will address the semi­nar.

The organising body is the Inter­national Association of Business Stu­dents, known worldwide as the As­sociation Internationale des Etudiantes en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (AIESEC).

AIESEC's aims are to promote in­ternationalisation, to close the gap between business and students, and to promote student experience in business.

A QUT accountancy/law student Mr Ian Davies handles corporate marketing affairs for AIESEC. It has membership on 21 Australian campuses and in 71 nations.

The seminar is part of AIESEC's Global Theme program, a world­wide campaign of projects with the theme Entrepreneurship and Cor­porate Responsibility - New Oppor­tunities for Global Development. BP Oil, the Department of Employment Education and Training, and Bond University are seminar sponsors.

AIESEC spokesperson Ms Stephanie Bond said the seminar aimed to promote an international outlook in future community lead­ers, and to make students aware of the global opportunities available to them.

years.Professor Corcoran says the policy makes a pleasing distinction between adult and child literacy.

"It does not make sense to insist on professional qualifications for teach­ing at the child literacy level and not equally insist on parallel qualifications at the adult literacy level," Professor Corcoran says.

"The policy clearly foreshadows cooperation between the T AFE and university sectors in order to develop specialist postgraduate awards in adult literacy teaching."

He says the new policy also reflects the school's current objective to in­crease the number of graduates who can teach languages other than Eng­lish (known as LOTE teachers).

Currently the School of Humanities teaches English, French, German, Ital­ian, Indonesian, Japanese and some Chinese.

Professor Corcoran says there is a need to expand the offering of Asian studies .

A special projects officer is expected to be appointed in the future to coordi­nate in-service programs in LOTE training.

A compulsory first-year subject in language and communication studies will also form part of the new four­year Bachelor of Education degree of early childhood and primary to be in­troduced in 1993.

"This will address the fundamental relationship between literacy and learning and the question of entering literacy levels of the students them­selves."

Professor Corcoran says the univer­sity faces wider challenges in terms of student literacy.

"Literacy in the disciplines is the responsibility of the individual facul­ties within the university.

"Every single lecturer in this insti­tution must be expected to bear this responsibility."

Professor Corcoran says the new policy does not advocate national read­ing and writing tests for children as reported widely in the media.

"The minister himself (Education Minister Mr John Dawkins) says he does not believe in one-off, crude lit­eracy tests," he says.

"Often tests prove only that people can take tests. The history of literacy testing itself is bedevilled by the fact that it circumscribes teaching.

"It gets to the stage, that out of fear and a public sense of accountability, the only things that are taught in class­rooms are those things that pertain di­rectly to the tests themselves.

"This raises the whole question of what the tests actually measure in any one-off sense because they are stripped of any real context."

Professor Corcoran says the policy points to the need for collaborative action between the education system and the general community to shape the direction of future testing.

(Photo: Leon Frainey)

Campus creations Students Heidi Falconer and

Luke Donatini (photographed) took time out last week to appreci­ate the latest creations of QUT sculpture students on show at the Carseldine campus gallery.

The exhibition includes a sculp­ture by 27 students in second and third year of the Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) course.

Aptly entitled 27 Directions, the

exhibition will continue until4 Oc­tober.

The QUT visual arts program will also be represented at the first National Students Art and Design Exhibition in Melbourne.

The exhibition, featuring work from 19 art and design schools across Australia, began on 26 Sep­tember and will continue until 5 October.

Jon takes flight to Trinity Hall in UK

QUT's first graduate to receive a commonwealth scholarship and fel­lowship plan award to study at Cam­bridge University left Brisbane for the UK last month.

Jonathan Leiboff will spend a year at Trinity Hall studying for his Master of Laws. He flew direct to London.

"The actual academic year starts on 8 October but I understand orientation probably will be around I October," he said.

Trinity Hall was a college founded principally for the study of law. It had retained a strong connection with law throughout its history, he said.

"There would be a degree of varia­tion between Australian and UK law these days but I'm only going to be looking at the international law areas," Mr Lieboff explained.

Jonathan Leiboff

"Public law areas are my particular interest at this stage."

Mr Leiboff graduated this year as a Bachelor of Laws with first class hon­ours. He also won the QUT Medal.

Real world . expenence on vacation

A program developed by the non­profit organisation Enterprise Aus­tralia will allow students to spend a week of their summer vacation in the real world of big business.

Called The World of Work the pro­gram is designed to introduce final­year students of all disciplines to the world of business and industry.

During the week-long program, stu­dents taking part will visit several com­panies to see how all areas of business work.

They also will join in after hours discussions on business topics.

The program has attracted the in­volvement of many of Australia's lead­ing companies.

Those taking part in previous World of Work programs include Allgas, AMP, ANZ, CSR, lncitec, Kern, Lend Lease, MIM, Mathers, Mayfair Crest Hotel, NAB and Westpac.

The promotion of this summer's program is being coordinated with the help of students who participated in the last one.

Many of them now are working in the commercial sector.

The residential program will be based at a University of Queensland college.

The fee of $165 will cover accom­modation, meals and daily transport for company visits. There are no hid­den costs.

An Enterprise Australia spokesper­son said the fee was payable in two instalments- the first of $80 on enrol­ment and the second of $85 by Janu­ary 1992. The 1992 program was scheduled between 10 and 14 Febru­ary.

Applications will close 31 October this year.

"Numbers are limited to strictly 200 and we expect a rush of applicants," the spokesperson said.

Brochures and application forms are available on all QUT campuses.

In brief As part of World Credit Union Day

on 17 October, Unicredit will attempt to raise 50 000 cans of food for the Salvation Army's Christmas cam­paign. The "donate a can" drive will continue for seven weeks. Drop your cans in to the Gardens Point Unicredit branch on level three of the commu­nity building.

0 0 0 QUT is considering membership

of the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

The institute provides access to Lucas Heights facilities in Sydney and a focus for cooperation in nu­clear scientific and engineering fields.

A seminar was presented by the institute executive to more than 30 QUT staff at Gardens Point Cam­pus on 26 September, pointing out benefits of membership.

Already, 24 Australian universi­ties are members.

Crime money wasted on law and order says Dean • From page 1

money at the system and held it as accountable as those who are trapped inside it."

Community services, innovative education programs and community crime prevention programs could be cost effective. But if these concepts lost out to a spending spree on more police, more courts and more prisons we were mortgaging our future in a misguided attempt to reduce crime, he warned.

Professor Wilson said that it ap­peared crime rates, both nationally and in Queensland, were on the rise. Re­cent statistics showed that during the past decade Australia's major crimes had risen by 66 percent. These crimes included homicide, serious assault,

robbery, break and enter, motor vehi­cle theft, fraud and stealing.

In Queensland violent offences against people had increased from 75 per 100 000 to 228 per 100 000 per head of population in the same period.

He said some of the increase was because of statistical changes in the reporting of offences. Due to the work of women's groups and others rape and domestic assault were far more likely to be reported to police now than in the past.

High youth unemployment and a continued recession meant implement­ing constructive policies in the area of juvenile crime. Failure to do so would lead to a substantial proportion of peo­ple below the age of 21 becoming stig­matized by their involvement in the juvenile justice system

Page 6 INSIDE QUT, 2 October 1991

Professor Wilson said national sur­veys conducted by the Australian In­stitute of Criminology showed overwhemingly that most people did not favour a "get tough" policy for non-violent juvenile offenders.

He said figures proved that most violent crimes were committed by adults, violent crimes by juveniles were not increasing, juveniles rarely committed homicide, hardly ever used guns or knives and were more likely to commit violence against other ju­veniles than against women or old peo­ple.

Urging Queensland towards pre­venting crime before it happened, Pro­fessor Wilson said spending money on police, courts, juvenile institutions and prisons to deal with offenders might be necessary in terms of retribution

but would not deter the expected juve­nile crime explosion of the future.

Strategies that appeared to be effec­tive included pre-school and school­focussed programs improving the qual­ity of education offered to young peo­ple in low income neighbourhoods, parent-effectiveness programs, job­training and placement schemes, and some sporting and recreation initia­tives.

Schemes to "design out" crime by providing better street lighting, rede­signed shopping malls, carefully planned public transport areas and "vandal-proof' public facilities had proved effective in some countries, he said.

He paid tribute to a scheme recently introduced in South Australia, which drew from the experiences of French

and Dutch crime prevention strategies. During the next five years $10 million would be spent on the scheme by the South Australian Governnment.

Professor Wilson also praised a pro­gram that had been operating in New Zealand for three years. It had led to some juvenile institutions being closed down.

"A carefully coordinated commu-. nity crime prevention scheme, where local communities are funded for in­novative youth crime prevention ini­tiatives, should be trialled in Queens­land," he said.

Any attempt to follow the Ameri­can "law and order" example would fail in Queensland unless a real at­tempt was made to base crime preven­tion on the European and South Aus­tralian model, Professor Wilson said.

t

Nurses may try patients' patience

Nurses may be offending elderly people if they try to communicate with them by using certain types of touch.

A new study reveals that what nurses may regard as supportive and warm communication with geriatric patients often is seen by the elderly as patron­ising and dominating.

Senior lecturer in Nursing at QUT Ms Helen Edwards documented the results as part of her honours thesis for a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Queensland's Psychol­ogy Department.

The findings will be presented as a paper at the American Nursing Asso­ciation's International Nursing Re­search Conference in Los Angeles from 22 to 25 October.

Ms Edwards said she became inter­ested in the subject through her earlier work with a domiciliary nursing serv­ice and a special conference she at­tended in the United Kingdom during Professional Experience Program (PEP) leave in 1988. The Fulbright Commission Special Interest Colloquium highlighted geronto-com­munication, an area regarded as very understudied.

"One of the subjects dealt with at the conference was a general theory termed Communication Accommoda­tion Theory," said Ms Edwards. "This theory suggests that when we speak to people we change our communication strategies to suit the situation and goals to be achieved.

"With the elderly, nursing staff of­ten respond to what they perceive is the competence level of the client. This judgement can be ba ed on tereotype and nurses may adopt a communica­tion strategy using a high -pitched voice, or speak loudly and slowly us­ing baby talk. "Carers may see such an approach as necessary, but the eld­erly perceive it as patronising and showing a lack of support and respect.

"This affects their well-being, self­esteem, and the way they percieve themselves. In time it becomes a self­fulfilling prophecy."

Part of Ms Edwards' study involved the videotaping of controlled vignettes of encounters between a nurse and an elderly patient. A panel of student nurses and elderly people were then asked to rate communication in the vignettes according to perceptions such as "patronising", "supportive", "respectful", "warm" and "dominat­ing".

"While both groups agreed in some areas in other areas their perceptions were quite different," said Ms Edwards. "Touch, for example, was rated by the elderly to be less support­ive and dominating while the nurses felt it conveyed warmth."

Getting communication right be­tween nurses and elderly patients was becoming increasingly important as the general population aged.

Modem psychology studies had es­tablished links between mental and physical wellbeing so communication techniques promoting self-esteem in the aged would make an important contribution, Ms Edwards said.

Ms Helen Edwards

Helping job-seekers a main priority The current economic climate has

made the need for effective job search strategies more urgent says QUT Careers Counsellor, Ms Eve Wicks.

High unemployment and scarce job supply make it essential for stu­dents to hone interview and job ap­plication skills, she advises.

Students should be more flexible, more open, better informed and bet­ter prepared in the quest for jobs.

Some 6000 students are expected to graduate from QUT this year.

Ms Wicks says the tight job mar­ket has already been reflected in em­ployer interview sessions during the year.

"Fewer employers visited the campus to interview students while government departments made some windfall gains," she says.

"In the past a lot of the · high fli­ers' were snapped up by the private sector. Because of the reduced number of places available in the private area government recruiters have picked up many of the top stu­dents."

Ms Wicks says the job downturn is also reflected in the Science and Information Technology Faculties' Cooperative Education Program, where students who have completed second-year can gain paid employ­ment in industry for a year. Far fewer job places are available for

Science award Science education senior lecturer

Dr Keith Lucas and retired science education lecturer Mr Ian Head re­ceived Australian Science Teachers Association Distinguished Service Awards last month .

The honours were awarded at the Queensland Science Teachers As­sociation annual conference held at the Kelvin Grove campus 16-18 September.

Dr Lucas' award recognised his contribution as editor and business manager of the Australian Science Teachers Journal .

Mr Head's award was for a simi­lar contribution.

Student/staff committee

The Student/Staff Liaison Commit­tee will hold its last meeting for this year on 15 October.

The committee draws together elected staff and students to advise the Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson on a range of issues affecting people at QUT.

Professor Gibson chairs the com­mittee. Other ex officio members are Academic Staff Association president Ms Carol Windsor, combined unions industrial group chairperson Mr Roy Ward, and Student Guild president Ms Sue Bellino.

The committee also includes the following elected members: one mem­ber of the Academic Staff Association (Dr Paul Inglis); one member of the combined unions industrial group (Ms Noelene Brownley); one member of academic staff (Ms Gail Halliwell); one non-academic staff member (Mr Warwick Smith); two enrolled students (Ms Justine Stewart and Mr Rodney Beisel).

The committee meets four times each year.

OUT careers counsellor Ms Eve Wicks and David Wadley. (Photo: Suzanne Burow)

students this year. To help students develop neces­

sary job search skills the QUT Coun­selling and Careers Service will be running a series of weekly work­shops through to the end of the year.

The workshops will cover areas such as resume writing, job applica­tion writing, interview skills, where to look for jobs and which employ­ers to access. Techniques such as role

playing with video feedback will be used to enhance the effectiveness of student performances.

Ms Wicks says many of the skills are vital in a tight job market.

"Students who have already been through interview situations with­out success understand there is a skill involved and come to us for advice," she says.

"When writing a resume and cov-

ering letter it is important to be professional. Presentation should be excellent, highlighting personal strengths and skills gleaned not only from academic study but from work experiences and extracurricular ac­tivities.

"An employer receiving 200 ap­plications for a job is more likely to overlook a poorly presented resume with insufficient information to evaluate an applicant. Employers hire people, not degrees."

Ms Wicks says students should be flexible in examining job possibili­ties and consider opportunities they might normally not look at.

Sometimes a particular degree is not the important thing - an em­ployer may want a graduate more for skills such as defining and solv­ing problems, effective communica­tions, research, report writing, goal setting, an ability to work independ­ently and a capacity for learning quickly.

Further study, such as an honours program or a graduate diploma, should be considered for the addi­tional skills offered. Overseas op­tions also can provide work and study opportunities, she says.

Workshop bookings can be made with the Counselling and Ca­reers Service in Y Block or the U Block basement, or by telephoning 864 2649.

Channel 7 scholarship to Anna -Final year public relations student

Anna Burr (left) was presented with a Channel 7 scholarship worth $1500 at QUT on 25 September. ·

The cheque was presented by Ms Leanne Smith, Promotions Manager for the station.

The scholarship is awarded annu­ally to a third-year advertising, film and television, journalism or public relations student on the basis of sec­ond-year results, an application in­cluding a videotape, and interview. There were 23 applicants.

It also incudes work experience with Channel 7 and Anna has been spend­ing two days each week at the station. The scholarship was awarded in June and presented last week in front of a second-year class of potential appli­cants for 1992.

Exploration Science Adventure In December 1991, The Exploring Society will mount a major expedition into the rainforest of far

North Queensland to collect valuable scientific data for national and state institutions. As there has been limited scientific exploration of the Mount Finnigan area, you will be covering

new ground while gathering important material for CSIRO, Queensland Museum and the University of Queensland.

The going will be tough, presenting challenge and adventure. The difficult tropical conditions will reward you with incredible beauty and understanding of this fragile environment.

If adventure and science appeal and you are interested in being an expeditioer, or you fell you have the necessary qualifications to be a science group leader, fill out the coupon and send to:

BHP ANZES The Exploring Society PO Box 174 Albert Park, 3206. Phone: (03) 529 3783 Fax: {03) 521 1447

Name: ....................................................................................................................................... ................ . Address: .......... ........................... ........................................... .... ... .. ..................................... ..................... . ............................................................................................................. Postcode: ................................... .

Page 7 INSIDE OUT, 2 October 1991

Scholarships A number of scholarships and fel­

lowships are currently on offer to QUT and other students.

Take the plunge for ast Further details on any listed below

are available from the QUT Research Students Office on the second level of U Block at the Gardens Point campus or by telephoning 864 2932.

0 0 0 NHMRC biomedical postgradu­

ate scholarships; Australia; post­graduate; science; close 19 October.

Frank Knox Memorial fellowship; United States; postgraduate; all fields; closes 23 October.

Australian Meat and Livestock­Postgraduate studentship; Australia/ overseas; postgraduate; science; closes 24 October.

Australian Meat and Livestock Junior Research Fellowship; Aus­tralia/overseas; postgraduate; closes 24 October.

Australian Meat and Livestock study awards; Australia/overseas ; postgraduate; science; close 24 Octo­ber.

JSPS postdoctoral fellowships for foreign researchers; Japan ; postdoctoral ; non-clinical science; close 26 October.

Korean government scholarships; Korea; postgraduate; all field s; close 29 October.

Kobe Steel scholarship; Oxford, United Kingdom; postgraduate; all fields; closes 30 October.

Oxford Nuffield medical scholar­ship; United Kingdom; postgraduate; medicine; closes 30 October.

Foreign and Commonwealth Of­fice scholarships and awards scheme; United Kingdom; postgradu­ate; all fields ; closes 30 October.

Gerrard and national studentships; Wales , United King­dom; postgraduate; economics/bank­ing; close 30 October.

Student ball The QUT Student Guild Ball will

be held on II October at the Sheep and Wool Pavilion, RNA Show Grounds.

Tickets are available at all Student Guild offices until 9 October.

The $45 tickets include a three­course meal, all drinks and entertain­ment.

Starting 7 .30pm, the night will party on until 1.30am.

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Ms Cathy Bishop gets ready for the annual swimathon. (Photo: Leon Frainey) Australian swimming personalities Brad

Stokes and Tracey Wickham will be among those making a splash in the QUT annual week­end swimathon later this month.

Even Brisbane Lord Mayor Alderman Jim Soorley, who will open the event on 19 Octo­ber, will also take the plunge to help raise funds for the Queensland Asthma Foundation.

Organiser and QUT Student Guild recreation

coordinator Ms Cathy Bishop says 13 teams, in­cluding QUT swimmers, have signed up. Individual swimmers are still encouraged to enter.

All entrants must raise $20 in sponsorship be­fore the day. An entry fee of $4 will be charged to cover costs. Spectators will be asked to pay $2.50 as a donation to the Asthma Foundation. All meals will be covered by the entry fee. Silvios Pizza, KR Darling Downs, and SPC are major sponsors.

Volleyball women no longer A-grade silver bridesmaids

Volleyball , which emerged as the glamour sport in the 1984 Los Ange­les Olympics and caught on fast in Australia is proving popular at QUT.

Playing under the name of Unitech , the QUT volleyball club fielded five men's teams and three women's teams in the recently ended spring season. The club had three out of the eight teams to contest the final s.

Unitech ' s A-grade women won the gold medal in their division, fighting hard to win two games to none.

It was a sati sfaying result for the team which last season had to settle for the silver medal.

Queensland University of Technology Newspaper

The winning team was coached by Allan Young. Team members were Paula Matilla, Helen Parsons, Carol Jeffers, Jo Myers, Kirsten Blake, Robyn Stirzaker, Leone Orton, Ingrid Schultz, Jocelyn Smith and Marianne Pehrson-Line.

The B-grade women, for the fourth consecutive season, picked up the sil­ver medal in their grand final. Their losing score was nil games to two.

Last season the A-grade men failed to make the final but almost went all the way this season. In the grand final they lost nil games to two.

Two QUT players have emerged as

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be told in Inside QUT submit it or phone the Public Affairs journalists.

Jim Simmonds 864 2130 Anne Patterson 864 2361 Letters to the Editor are also wel­

come (maximum of 250 words). Published by the Public Affairs Of­

fice, QUT (Administration Building}, GPO Box 2434 Brisbane 4001 .

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Media can reproduce stories from Inside QUT.

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state players and more are knocking on the door of selection. Aaron Stellberg has been selected for the Queensland under-20 team and Kirsten Blake made it into the state women' s team, known as the Pirates.

Currently, Unitech is ranked third out of 15 clubs in the Brisbane district Metro Valley League.

The summer season began on 23 September and Unitech has fielded five men's teams and four women's teams. Of these, three men' s teams and three women 's teams are playing in A-grade.

The club is seeking more players and spokesperson Ms Marianne Pehrson-Line said they need not be QUT students.

"Anyone can join at any time and train in preparation for the next sea­son. It doesn't matter whether or not they've played before, that's what C­grade is for," she said.

Training is held each Thursday at QEII between 7pm and I Opm. Games are played at QEII or MacGregor High School on Mondays between 6.30pm and 11pm.

Ms Pehrson-Line said the club was affilliated to the Queensland Volley­ball Association and always was in­formed of upcoming special tourna­ments , including beach volleyball events.

Ms Bishop says she hopes the weekend of con­tinuous swimming will beat last year's final funds total of $15 000.

But she says the event will not be all work and no play. A number of activities are planned including a Red Faces Competition, all-night movies, and a Sun­day afternoon drinks and prize presentation.

The weekend kicks off at 9am Saturday and will continue until 3pm Sunday.

Typeset by QUT's Publications Unit using PageMaker desktop publishing

Deadline for next issue 9 October (published 16 October).

Players fees are $45 per season for students and $55 per season for non­students. Anyone interested should contact Darren Wilson or Carol Jeffers on (07) 397 1307.

Volleyballers in action are David Yould (left) and Aaron Stolberg. (Photo: Suzanne Burow)

Page 8 INSIDE OUT, 2 October 1991 Printed by Sunshine Coast Newspaper Co Pty Ltd

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