Today the Queensland Institute of Business and Technology (QIBT) officially becomes Griffith College.
The renaming of the pathway college, a partnership between Griffith University and leading education provider Navitas, will see it integrate more closely with the University to help students turn their dreams into a reality.
It comes as thousands of school-leavers across the state are considering their career options for 2016, with the release of Overall Positions (OPs) less than two weeks away.
Griffith University Vice Chancellor and President Professor Ian O’Connor said Griffith College was a formidable extension to Griffith University and provided a key pathway to university education for hundreds of students.
“Griffith College will be a premium pathway provider with articulations to more than 50 Griffith University majors delivered on campus at Griffith University providing students with full access to University facilities.”
“This will be a very important transition into University for students who might not meet the initial entry criteria.”
Griffith engineering students Tim Alroy.
Griffith University electrical and electronic engineering student Tim Alroy started as a mature aged student with Griffith College and today holds an Electrical Engineering Scholarship from Ergon Energy, which sees him currently working in Brisbane over the summer period.
“I didn’t have the required mathematics skills to gain direct entry to University, I worked as a tradesman for many years while I tried to figure out how I could become an engineer and then I found this fantastic alternate option,” he said.
“I really liked the smaller class sizes and I believe I was very well equipped coming straight into second year at Griffith University.
Navitas and Griffith University have successfully collaborated — through QIBT — since 1997 providing pathway courses for more than 13,700 domestic and international students.
Students who may not have the full prerequisites to undertake a university degree can attain the required levels by studying with Griffith College, before qualifying for immediate entry into a Griffith University degree – often with advanced standing.
Griffith College, located at Griffith University’s Gold Coast and Mt Gravatt campuses, offers a range of courses such as business, commerce, science, criminology, engineering, design, health sciences, hotel management, information technology, media and communications.
Navitas Group CEO Rod Jones said that renaming the successful college was just another step in an already successful and strong partnership.
“To be able to build on our significant relationship with Griffith University even further by aligning our college name and brand is a great opportunity and will enhance the experience of current and future students,” he said.
By Brofie Jiggins, Public Relations and Communication student
I personally have never experienced, witnessed, or known anyone to experience domestic violence, and up until Wednesday, never truly realised the impact it has on Australian families.
Attending the White Ribbon Day event in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall, I was given the wonderful opportunity to talk to many people influenced by this issue, and boy did I learn a lot.
Two women in particular that I was given the absolute pleasure of talking to managed to bring tears to my eyes.
One woman described her own struggles of domestic violence and, although now thankfully free, explained how she is still trying to gain custody of her daughter to save her from the hands of domestic violence.
No more than a few seconds later another woman described to me her story of domestic violence and how she escaped her violent partner. Both of these women, complete strangers, then consoled each another, explaining their struggles and encouraging one another to keep going.
Both of these ladies have to be among the bravest people I’ve met, taking it upon themselves to escape the hands of violent partners and try to spread their message that life does get better.
On average, one woman is killed every week by a current or former partner in Australia. On Wednesday, represented by 52 silhouettes, White Ribbon created a visually confronting display to highlight to the public the severity of the issue.
Completely running out of the 700+ white ribbons available to sell to the public, it was remarkable to see the community spirit and support for this wonderful cause.
Raising a total of over $5000 from our stall in Queen Street Mall alone, it truly goes to show the community’s overwhelming support and determination to stand up against domestic violence against women.
Although Australia still has a long way to go, joining White Ribbon in the constant fight to stop violence against women and spread their message and educate our communities to stand up against this inexcusable behavior.
With the experiences this day has given me, the people I’ve met, and what I’ve learnt, I take it upon myself to ‘swear never to commit, excuse, or remain silent about violence against women, this is my oath’.
Head over to White Ribbons Website, http://www.whiteribbon.org.au/day, to swear the oath of White Ribbon and show Australia that you stand up against domestic violence against women.
High-profile Australian scientist and environmental warrior Professor Tim Flannery has brought a message of hope to Griffith University’s Nathan campus.
Presented by Griffith’s Science on the GO! education outreach program, Professor Flannery was the keynote speaker for today’s (November 30) Brisbane component of the 2015 Cutting Edge Science Professional Learning Days for teachers and scientific operations officers. The event moves to Griffith’s Gold Coast campus tomorrow (December 1).
With a new book, Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for solutions to the climate crisis, and the beginning of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, Professor Flannery’s visit was timely and found him as driven as ever, but also more optimistic about the future.
“We are in the midst of an environmental crisis, but there are good things happening,” he said.
“We need to be more ambitious, to verify that countries honour their pledges to reduce carbon emissions, and we need to capitalise on innovation opportunities that will be of such benefit for the Earth and, by extension, humankind.”
Professor Flannery describes these innovations as Third Way Technologies, distinguishing them from the established climate change strategies of emission reduction and geoengineering schemes.
Examples of Third Way Technologies already in place include large-scale reafforestation and soil supplementation.
However, Professor Flannery also cited the potential for large-scale seaweed farming, the broad adoption of carbon fibre technology, the use of giant storage facilities in the Antarctic to sequester carbon dioxide, and other methods to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.
He believes Third Way Technologies could cut about 40 per cent of current emissions by 2050, but only if action is taken now.
“Simply continuing to reduce emissions is not enough. We need the development of new technologies to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in large enough quantities to change the climate of the planet,” he said.
“We know the problem we have to solve, and that’s an incredible privilege. While we can’t say which strategies and technologies will work best, we are committed to exploring them because of our previous inaction.”
Professor Flannery sees reason for hope in the younger generation.
“Young people know what’s at stake, they know what’s going on and they are not afraid to embrace innovation,” he said.
“There is much to do, but I see a commitment among young people that gives me hope. It makes me more optimistic about how they will define their future and the future of this planet.”
The Cutting Edge Science initiative comprises 21 workshops over two days and is a partnership between Griffith University and the Department of Education, Training and Employment.
In introducing Professor Flannery, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Engagement) Professor Martin Betts said theCutting Edgeinitiative reflected Griffith University’s understanding of the capacity for STEM subjects to power the future.
Dr Adam Brumm, from Griffith’s School of Environment
The School of Environment’s Dr Adam Brumm will deliver the keynote address at the Gold Coast campus tomorrow.
Dr Brumm is a senior research fellow in archaeology at Griffith University. His main area of expertise is the dispersal and evolution of Pleistocene hominins in South-East Asia, especially Indonesia, where he has spent the past decade systematically searching for physical traces of humanity’s past that can help answer questions of human evolution in this region.
President Mai Hồng Quỳ of Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, alongside Vice-President Trần Hoà ng Hải and colleagues visited Griffith University Gold Coast campus on 26 November and met with representatives from Griffith International, Griffith Law School and the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Ho Chi Minh City University of Law is ranked as the top legal education institution in the South of Vietnam and has achieved much success in teaching and research since its establishment in 1996.
New hope in the fight against cardiovascular disease has arrived, following breakthrough research identifying a pigment in our bile which could protect us.
A fluid produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, bile’s function is to aid the digestion process.
Now Dr Andrew Bulmer from Griffith University’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ) has found that mildly elevated levels of a bile pigment called bilirubin may provide natural protection from heart attacks and help to stave off cardiovascular disease.
Published recently in the International Journal of Cardiology, the study shows that when hearts are infused with bilirubin following a heart attack, the pigment reduces damage and improves heart function during recovery.
“This is a very important finding as very few drugs are able to be administered following a heart attack to improve heart function,” says Dr Bulmer. “Generally, if it is a small heart attack people can survive. However there is a 20 per cent mortality rate from heart attack, with approximately 50,000 heart attack sufferers each year in Australia.
“Generally, bilirubin was just associated with people having jaundice; however we have now shown that mildly elevated bilirubin is actually beneficial, naturally protecting an individual against cardiovascular disease.”
Additional research — just published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine – has shown that higher levels of bilirubin can protect the circulation from oxidative damage that causes blood vessel disease. “We believe that this protection could be related to recently identified anti-oxidative property of the bilirubin molecule,” says Dr Bulmer.
“Inflammation is the main culprit of damage to the body and is caused by over-active white blood cells that release ‘free radicals’. It appears our natural bilirubin can protect from these free radicals during chronic inflammatory diseases like cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and diabetes.”
Currently, 5-10 per cent of the population is believed to have mildly elevated levels of bilirubin in their blood — a condition with no negative side effects called Gilbert’s Syndrome. People with this syndrome have a 30-60 per cent reduced chance of having cardiovascular disease and a 50 per cent reduced risk from dying of any cause.
Dr Bulmer says that his findings could have positive implications for reducing health risks and improving life expectancy, as a result of increasing the bilirubin concentration in people who have low levels of the pigment in blood.
“Not only is there a benefit in being able to use bilirubin as a biomarker for measuring people’s future risk of various chronic diseases, there is a very real possibility it could be used as a treatment after a heart attack to reduce damage to the heart and possibly improve survival,” he says.
These possibilities are part of ongoing research at MHIQ’s Heart Foundation Research Centre.
Annual QCA Graduate Showcase
The Queensland College of Art (QCA) will open its doors to the public for a special five-day event from 26-30 November.
Theannual QCAShowcase will transform the South Bank campus into a host of exhibition spaces, featuring the work of graduating students from Fine Art; Film; Animation; Games Design; Photography; Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art; and Design.
According to recently appointed Director of the QCA, Professor Derrick Cherrie, the event is an incredible opportunity for the community to see firsthand the talent being nurtured in their hometown.
“The QCA is Australia’s oldest and one of the country’s largest art academies and has produced some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists including Michael Zavros, Victoria Reichelt, Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Abbey McCulloch and Gordon Bennett,” he says.
“The showcase is also an ideal way to see the many diverse and exciting art forms the QCA has on offer and the extraordinary work being made here.
“We have a wide range of disciplines including, but not limited to, fine art, jewellery and small objects, printmaking, sculpture, animation, film, design futures — absolutely everything on show, all together, and in the one location, bringing together more than 200 graduating students and over 1,000 works!”
Alana Townsend, QCA Bachelor of Photography (Creative Advertising)
Events across theQCAShowcase are set to include a grand opening ceremony, industry previews, student awards, creative panel discussions, food and drink stalls, music from the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith Film School screenings, exhibition displays, framing workshops and more.
Showing at Griffith University Art Gallery will beBrutal Truths:Vernon Ah Kee,Gordon Bennett,Destiny Deacon & Virginia Fraser, whichpresents preeminent voices in contemporary Australian art, each with substantial international profiles. Two of the included artists are QCA Alumni — Vernon Ah Kee and the late Gordon Bennett (awarded Griffith University’s Alumnus of the Year 2014).Exhibition dates: 19 November 2015 — 9 April 2016.
Opening Event:4pm — 9pm, Thursday 26 November
Queensland College of Art,226 Grey Street, South Bank.
RUNS: Thursday 26 November through to Monday 30 November, 2015.
Drawing on his experience as a foreign correspondent and prisoner on terrorism charges in Egypt, he will examine the relationship between journalism and government in a post 9/11 world.
He concludes that in seeking to make ourselves safer, we may in fact be destabilising the very system that has made us among the most prosperous, stable and secure democracies in the world.
Mr Greste continues to campaign for freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the hundreds of journalists currently held in detention around the world. He is a state finalist in the 2016 Australian of the Year Awards.
Please Note:The Griffith Lecture is now fully booked
The value of research for clinical practice was the focus of discussion as part of the 10 year anniversary celebration of Griffith University’s School of Medicine.
The cocktail event, on Monday 23 November, saw clinicians, academics and current and past medicine students come together to celebrate the successes of the School over the past decade.
The event was also attended by Mr Mick de Brenni MP, Chief Government Whip and Member for Springwood, Pro Vice Chancellor Health Professor Allan Cripps and Professor John Prins, director of the Mater Research Institute.
Dean of Medicine, Professor Simon Broadley said the event was a chance to celebrate the great Medicine program at the university and its reaccreditation by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) earlier this year.
The AMC stated that the program’s curriculum is comprehensive and well-integrated, with assessment practices that are thorough and well blueprinted. It also highlighted the outstanding co-located academic and clinical facilities at the Gold Coast campus and Gold Coast University Hospital, and the collaborative arrangements with co-located medical schools.
“We are pleased to say that the Griffith Medicine School is one of the top performing schools in Australia and one which boasts great integration with our public health system,” said Professor Broadley.
Significant funding
“It has also achieved highly significant external funding achievements and a high degree of published papers with its research activity. These are aspects of the School that I am extremely proud of.”
Griffith Medicine alumni of 2011 and Australasian Young Doctor of the Year 2015, Dr Katherine Goodall was one of the guests at the event.
“In the four years I have been practicing medicine I believe that Griffith taught me more than how to do my job,” she said.
“I am now a surgical trainee and working on becoming a general surgeon. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I take pride in teaching others and mentoring those junior to me and thrive on the enthusiasm of others. I was recognised for my efforts in doing what I love and believe this came from the opportunities Griffith offered me early on.
“It has been wonderful to see where graduates have ended up and even more wonderful to keep running into them along my own adventure. I’ve seen Griffith grow from the “old” building at GH1 to the amazing facilities they offer now with up to date teaching approaches and supportive staff who obviously enjoy what they do.
“Thank you Griffith, congratulations and I am only too proud to share this celebration.”
Iranian-born artist Sara Irannejad presents works across painting, pyrography, installation and video for A thousand interconnections.
The Doctor of Visual Art candidate at Queensland College of Art is exploring diasporic identity and mythology, with visual elements informed by Persian culture and personal experiences.
Juxtaposed with elements of Australian flora and historical artefacts, these works create a bridge of dialogue between her own life and a broader cultural awareness, highlighting the present and past, the traditional and contemporary and the local and introduced.
Sara says she left her home country of Iran in 2010, “in order to get away from the autocracy and censorship that has limited the art practitioners”.
She studied a Master of Studio Art at Boston’s School of Museum of Fine Art and in 2011 was granted anExceptional Artist scholarshipaward from this school.
In 2012, she chose Australia as her new home and has been living in Brisbane as a practicing visual artist and designer since then.
Her works offer new perspectives on identity by linking between profound aspects of Iranian culture and current conflicts in multicultural Australia.
A thousand interconnections 10 — 20 December, 2015
Official Opening: 6-8pm, Thursday 10 December
Pop Gallery, 27 Logan Road, Woolloongabba
Participants in the School of Environment’s Conservation in Practice Thailand course enjoyed a tigerish treat at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast this week, meeting the theme park’s newest tiger cub, Kai.
Mr Al Mucci, Dreamworld’s General Manager Life Sciences and the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation, invited students and staff to attend a tailored educational interaction session to learn about Dreamworld’s conservation programs.
This included getting up close and personal with Kai, and hearing a talk by Tiger Island Manager, Mr Patrick Martin-Vengue, who has worked with tigers for more than 35 years.
“We are proud to be a partner with Griffith University’s Conservation in Practice course,” said Mr Mucci.
Students meet Dreamworld’s newest tiger cub, Kai
“Dreamworld is passionate and committed to saving the remaining 3,000 tigers left in the wild and supports conservation funds including 21st Century Tiger, the Phoenix Fund and Fauna & Flora International.
“Since 2006, we have donated more than $2 million to saving tigers in the wild, making Dreamworld the biggest zoological contributor to 21st Century Tiger.
“Dreamworld and Griffith University also have a long research history together through the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation.”
Next week, students will join the World Wildlife Fund’s tiger monitoring program in Thailand’s Kui Buri National Park. The visit will include camera trapping and monitoring tigers in the wild.
Convened by Professor Jean-Marc Hero, Conservation in Practice is an award-winning course within Griffith’s Global Mobility program.
The course allows students to enhance their degrees through global work-integrated learning, immersing them in real life field research and experience in “conservation in practice”.
Through field visits, lectures, case studies, guest lecturers and, for the Thailand group, even a visit to the Australian Ambassador’s Residence in Bangkok, students gain an appreciation of the practicalities of conservation and how local communities, management agencies, research institutes, global NGOs, private industry and governments work together to achieve conservation outcomes on a global scale.
Thailand is one of 48 countries offering opportunities to Griffith students and Dreamworld provides in-kind support for the course in Thailand.
