Highlight of visitors to RMIT University in 2008

View a complete list of visitors to RMIT University in 2008

Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer tour RMIT

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, and Treasurer, Wayne Swan, visited RMIT University in May to meet RMIT Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Margaret Gardner AO.

The ministers discussed the Federal Budget and the challenges facing Australia’s higher education and vocational education and training sector.

The Deputy Prime Minister announced RMIT would receive $14.4 million from the Better Universities Renewal Fund before the end of June this year.

She said institutions such as RMIT would also benefit from the Australian Government’s new $11 billion Education Investment Fund, which would deliver resources to higher education and vocational education and training institutions.

Professor Gardner welcomed the investment and said RMIT would direct the $14.4 million toward improved learning and teaching facilities.

“There are significant opportunities for Australia to decide it's going to seriously commit to having a world-class university system,” Professor Gardner said.

“We need to lift the sector as a whole to become one of the world’s top 10 university systems.”

Global network comes to town

RMIT University hosted the 5th Council of Presidents’ Meeting of the Global GU8 Consortium (GU8) in September.

Representatives from RMIT and five universities in China, France, South Korea, Great Britain and the USA attended the meeting in Melbourne, which addressed trends in global education, focusing on the growing demand for cross-cultural education.

The program included a welcome address by RMIT Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Margaret Gardner AO, and an opening address by Dr Robert L Carothers, Chair of the Council of Presidents of the GU8 and President of the University of Rhode Island (USA).

It also included remarks by presidents of GU8 members, including Dr Seoung-Yong Hong, Honorary Chair of the GU8 Council of Presidents and President, Inha University (South Korea); Professor WU Daguang, representing Dr Chongshi Zhu, President, Xiamen University (China); Dr Camille Galap, President, University of Le Havre (France); and Dr David Drewry, Vice-Chancellor, University of Hull (United Kingdom).

Attendees participated in a heritage walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens with the Aboriginal custodians of the area - the Boonwurrung and Woiworung people.

The GU8 is an educational consortium of eight universities from Australia (represented by RMIT), China, France, Israel, South Korea, Great Britain and the USA.

Its purpose is to meet a growing demand for cross-cultural education through:

• student exchange and the adoption of common curricula;
• responding to new challenges posed by the need for Global Logistics, Business Administration, Marine Affairs and Advanced Technologies;
• interdisciplinary activities including conducting joint research and expanding outreach programs; and
• strengthening global cooperation among university administrations.

RMIT is currently developing a joint Masters program in Global Logistics with consortium members in France, Korea and the USA.

Information exchange on social sciences

A group of leading social science researchers from Vietnam visited RMIT University in March to discuss ideas on how to establish policies to promote the use of research findings in the social sciences.

The delegation, from the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), exchanged information and experiences with their RMIT counterparts in a range of areas relating to the social sciences, including policy mechanism, financial management and fundraising as well as discipline areas such as economics, history, sociology, population, law, development, urbanisation and human resources.

VASS is a government body that looks at important matters relating to the social sciences in Vietnam. The organisation has 27 research institutes which focus on issues arising from Vietnam’s social and economic transformation.

Chinese art troupe impresses RMIT audiences

The musicians and dancers of the City of Xianyang in the People’s Republic of China are living examples of the strength of Chinese performing arts.

A group of Xianyang musicians and dancers presented a unique brand of lunchtime entertainment to students and staff of RMIT University’s Brunswick campus in February.

The performing troupe, comprising three traditional Chinese instrumentalists (suona horn, erhu fiddle and zither) and two dancers, presented a 30-minute concert in the foyer of RMIT Brunswick’s Building 514, dazzling audiences with their repertoire of classical Chinese pieces and dance routines.

The performance was delivered a day ahead of their opening act for the Brunswick Music Festival.

The performers were part of a cultural delegation which also included Xianyang senior officials and community leaders.

The government of the City of Xianyang brought the delegation to Melbourne in celebration of its sister city relationship with the City of Moreland.

Xianyang is in the central part of Guanzhong Plain, 25 kilometres west of Xian. It was made the capital of feudal China after the country was unified in 1949. Xianyang has more than 1,500 places of historic interest, including such major historical sites as the Qianfo Pagoda, the ruins of Xianyang during the Qin Dynasty, the Shunting, the Changling, the Hanling, the tomb of Princess Chang Le, and the tomb of Yang Gui Fei.