Open Doors Open Minds
Professor Ian O'Connor
This month the Griffith Gazette theme of Open Doors, Open Minds is entirely appropriate as our campuses open their doors to prospective students and their families for Open Day.
The first question in the mind of students and their parents is why choose university over an immediate place in the workforce? Because we transform lives. Right now our nation and the world is undergoing a fundamental economic transformation, and it is occurring within the context of unprecedented climatic and environmental change. For a country with a population as small as Australia's, we can never hope to compete internationally on the basis of cheap labour. Our competitive advantage must come from how we transform knowledge and that is what a university of excellence offers its students. Increasingly it is also the most valuable currency in the workplace.
The second question of course is why choose Griffith University? Because we know the future. Thirty years ago, we were the first university in Australia to have schools in what were then seen as the radical study options of Environmental Science and Asian Studies. These have gone on to be staple fare at most universities, and central to our society. Now the hot button issues of our time - water, health, security - are all available for you to study here at Griffith. We have the biggest concentration of water researchers in Australia in our Australian Rivers Institute, we have Australia's newest Schools of Medicine and of Dentistry and Oral Health on the Gold Coast, and Australia's premier research agency recently selected us as the host of Australia's first ever Centre for Excellence in Policing and Security.
We not only offer the courses that are crucial to our futures, we are also delivering innovative ways to study them. Last month, I attended the Industrial Affiliates Program where 150 projects from current Griffith students working in industry were showcased. Along with ensuring great work outcomes for students when they graduate, work integrated learning programs like this enhance the learning students get in their Griffith course, by putting the academic theory into a practical setting. And from next year when the Griffith Honours College accepts its first cohort, it will mark the beginning of a new approach to providing enriching experiences for Honours students, unique within Australia.
Whether you are looking for ways to achieve academic excellence or the best way to enter the workforce after graduation, I sincerely hope the potential students and their families reading this Gazette give Griffith University the opportunity to help them Get Smarter.