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'Universities bring out the best in us,' says graduation speaker

April 07, 2006

SedgleyOKane.thumb.jpgProfessor Mary O’Kane, a leading adviser on innovation, education, research and development, speaking at a graduation ceremony at The University of New England today, celebrated the role of universities in enhancing their students’ natural gifts.

Addressing more than 300 graduands in the Sciences and Health, Professor O’Kane said: “Universities can bring out the best in us. They can allow us to refine the gifts we were aware of, and make us aware of those gifts that are latent in us.”

She made the point that, while acquiring knowledge is an important part of university education, it is not the most enduring part. “Knowledge might be immediately useful,” she said, “but much of it dates relatively quickly. It’s the skills we learn along the way (including learning, reasoning and information-processing skills) that are of long-lasting value.”

Professor O’Kane, the Executive Chairman of Mary O’Kane & Associates Pty Ltd (a company that advises governments, universities and the private sector) has served as Vice-Chancellor (1996-2001) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research (1994-96) of the University of Adelaide, where she was also Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. She is a member of the Australian Research Council, the Cooperative Research Centre Committee and the CSIRO Board, a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia.

During her Occasional Address today, Professor O’Kane quoted a verse of Hilaire Belloc to introduce her theme that universities “give us again our own gifts”, and help us make the most of those gifts through the acquisition of new knowledge and new skills. Congratulating the graduands, she said: “My wish for you is that you will use your gifts, knowledge and skills – all enhanced through the hard work of gaining the degree you are awarded today – to tackle successfully the important issues you encounter in work and in life.”

Today’s ceremony was the third of four at UNE this Autumn. The Chancellor, Mr John Cassidy, presented testamurs to 311 graduands, including 23 graduating with PhDs. Two of the graduands – Emma Williams (Bachelor of Rural Science with Honours) and Romulus Apolzan (Bachelor of Computer Science with Honours) – received University Medals, Emma Williams also receiving the Edgar H. Booth Memorial Prize. The final ceremony, tomorrow, will be for graduands in Education and Professional Studies.

The photograph displayed here shows Professor Mary O'Kane (right) with the Executive Dean of UNE's Faculty of The Sciences, Professor Margaret Sedgley.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at April 7, 2006 03:48 PM