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Rural Science graduates to celebrate 'the McClymont vision'

July 24, 2006

Bindon.thumb.JPGThe University of New England is about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a degree program – UNE’s Bachelor of Rural Science – that has gained a worldwide reputation for excellence.

The anniversary events in September will celebrate the vision of the program’s founder, Professor Bill McClymont, and the achievements of its more than 1,500 graduates. Through those graduates, the “McClymont vision” has made an impact throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific region – and beyond.

Titled “Celebrating the McClymont vision”, the events will include a full-day forum on Friday 22 September with the theme “Rural science in the context of Australian agricultural education”, and a reunion dinner at UNE’s Austin College that evening.

Dr Bernie Bindon, one of the organisers of the anniversary, explained that Professor McClymont – a distinguished veterinary researcher – had wanted to produce graduates with an integrated knowledge of animal husbandry and agronomy, and thus of the entire soil-plant-animal complex. “The ‘McClymont vision’ was one of ‘agricultural ecology’ as a whole,” Dr Bindon said. “He wanted graduates to be able to think about an integrated system.”

Dr Bindon (pictured here), who was the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Cattle and Beef Quality in 1993 – a position he held for 12 years – is just one of many distinguished graduates of UNE’s Rural Science program. (He was one of the third intake of undergraduates, and went on to gain a Master of Rural Science degree at UNE.) Another is Dame Bridget Ogilvie, the program’s first University Medallist, who became Director of the Wellcome Trust in the UK. Dr Geoffrey Fox, who graduated Bachelor of Rural Science in 1965 and PhD (also from UNE) in 1969, held several important positions in the World Bank, including that of Director, Rural Development and Natural Resource Management, for the East Asia and Pacific Region. Dr Fox (who, like Dr Bindon, is an Adjunct Professor at UNE) will be the guest speaker at the reunion dinner.

Reunion events will begin on the afternoon of Thursday 21 September with pre-dinner drinks at Austin College at 5.30 pm, followed by a buffet dinner. The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, will officially open the forum at 8.45 the following morning. On Saturday, after a leisurely brunch, there will be tours of UNE (including the Livestock Industries Institute), Booloominbah, and Armidale. Activities that afternoon and evening will centre on a reunion of Wright College residents, who will also be celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Dr Bindon said the organisers had contacted all the Rural Science graduates for whom they had current addresses, and were keen to reach those who had dropped off their contact list. “As well as being a chance to meet up with classmates, other Rural Science graduates, and staff members past and present,” he said, “there will be opportunities for them to contribute to thinking about the future of Rural Science at UNE. We’ve asked them to take part in a survey on the effectiveness and possible revision of the Rural Science program. And, at the end of the forum, there will be a chance for everyone to discuss this.”

For more information about the Rural Science 50th Anniversary Celebrations, contact Associate Professor Geoff Hinch on (02) 6773 2202 (e-mail: ghinch@une.edu.au) or Shirley Fraser on (02) 6773 2148 (e-mail: sfraser@une.edu.au), or go to
http://une.edu.au/alumni/whats.htm#rst50, where registration forms can be downloaded.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at July 24, 2006 01:35 PM