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Faculty celebrates success of community focus

November 27, 2006

BallasConwayTydd.tm.jpgThe University of New England’s Faculty of Economics, Business and Law has celebrated a year of research achievements that will benefit rural and regional communities both in Australia and abroad.

Staff of the Faculty gathered last Thursday [23 November] to share experiences, view publications, and listen to short talks by representatives of each of the Faculty’s three Schools: the School of Economics, the New England Business School (NEBS), and the School of Law.

The Faculty’s Executive Dean, Professor Roley Piggott, said the research effort had been largely focused on rural and regional issues of contemporary importance, while extending that “rural and regional” focus to the Asia-Pacific region – particularly Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. “When you look at our publications, they’re all of immediate relevance to contemporary communities,” he said.

This was the Faculty’s third annual Celebration of Publications and Research and, for the first time, representatives of government, business and community organisations were among the guests. These organisations included NSW Farmers, the Northern Inland Regional Development Board, the NSW Department of State and Regional Development, and the Australian Poultry Cooperative Research Centre. “We’re acknowledging the importance to us of such organisations,” Professor Piggott said. “Our three Schools are increasingly focused on strong relationships with business and the community.”

UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Peter Flood, confirmed that the Faculty was “deeply engaged with industry and the community (including the international scholarly community)”.

The talks revealed the extent of that engagement: they dealt with projects that are helping small-scale farmers and market gardeners in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, addressing problems associated with the policing and judicial handling of rural crime, analysing the impact of women as members of regional development boards, and establishing the importance and validity of “non-formal learning” as a vocational qualification.

During her talk, Lou Conway from NEBS emphasised the interdisciplinary nature of the School’s research, and the high level of community engagement. “We don’t see business development as an end goal in itself,” Ms Conway said.

Professor Flood noted the increasing importance of “quality” rather than mere “quantity” of publications in obtaining research funding. “We can see examples of such quality here today,” he said. These included reprints of papers in some leading international journals, including Corporate Governance: An International Review, The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Agribusiness: An International Journal, and Agricultural Economics.

The books on display included Emergency Law by Michael Eburn (The Federation Press, 2nd edition), Sustainable Strategy by Paul Martin and Miriam Verbeek (The Federation Press), and Mobility, Labour Migration and Border Controls in Asia, edited by Amarjit Kaur and Ian Metcalfe (Palgrave Macmillan).

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Lou Conway (centre) with Bobbi Ballas from the NSW Department of State and Regional Development and Don Tydd from the Northern Inland Regional Development Board at last week's celebration.


Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 27, 2006 05:14 PM