ACU Queensland highlights for the new academic year

A message from the Associate Vice-Chancellor (QLD) Professor Jim Nyland.

Can I take this opportunity to welcome colleagues now that our academic year is in full swing.  Earlier this week ACU Queensland celebrated its Commencement Mass to formally start our academic year with 80 staff, students and partners in attendance.  This year is shaping up to be another busy one for McAuley at Banyo, with 6,300 students on campus at the time of writing – consolidating our position as ACU’s second largest campus.

A significant event takes place in the life of our popular campus in the coming weeks when the bronze larger-than-life sized statue of our campus namesake, the Venerable Catherine McAuley, arrives and will be placed in the very heart of the site, in Community Court close to the Chapel.  I am pleased to report that the bronze has now been poured, and the artist, Peter Wegner (pictured below), is applying the finishing touches to the patina.

Our heartfelt congratulations to Professor Elizabeth Labone who has been appointed to the permanent role of Executive Dean, Faculty of Education and Arts; and to Professor Suzanne Kuys who has been appointed as the new National Head of the School of Allied Health. Both are outstanding leaders in their field and we wish them well in their new roles as the University continues to impress the sector with our twin pillars of education and health.

Some of the campus highlights at the end of last year, held in our venues reserved for activity with our external partners, include our Catholic Women Leadership program led by Dr Maeve Heaney at the ACU Leadership Centre in Cathedral Precinct and the national Engagement Australia Symposium hosted in our new Gaudete Centre on campus. We hope to build on these new areas to the University this year.

I look forward to seeing you around our busy and vibrant campus over the coming weeks and months.

Jim