USQ lecturer recognised as one of top 15 university educators

USQ Information Systems lecturer Rohan Genrich has been recognised as one of the nation's top university educators after placing 12th in the 2008 Australian University Lecturer of the Year awards.

Sponsored by unijobs.com.au, the awards acknowledge outstanding lecturers in Australia's university sector with students and fellow academics able to vote over the course the year.

In 2008 more than 2,500 lecturers were nominated for the awards from every university around Australia.

'At the start of the year an email was sent to all students at every University in Australia to vote so it was up to them and also other academics to nominate lecturers,' Mr Genrich said.

'I was very humbled to find out that I had placed 12th, because you do your job and don't think you are doing anything special so you certainly don't expect anything like this.

'It came completely out of the blue.'

With lecturers from Australia's major universities dominating the top 20 award winners, Mr Genrich said that it was a great achievement that someone from a regional university could place so high.

'I feel this is extremely good when you think about our class sizes compared to some of the larger universities in Australia,' he said.

'Some of these universities have 10 times the number of students in their program compared to ours; it just goes to show how motivated students are at USQ.'

A lecturer of information systems at USQ for the past 10 years, Mr Genrich says that his interaction with students and laid back nature made it easy for students to relate to him.

'I always make myself available to students and am never too formal with them and that is something which they really seem to respond too.'

Students can also expect to see Mr Genrich around the Toowoomba campus for many years to come, with the lecturer continuing to enjoy himself at the University.

'I love Toowoomba, have a lot of family here and I love my job so I am looking forward to continuing to work here in the future.'

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2559