Fraser Coast honours its winning academics

USQ Fraser Coast has honoured four of its academics who achieved top 10 placings in the national UniJobs Lecturer of the Year, including one who took out the top award for USQ.

Business lecturers Graham Young and Johanna Makin, psychology lecturer Michelle Adamson, and senior lecturer from the Arts Faculty, Dr Ian Richards, were guests of honour at a recent morning tea.

Fraser Coast campus Provost Prof Ken Stott presented certificates to the winners, who all ranked in the top 10 lecturers from USQ. He told the gathering of staff that it was nice to be ‘over-represented’, with four of the top 10 USQ lecturers coming from a small campus. (USQ has about 600 academics spread over its three campuses in Toowoomba, Springfield and Hervey Bay.)

Dr Richards, who teaches community development and sustainability, took out the top spot for USQ in 2009 after making it to the top 10 list the previous year. Students nominate their favourite lecturer and votes are collected on the UniJobs website.

'The interesting thing about this competition is that it has nothing to do with academic qualifications or research profiles,' Dr Richards said.
'It is purely about how you deal with the students. The USQ brand is built around our relationship with students. We show our respect for them and we understand that they have a life.

'The vast majority of students have jobs and family commitments and we understand that and support them.'

The competition selects a winner from each university, and one overall winner, which went to Dr Ross Odell, from the University of New South Wales.