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Adelaidean - News from the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide
September 2006 Issue
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From the Vice-Chancellor

Deciding to stay in Adelaide was one of the easiest decisions I've had to make in years.

As you may be aware, the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥'s Council has extended my contract for a further five years, until mid-2012. I'm very grateful to Council for doing so!

Becoming Vice-Chancellor of the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide has been a wonderful experience. It's been a lot of hard work, as any vice-chancellorship is, but I'm extremely proud of how the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ has flourished over these past four years.

The ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide already had an excellent reputation when I first joined as Vice-Chancellor, especially for its research, but there were many areas that I hoped to build on or develop at the time.

I set out to ensure that the institution had a secure financial base so that it could continue to build on its teaching and research activities, and I'm pleased to say that this was achieved within a relatively short period of time, which bodes very well for the future.

I also set out to strengthen the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥'s engagement with the community, and to increase the number of international students, broadening the countries from which they are drawn and the disciplines that they study. This has been achieved - with remarkable results in some cases - and I hope to see more growth in these areas in the coming years.

Of course, all of this could not have been achieved without the collective efforts of a great many people, and I thank them all for their contributions. The quality of our academic and non-academic staff, as well as our students, never ceases to amaze me. It has been a pleasure to be the Vice-Chancellor of a ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ with such quality brimming from all quarters (and all campuses).

So what does the future hold?

The ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ will continue to respond to the needs of the community, business and government by delivering innovative programs that satisfy South ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥'s strategic aims. We will continue to seek new markets abroad, and to grow the participation in higher education among South ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ns. We will capitalise on our excellence in research and become more widely regarded for excellence in education. We will continue to seek new partnerships in ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ and overseas.

It's important to me that the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide continues down a path of being widely recognised as an outward-looking university. In 2003, I set out to reposition the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ to respond to the new challenges facing higher education in ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ and overseas. A key objective of this reform is to ensure the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ plays an increasingly prominent role on the international stage.

Having a global outlook will greatly benefit our students and the South ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n community as a whole. We live in an internationalised society, which is why the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥'s outward-looking approach to education is so important to the future of our graduates and our community.

I'm looking forward to tackling the future and helping the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ to grow. It's already been a very busy four years - but there's so much more to be done! I'm glad that I have been to be given the opportunity to stay here in Adelaide as your Vice-Chancellor, so that we can continue the good work together.

PROFESSOR JAMES A. McWHA
Vice-Chancellor and President

JAMES A. McWHA
Vice-Chancellor and President

JAMES A. McWHA
Vice-Chancellor and President

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