Past Arthur Keain Awards Recipients

2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998

Recipient 2008

Katrina Hall

Office of research

Recipient 2007

Maureen Taylor

School of Humanities

I should like to thank Arthur Keain committee for the very generous $500 towards my study tour of France.

I enjoyed every minute of the 3 weeks I spent in Paris, Normandy and Brittany. I can now say that I have walked in the steps of the Impressionist painters, seen their apartments and the streets, buildings and railway stations that they painted in Paris. I have seen the originals of their works of art in the many Musées around Paris, including the Louvre, the Musée D’Orsay and Le Petit Palais.

I have visited Monet’s garden and house at Giverny and marvelled at his waterlillies covering the walls of L’Orangerie in Paris. I have eaten in Pissarro’s house and been amazed at the antiques and the 18th century plates depicting scenes from the French revolution. I painted the golden vine leaves around the windows from inside the atelier where Pissarro actually painted. I made the 3hr pilgrimage across sand and sea to the Monastery of Le Mont Saint Michel and I now know the difference between the Gothic and Norman architecture there. I painted the cliffs at Dieppe, a Pigeonnier at Wy Dit Joli Village, the Castle at La Roche Guyon overlooking the river Seine in the Normandy countryside and the reflections on a stream under a 14th century bridge.

I have eaten sea snails, tête de veau, cooked rabbit with mustard, a terrine of fish and clafouti aux cerises all at French homes. I have travelled by plane, Paris Metro, RER, TGV, Taxi, Roissy Bus and Bateau Mouche along the river Seine. I have experienced the expression on people’s faces at my attempts to speak French, felt the delight in being a translator for some English friends and learned many new French words including some we have been advised not to use!

And finally, la cerise sur le gâteau (the cherry on the cake) was finding my uncle’s war grave in the cemetery at St Desire, Normandy. My uncle was in the British airforce in WW2 and was killed at the age of 21 over Normandy. I am the first person in our family to have discovered and visited his grave. Very special.

I end in thanking Diana Glenn and Judy Kuckhahn in recommending me for the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award. Many, many thanks to Colette Mrowa-Hopkins, who organized the whole trip and who remained unflappable throughout the 3 weeks. Thanks also to Etiennette Fennell for taking me under her wing for my last night in Paris. And, all the welcoming French people who kindly shared their homes, their cars, their food and their time with us, especially our art teacher Pierre Marcel who passed on to us his passion for colour, nature, art and France.

Recipients 2006

Carolyn Vicary Nicole Morcom

Financial Services Division Office of Research

Nicole Morcom

My reason and aim for applying for an Arthur Keain Staff Development Grant was to attend a Study Tour Program on UK for Higher Education Management and Governance in Manchester, Bristol and London (21-29 June 2006). This study tour was aimed at looking at the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in the UK, which is similar to the new Research Quality Framework (RQF).

Considerable interest and concern has been raised about the impact that the pending Research Quality Framework (RQF) will have on the Higher Education (HE) sector in Australia. Many Australian Universities have already invested in ‘mock’ RQF scenarios; some have developed and invested in RQF areas (with staff) to advise University management and staff on current developments. The prospect of an RQF certainly has caused debate in the HE sector.

Inline with the national interest in the RQF, the Centre for Higher Education Management and policy at the University of New England designed and organised a study tour program to look at UK Higher Education Management. The study tour included:

ranking systems and preparation for the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008
Knowledge transfer
Research Management
Research funding
Tuition fees
Overseas student recruitment

The study tour gave me an insight into the workings of some of the most successful Universities in the UK and how they have handled the RAE. The tour was a great success and I would strongly recommend staff to apply for the Arthur Keain Staff Development Grant.

Recipients 2005

Angela Eastwood

Laboratory Co-ordinator, School of Nursing & Midwifery

In short I visited the following places:

Australian Catholic University
University of Sydney
University of Technology
St Vincent ’s Hospital (Simulation Centre)
Royal North Shore ( Sydney Medical Simulation Centre)

Many ideas were gained from visiting these places. Here are some quick points.

It assisted me as the Nursing Skills Laboratory Co-ordinator to gain more ideas to further enhance the education of nursing students in the Nursing Skills Laboratories at Flinders University .
When I returned from the trip I was able to finish formulating a list of future equipment needs for the Nursing Skills Laboratories in both Adelaide and in Renmark. A significant amount of these items have since been approved. These include a range of equipment from sophisticated simulation models to louvered trolleys that will better simulate the clinical environment. A large amount of consumables were also added to the list as well as a heat sealer which enable consumables to be re-sealed and therefore will enable students to have more practice with consumables due to now being able to recycle products.
Ideas were also gained for enhancing clinical simulations, for example how to better simulate wounds, bodily fluids etc.

These items will all improve the teaching and learning of nursing students in the nursing laboratories.

On a personal and professional note, I can honestly say this was probably one of the most worthwhile experiences for me (and the therefore the labs) and something I should have done a few years earlier. It really helped me to further develop a vision and insight into the future of the nursing labs at Flinders University. It helped me to strengthen some and even develop new collaborative links, it gave me a vast range of ideas both from a laboratory management, administrative and simulation point of view but also from an education perspective. If you need me to write this in a more appropriate format the only option will be for me to meet you in my lunch break (which I am happy to do). I believe that if the Nursing Laboratory Co-ordinator is to remain up to date and therefore keep the laboratories current and at the ‘cutting edge’ then yearly -2 yearly trips of this nature should be undertaken.

Arpad Harkai

University Accountant, Financial Services Division

I visited the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and the University of Wollongong (UOW) in November 2005 to investigate their financial reporting processes and aspects of Annual Financial Statement preparation. These two universities were selected as UWS uses Oracle based reporting systems (as does Flinders), and although UOW does not, it is well regarded for its financial reporting processes.

For 2005 UWS had an operating grant of around $200m for 17,960 student places, and UOW had an operating grant of around $88m for 7,830 student places. These compare with Flinders University’s grant of around $82m for 7,305 student places.

The periodical financial reports of UWS and UOW are generally prepared on a two monthly or quarterly reporting cycle. Although there are variances between the Financial Services organizational structures of these universities, the following positive features were evident:-

UWS : Financial Reporting

Reports (narrative with financial overview, income statement, balance sheet, capital report, and key performance indicators with graphics) generally completed within 10 days;
Strict deadlines for reconciliations/accruals – to be completed within 2 days of period close;
Proactive application of computer software (ie Application Desktop Integrator (ADI), Portal and Publisher) to prepare timely Web based financial reports for end users; and
Wide range of key performance indicators with supporting graphics.

UWS : Annual Financial Statements

Project Planning, use of teams, and deadlines for tasks (similar to Flinders approach);
Controlled Entities Pack detailing requirements and due by date;
Auditor General advises which working papers are required via ‘Client Audit Requirements’, and this results in around 7 lever arch files of working papers.

UOW : Financial Reporting

Reports (narrative, income statement, balance sheet, capital and key performance indicators) generally completed within 10 days and the aim is for completion in less time;
Reports also included:- Detailed trade and student debtor analysis (including debtors write-offs), and detailed accounts payable analysis;
Monthly reports to Vice Chancellor – and these are generally completed within 5 days of month close;
Strict deadlines for reconciliations/accruals – to be completed within 2 days of period close;
Reliable payroll reports with commitments to year end, with payroll system having practical reporting capabilities for payroll analysis;
Regular charge out of long service leave and annual leave provisioning and on-costs to various Faculties and cost centres from data in payroll system;
Key performance indicators with supporting graphics.

UOW : Annual Financial Statements

Project Planning, use of teams, and deadlines for tasks (similar to Flinders approach);
Controlled Entities Pack detailing requirements and due by date (ie around 20th January - which is around 1 week earlier than that currently required by Flinders);
Auditor General advises which working papers are required via ‘Client Audit Requirements’, and this results in around 10 lever arch files of working papers.

Conclusion:

Although the financial reporting processes used by the universities are fairly similar, it is clear that Flinders can improve the quality and timeliness of its financial reports by continued focus on certain areas – and these include strict deadlines for account reconciliations and accruals processing, proactive application of Oracle software, and identifying an appropriate group of key performance indicators.

As part of the process to improve our quarterly financial reporting performances, I will be undertaking the following actions (by the 28th February):-

Ensuring a strict 2 day close off for accruals by informing relevant staff of the due by dates, and updating the quarterly financial reporting procedures/tasks list accordingly;
Ascertaining from the university’s technical support team, whether computer software (such as ADI, Portal and Publisher) can be better utilized to improve the overall efficiency of existing financial reporting processes;
Reviewing with the Manager and Deputy Manager of Financial Services the university’s current group of key performance indicators, and determining whether any changes are necessary; and
Making recommendations to the Manager and Deputy Manager of Financial Services for changes to be made to the existing Debtors Report, and the possible introduction of a Creditors Report (with relevant data analysis).

I anticipate improvement in the quality and timeliness of the university’s quarterly financial reports resulting from the above actions.

Recipients 2004

Gillian Dooley

Special Collections Librarian

My principal aim in applying for an Arthur Keain Staff Development Grant was to carry out research at the Mitchell Library in Sydney for the scholarly edition of the Private Journal of Matthew Flinders which Anthony J. Brown and I are preparing, to be published by the Friends of the State Library of South Australia next year. The manuscript of the Journal is held at the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Given the value and significance of the manuscript, it is not available for loan.

I visited Sydney from 9 to 12 August and was able to scan the entire manuscript of the Private Journal during that time. Although facsimiles of the journal are available in our Library and electronically on the State Library of New South Wales web pages, in some cases it is essential to view the original manuscript to decipher unclear words and passages. My visit also provided an opportunity to make a selection of illustrations for the book from the Mitchell Library’s pictorial collection.

My participation in this project, which is carried out mainly in my own time, will benefit both the Library and Flinders University. The name of the University will be associated with this publication, a major contribution to Australian historical research, and the higher the standard of scholarship attained in the publication the greater will be the credit reflected upon this institution.

While in Sydney, I also had a meeting with the Manuscripts Curator of the State Library, Paul Brunton, who is a noted Matthew Flinders specialist, and was able to discuss various aspects of our collections and Flinders-related projects with him.

Mandy Price

Executive Officer, Yunggorendi, First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research

Through funding support from the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award and Yunggorendi First Nations Centre I was able to undertake a study tour of First Nations Centres in Vancouver, Canada. The purpose of my visit was to meet and work with staff from the First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia, staff from the National Indigenous Teacher Education Program and the First Nations Student Centre at Simon Fraser University. I also spent time working with visiting senior Maori academics from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The main focus of the tour was to meet with staff in the Centres, exchange information and share ideas on:

best practice in service delivery for Indigenous students,
establishment of an Elders in Residence program,
cultural inclusivity strategies implemented by the university,
the development of a postgraduate programs for Indigenous students,
Indigenous employment strategy, and
support programs for academic and general staff who are not located centrally within the House of Learning.

These priority areas had been identified through the Yunggorendi Review which was undertaken in 2004.

What emerged strongly from the visit was the similarities in the experiences of First Nations Canadians and First Nations Australians and the programs the universities are engaging in. Both the UBC and Simon Fraser work from an equity perspective and have a strong emphasis on recruitment and support for Indigenous students. The UBC runs the National Indigenous Teacher Education Program, separate from the First Nations House of Learning, which is designed specifically for Native Indians and teaches centrally through the main campus and in the communities. They also have a First Nations Language program and First Nations Study program. There is a strong emphasis on participation of Indigenous people and programs are set up in a series of modules that can be taken independently. This model presents some useful alternatives for culturally appropriate teaching which could be easily adopted in the Australian context. Both Indigenous centres have a strong engagement with community and have an Elders in Residence program, whereby community Elders are employed to provide mentoring and guidance to students and to provide cultural advice on practices, traditions and protocol to Faculty and staff.

Overall, the study tour provided me with an opportunity for professional and personal growth through the exchange of ideas, the development of a broader understanding of the cultural context in which Indigenous units operate within the university environment, and the opportunity to network with international colleagues. It also highlighted how progressive Yunggorendi and Flinders University are in various areas of practice.

Once again, I thank the Staff Development and Training Unit for their assistance through the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award, for this wonderful opportunity.

Recipients 2003

Lidia Gnacinska

Multimedia Technology Unit
Graphic Designer

The Arthur Keain Development Award enabled me to investigate the practices and procedures of other Universities in regard to web site/multimedia design, print based design, content and project management and to study the technologies used in these areas. Participating in this activity has provided me with a valuable opportunity to develop my professional expertise as a designer.

I was very fortunate to be able to visit La Trobe and Monash Universities where there are significantly different approaches to web design and implementation. I was able to exchange information and expertise with other designers and developers who work in the same area. I benefited from seeing how other multimedia production teams work within their own websites. This opportunity contributed towards my greater understanding of the subject and the comparisons would assist in new developments and possible implementation of improvements within the Multimedia Technology Unit.

During my visits I investigated a range of key areas including

Use of Web templates
Content management
Project management
‘Style Guide’ for the web
Cross platform media production for teaching and research projects
Custom web site design and production
My monash portal project tailoring university websites to individual needs. (specific to Monash)
Graphic Design for teaching materials, publications and promotional material such as brochures, posters etc
Web site design and production
Interactive Multimedia design and production
Audio-Visual Production, post production, duplication and packaging of audio visual products.

I visited the Centre for On-line and Multimedia educational technologies (COMET) at La Trobe University. The Multimedia production unit offers a range of subsidised services for education support and promotional purposes for La Trobe University. These range from programs for teaching purposes to online support materials, such as:

video, audio and VR clips
lecture recording on digital video for distribution to regional campuses, via either VHS, DVD or CD ROM.

I also visited the Photography and Digital Imaging Centre, The On-line Production Unit and Campus Graphics.

On the second day of my study tour I visited The Multimedia Development Unit at Monash University (Clayton Campus). The MDU unit is part of the Centre for learning and teaching support (CeLTS) provides high quality support services to assist Faculties to develop and deliver student-centred flexible learning, on-campus and off-campus, worldwide. I also had the opportunity to visit the Marketing and Public Affairs Office and the Design and Advertising Department.

I feel very fortunate to have won one of the awards and I am extremely grateful for the financial support which enabled me to visit the Universities.

Carolin Walters – Budget Officer

Financial Services Division

As the recipient of the 2003 Arthur Keain Staff Development award I had the opportunity to visit two Universities, Newcastle and La Trobe to look at funding and budget processes. Both universities are part of the new University group Innovative Research Universities – Australia. I selected two Institutions from this group as it creates important network groups and was an important demonstration of Flinders University’s commitment to the IRU concept. There have been many changes to Higher Education funding in recent times and will become even more complex in the future with the Higher Education Legislation Support Bill 2003.
The staff at both Universities were very accommodating and made me feel very welcome.

Some of the issues I wanted to look at were:

How they earn funds and allocate accordingly
The processes that take place developing the budget
Allocation models
Investigate and analyse reporting methods
International Student Income and how funding is allocated
Costing process
Compare strengths and weaknesses
Staffing profiles within the Finance Divisions

I spent two days at each University and was initially given a tour of the each Institutions Financial Services Division.

When I learned that I was successful in winning the award I contacted the relevant Business Managers at both Institutions and frequently kept in touch regarding my visit and the areas that I wanted to explore. They were very accommodating and set up meetings with various relevant staff members prior to my arrival. I was able to meet with relevant staff members and compare notes. I was also fortunate enough to be able to meet with the Deputy Vice Chancellor’, Research at both Institutions to discuss Research Funding. As we are all on common ground and receive our revenue from the same sources and have to meet the same reporting requirements I think they found my visit to be reciprocal. They were very interested in learning what we do here at Flinders.

At Newcastle University I was also invited to meet with the Business Managers from the Faculties of Health Sciences and Science and Engineering. This gave me an insight into how the Faculties worked with the Central Division and how much input they had in the overall construction of the total budget.

One of my initial observations at both Universities was that they had more staff in relation to size than Flinders Financial Services Division and the way the budget process was broken down into different components and therefore handled by different areas within the Division. Another main issue is that they are also ahead of us in preparing for the changes that will affect us with the Higher Education legislative changes that will take effect from 2005 eg costing process.

In saying that I think I took many good initiatives from Flinders that they will use in the future.

My visit to both Universities was a very worthwhile experience. It gave me the opportunity to exchange knowledge and I have created some very good contacts, which will become stronger in the future. We have already liaised since my return and have forwarded information to each other.

I have worked at Flinders for many years and found this was a very good staff development exercise. I would like to encourage general staff to apply. I would also like to thank the staff involved in my being the successful recipient of this award.

Recipients 2002

Leanne Pitman

Cashiers Office

As a recipient of the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award, I visited two universities in Western Australia, Edith Cowan and Curtin Universities, to investigate payment methods and receipting.

My first visit was with Edith Cowan University to find out more about their "eShop". The developer of eShop is Rick Movick (r.movick@ecu.edu.au), the manager of Information Delivery Systems.
Originally eShop was set up to accommodate the sale of recreational courses, eg belly dancing, learn how to play golf etc. They also produce a glossy AS magazine, advertising all recreational courses available.

The use of the eShop is to be expanded so that conference registration and hopefully the sale of parking permits can be done on line. I discovered that, as well as being an issue here at Flinders, the sale of parking permits is also an issue at both of the universities that I had visited.

EShopping can be done at www.recnet.net, or through individual sites. If shopping in `recent' you are given a shopping cart which holds all of your purchases and when you have finished shopping it will produce an account for you to view before payment.

Edith Cowan also uses Oracle Finances, as we do, where the payments go straight to the G/L account number, rather than through any receipting system. This is the area I would like to investigate further with our finance people.

I spent two days at Curtin University, which was the main objective of my trip. Curtin has the same receipting system as us, Student One. I found it very interesting to learn how differently the same system could be used.
During my two-day visit at Curtin, I had meetings with many departments. These meetings took place with The Fees Centre, Accounts Payable, Student Systems, Finance Systems, and Accounting Processes Review - Accounts Receivable and Reconciliations.

The segregation of these areas is so different to ours that it took a bit of understanding. There was a mutual exchange of information by all involved, and I hope that Curtin University felt that they benefited from my trip as much as I did.

Frances Hayball

Department of Speech Pathology

The increasingly complex nature of clinical placement administration and management, and the need to look at cost recovery clinics within the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology was the impetus behind my application for the Arthur Keain Staff Development award for 2002.

As well as contributing towards my own professional development, the award will also contribute towards a best practice model for managing student practica within the Department.

In late July I visited two universities, Sydney and Queensland, as both universities have well-developed but divergent systems for managing practica - Sydney with coordination across a number of agencies and a "Clinical Affiliates" program, Queensland in managing self-funding placements. Both universities have a large amount of students to place, and their successful on-site cost recovery clinics have enabled them to ensure sufficient internal placements for students.
During my visit to Sydney University (Faculty of Health Sciences, Lidcombe Campus) I investigated the database and procedures for clinical placement recruitment and allocation. There are four universities competing for clinical placements for Speech Pathology students within New South Wales and the administration of this process is shared with each university taking turns updating the database (Access), undertaking the recruitment and collating the responses. The other main area investigated at Sydney University was the "Clinical Affiliates" program whereby relationships and loyalties with field clinicians are fostered within the program thus ensuring a certain number of external placements.

The University of Queensland (St Lucia Campus) visit mainly consisted of meeting with the Business Development Manager of the School of Health and Rehab Services (Speech Pathology, Audiology, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy) and the external clinical placement administrative officer. Students undertake clinical placements in the large internal clinics and the School also has a number of successful income generating ventures, while there I gained very useful input about areas that our department could develop.

Both universities were interested in furthering links and to share information regarding the placement process. The database currently used here in the Department has more information concerning past and current placement of students and the venue compared to the two universities, however, this was more to do with student numbers, as the intake at both places was double that of Flinders. In any case it was reassuring to see that the database I established enables us to undertake the placement process effectively.

It should also be noted that neither university was merged with a major public hospital, this aspect makes our department one of the few to offer both inpatient and outpatient services to clients and a variety of clinical experiences with internal supervisors to students. The necessity for the department to establish self funding clinics was highlighted during the trip and I look forward to working with our clinical educators in the future to develop these.

I would like to thank the staff at Sydney University and Queensland University for their hospitality and the opportunity to implement some of their processes for clinical placement recruitment and cost recovery clinics, and the Arthur Keain Award committee for giving me the funding to make the visits.

Recipients 2001

Virginia Martin

Nursing

As an applicant for the ‘Arthur Keain Development Award’, I proposed to investigate the clinical placement processes utilised by other large, university based, nursing institutions in Australia. It was hoped that this investigation would allow comparisons and assist in any development and possible implementation of improvements that would lead to a more efficient clinical placement system within the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Flinders University.

The School of Nursing and Midwifery has approximately 700 undergraduate nursing and midwifery students. As part of their study, each student is required to spend a period of time, each semester, allocated to clinical practice in the health care sector. The students are placed using a number of criteria, including proximity to their home and their need to experience a variety of clinical settings. The latter is considered necessary to enable students to gain a good understanding of the differing nursing practices that predominate in different clinical areas. Accordingly, it is necessary to record each student’s placement as they occur and, where possible, to subsequently allocate them to a clinical area different from those they have already been to. Students will usually experience at least four major placements during the duration of their degree.

I visited two large universities in Sydney, those being the University of Western Sydney - School of Nursing, Family and Community Health, and the University of Technology Sydney – Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Health.

The clinical placement systems in both institutions were similar in that clinical placement is attached to a number of topics, with each placement consisting of a block of approximately one week in a specific specialised area.
This system in itself places an enormous strain on the administrative processes involved in booking and placing students as each student may require up to four placements per semester. The strong competition for clinical venues between institutions in the Sydney metropolitan area is an additional concern.

Although I found each University had a more in depth use of the database technology available, which is vital to their administrative processes due to the massive task involved in placing their students, neither University had any grand scheme or computer program that would ‘do it all’. I returned to Adelaide confident that our current clinical placement processes are by far the preferred model. There is room for improvement of course and I will be working, initially with staff in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, towards a more comprehensive database, that could possibly be incorporated with other databases currently being used in the School, to try to achieve a more streamlined administrative system.

On my return to Adelaide I had already received contact from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia who are currently looking at their current clinical placement systems with a view to reducing costs. Staff at the University of Technology Sydney recommended they speak with our staff about our DEU system. I have since received further contact from the Coordinator of Undergraduate Clinical Nursing who wishes to visit us in the near future to discuss our processes with them.

I hope to continue contact with the staff of the institutions I visited and look forward to hearing further about the Network of Clinical Coordinators and the National Conference.

Gary McLaughlin

Flinders Housing

I was fortunate to receive funding by way of the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award in 2001.
This went toward the cost incurred in undertaking a study tour in the United States. The tour commenced in Boulder, Colorado, and ended at a conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

I thank all at Flinders University who had any part in my being a recipient of the award. The study tour was organised by the Australasian Association of College and University Housing Officers, (AACUHO, of which I am the current President) in conjunction with the parent body, Association of College and University Housing Officers – international (ACUHO-i), whose annual conference I attended in Kansas City.

A number of United States students live in catered and non catered accommodation within Flinders Housing, and the study tour provided me with the opportunity to not only see the environment they come from, but to actually experience it.

Along with some twenty-five other housing officers from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom I visited and looked over student accommodation at four different educational institutions.
The institutions we visited were the University of Colorado at Boulder Colorado, Colorado College at Colorado Springs, Fort Hayes State University at Fort Hayes in Kansas and Washburn University at Topeka, also in Kansas.

During the tour we slept in student rooms, ate in residential cafeterias and shared facilities including laundries and bathrooms. At all times we endeavored to put ourselves in the position of our USA students, to better understand the lifestyle they were coming from and to use that experience as a comparison with our conditions and facilities.
Our hosts at each institution spent hours talking about their various campuses and the problems and issues they faced. We found ourselves answering almost as many questions as we asked, illustrating that student residential problems and issues are worldwide, not just limited to any one country or location.

We toured each site looking at what facilities they provide for students. We looked at buildings with dormitory style accommodation and apartment style accommodation, including some still under construction. Surprisingly even newly constructed accommodation has shared facilities and in many cases two students to a room.
We also examined other resident related facilities such as catering, computer facilities, laundries, furnishings etc.
After six days of being on the road and living out of a suitcase we arrived in Kansas City for the ACUHO-i annual conference.

At the conference, I attended many sessions and heard from speakers on a range of issues, including new accommodation and changes in the general concept of the role of residences and their facilities in university life, that is the concept of living and learning communities.

Throughout the tour and the conference, many friendships and contacts were developed. The network of contacts developed has created another resource, which will enable me to draw on a much more diverse group than ever before should I need assistance or advice on any of a number of issues which may face housing at Flinders in the future.

I am indebted to those responsible for making this award available and know I have been fortunate to be a recipient. The benefits to Flinders Housing and Flinders University are hard to define at the moment. Contacts I have made and the many things I learnt and experienced while overseas have given me a pool of knowledge and expertise from which to draw as circumstances and issues arise in the future.

Recipients 2000

Lesley McCluskey

SoCPES

My successful application for the Arthur Keain Award was financially supplemented by Staff Development and the Science & Engineering Faculty. I attended the 19th Groundwater School held in Perth, April 2000. I gratefully thank the University for this development opportunity. The Centre for Groundwater Studies which has its national office in the dept. of Earth Sciences here at Flinders provide training programs to serve a range of professions. As attendees we were inducted to the principles of groundwater management through seminars and field demonstrations by leading Research scientists and professionals. Of particular interest was the exposure to the technical product range and the design of groundwater management monitoring equipment. The range of professions represented at the course made me aware of the scope of the industry and an appreciation of the potential research and teaching applications of my position at Flinders.

Tania Neville

School of Biology

The Arthur Keain Staff Development Award is a rare opportunity for general staff to apply for funding to help showcase our skills and enhance our work environment. I have twice been a recipient of this award and would strongly urge any general staff member to apply. I am a technician for the Animal Behavior Group in Biology and we work mostly on social insects. My first application was for partial funding to attend a conference in Florence, Italy (1996). I presented a paper on my research at Flinders and promoted an International Conference that was being hosted by our group in 1998. This led to my becoming the Congress co-ordinator which was both challenging and rewarding. Many international links were established as part of this conference and a collaboration was set up between our group and the Universities of Witswatersrand & Pretoria in South Africa. My Supervisor, Dr Michael Schwarz had his initial field trip to Africa confounded by many problems including procuring consumables and chemicals, money, transport & safety concerns etc. I applied for funding to go to Africa to try and set up a base for our Australian group to make the work easier. I was also involved in extensive and remote field work. The University is keen to improve International collaboration but perhaps does not realise the difficulties faced by staff in some very fundamental areas. I was able to liaise with many groups from the University, car rental faro's, hotels & private land owners to establish a workable and safe environment for both staff and students from Flinders. I also hope my trip raised awareness of Flinders as an important research institution and a potential venue for international students. I would welcome any questions regarding this award and hope that supervisors will encourage their staff pursue their ideas.

Ron Slee

Admissions, Examinations and Graduation

In November 2000, with generous support from the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award, I attended the biennial NAPSA (national association of prospective student advisors) conference in Melbourne. The NAPSA conference is the major forum in Australia on tertiary student recruitment and it provided me with a valuable opportunity to develop my professional expertise in this area. I was especially pleased to be able to gather some recent intelligence in a range of key areas including

the relationship between secondary and higher education - who serves who and who are the innovators?
new career patterns of young Australians
making advertising and marketing work harder
how VTAC (Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre) coordinates non-school leaver recruitment in rural and metropolitan regions
the relevance of careers counselling to marketing courses
evaluation techniques
targeting marketing strategies to those who "might give it away"
challenges of sharing a university campus with a TAFE and a senior high school.

The conference spanned three days. On the final afternoon, NAPSA held its Annual General Meeting. At this meeting, I was elected the South Australian representative to the Management Committee and appointed its Treasurer. The next NAPSA conference will be held in Adelaide in 2002. I was extremely grateful for the financial support which enabled me to participate in this well-organised collegiate event. I am now keenly anticipating the opportunities to use this experience in developing the recruitment strategies that Flinders expects of me.

Recipients 1999

Kathy Greenhow

Student Health Services

I have worked at Flinders University for nine years and l can personally say this was the best Staff Development course l have ever attended. It gave me the opportunity of seeing how another institution works especially the Health Service. Curtin's Health & Counselling services are quite hi-tech. This is one of the reasons why l nominated for the award. I was particularly interested to see how Medical Software is used not only for bookings but also for all medical administration.

Most of my time was spent working at the Health Service, comparing our manual filing and booking system to a computerised method.

The staff at the Health Service were very accommodating and l certainly did not feel like an outsider. The filing system used is quite different to ours and we will try to incorporate some of their ideas in our service e.g. a tracer card system to cut back missing files. Because of the volume of files used daily in our Health Service, it will be tried out only when individual professionals take files (nurses for pathological results, counsellors when on phone link etc). This, we hope, will cut down our problem of missing files although the extra time taken to fill in the forms will need to be assessed.

Ray Yates

Animal House, School of Medicine

As one of the recipients of the 1999 Arthur Keain Staff Development award I had the opportunity to visit the University of Guelph in Ontario Canada. Guelph is located in Ontario province Canada approximately ninety kilometers south west of Toronto. This was in conjunction with visits to the University of Alberta, Edmonton, the University of Calgary, Calgary, the University of British Columbia Vancouver and the Health Sciences University, Portland Oregon, U.S.A. and the Ontario Veterinary College. This facility is one of the best in the world of its type with its surgical areas including preoperative, theatre, intensive care and recovery areas being equal to anywhere in the world.

The University of Guelph has two large animal facilities; the Central Animal Facility (CAF) and the Ontario Veterinary College. These facilities are world renowned for their approach to Animal Welfare in the case of the former and research into analgesia by the latter.

I was particularly interested to compare several Technical Procedures used in Canada, to the way we have been doing them here at Flinders that will provide biological samples with less stress on the animal having been subjected to a less invasive procedure. The collection of blood by means of saphenous puncture in both the mouse and the rat means that the animal can be bled with less risk than cardiac puncture and less trauma than orbital sinus bleeds. They also carry out the procedure of blood sampling from the guinea pig by the jugular vein route which takes a lot of practice and for this procedure I have brought back a video of the technique for the staff here to view.

Similarly, Staff Training in Canada was compared with ours. It is carried out in house and at Community Colleges (similar to Australian TAFE) then the technician is certified as competent in a particular procedure after examinations by the Canadian Association for Laboratory Animal Science In comparing the technicians at Flinders to those at Guelph it appeared that the general staff had a much broader knowledge of animal care to a diverse range of species whereas their Canadian counterparts were more narrow in their field of expertise. This worked well in Canada because permanent staff numbers were high in proportion to work load (ie the use of volunteers already mentioned) and also they could be very specific in their tasks but it had the disadvantage of not allowing technicians to move through the range of animals and procedures.

The visit to the University of Guelph was a very worthwhile experience as it not only gave me the opportunity to view their approaches to Animal Production, Welfare and Housing but to also compare the Flinders facility to that of Guelph and bring back aspects where we can improve the facility and the technical support available to the researchers. It also gave me the opportunity to exchange knowledge and create contacts for further consultation and I can confidently say that the contacts I have made will stand this facility in good stead for the future. This visit also was a valuable interaction between their personnel and myself as some anesthetic procedures, which are routine at Flinders were novel to them. They also were not au fait with the use of some anesthetic regimes and non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs which were not on the market in Canada. One anesthetic regime which we have had considerable experience with, one constituent of which will be marketed in Canada in the New year is the drug medetomidine. They were very interested in finding out my experiences with its use and the comparison with other anesthetic regimes which they were familiar with.

Recipients 1998

Julia Collins

International Students Office

I was a recipient of the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award in 1998. The award enabled me to travel to Singapore from the 9th August - 15 August 1998 in order to enhance the professional development of my duties within the International Office.

The majority of my time in Singapore was working within the International Development Program (IDP) office in Singapore. IDP is an Australian owned enterprise with offices in all major cities in Asia. Their responsibilities include the recruitment of International Students to Australian universities. By working within this area I gained a better understanding of how IDP recruits students on behalf of Flinders University as well as having the opportunity to talk to prospective international students about courses offered at Flinders University. I also visited one of the University's agents, Hui & Kuah and talked to the Head of the office about their recruitment processes. While in Singapore I also attended the Flinders University and University of Adelaide's Alumni functions.

The Arthur Keain Staff Development Award was an excellent opportunity for me to enhance both my knowledge of International Student recruitment for my current position as Office Coordinator within the International Office and well as enhancing my professional qualifications for my future.

Angela Binns

Medical Biotechnology

During 1998 I was fortunate to become one of the recipients of the Arthur Keain Staff Development Award. As a general staff employee in the Biotechnology Course I was extremely interested in attending a unique one day course in Melbourne presented by "The Scientific Training Centre." The course was entitled "Striving for Quality". Laboratory based development courses are very rare, especially ones which provide such a range of skills that relate directly to my situation. My application was for the cost of travelling to and from Melbourne on the same day.

I was very fortunate to win one of the awards and found it to be an extremely beneficial experience. Since returning I have been able to implement many of the methods / systems into our laboratory situation. I feel that all personnel within our area, have benefited from the knowledge, which I gained from this short but very worthwhile course. I feel proud to have been one of the award winners and encourage general staff to apply.