Our University and our region meeting the challenges of the 21st century

Campus News will carry an opinion piece in each of its four issues during the year. Here in our second issue for 2002, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton, outlines why the University of Wollongong is helping to drive the region's overall development
There is a considerable degree of anxiety, concern and confusion over all of our futures at the present time.

Within our region we have the further uncertainty and concern being felt by the job losses past, present and future as a result of government policies and company restructuring.

Many of us feel like closing the door to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and then everything will be all right. In the world of 2002 this is simply not possible.

So how can we deal with our future in an uncertain 21st century?

Our future, both region and university, must be seen in the light of an understanding of wider international challenges facing Australian society as a whole. They are:

• Increasing globalisation of technology, communications and commerce
• A shift in the distribution of wealth to some developing countries from the Western developed countries
• The growth of regionalism (Europe, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific region)
• An increase in religious and ethnic tensions around the world
• A threat to our environment
• The extreme poverty of so many of our fellow humans.

I am convinced we can meet those challenges that shape the future of our country and our region and contribute to the solution of the world's problems.What must we do?

• Australians must accept that change is inevitable and learn to enjoy and consequently shape that change
• Australians must feel confident competing internationally, and not just in sport, and
• Australians must be ready to seize opportunities

So with the world being the arena in which we must play and with it changing so rapidly and unpredictably, we must as a country and as a region be ready to seize opportunities. The only way we can do this is if every Australian is educated to the level that he or she is capable of benefiting from. Only this will allow us to gain the social and economic benefits that come from having an educated population.

The 21st century will belong to the educated countries and Australia being so innovative and resourceful could be at the forefront of those countries.

Our first Prime Minister Edmund Barton said: We are a free people with keen interest and active insight. We are capable of learning from experience and cherish our achievements and whilst the future may not seem easy, we shall confront it resolutely.

The cost to Australia of not providing wide access to high quality education, will be that we will be left behind. Low skill levels will jeopardise our capacity to generate wealth.
In turn, this will limit the capacity of governments to have control over national objectives.

In a relatively short time our national influence, prestige and ultimately our security could be undermined. Our chance to exercise effective control over the shape of Australia's future will have been lost.

The Australian community and governments at all levels must grasp the nettle of a new vision for Australia in which education investment is rightly understood as providing the only foundation upon which our future wealth and security can be assured. I feel this passionately. Locally your University, twice winner of Australia's University of the Year Award, will continue to work with the community and local industry to broaden the economic and social base of the region. The University will continue to act as an engine of regional growth' and drive new development opportunities.
Established in 1951, the University has grown to be one of the region's largest employers and is recognised by government and independent reviews as one of Australia's leading universities.
UOW employs about 1,500 people and injects more than $1 million a day into the local economy.

Here's just some examples of how the University is playing a key role in the region's development:

• The University is working with the community in driving the development of an advanced research and technology precinct at Brandon Park
• Through our Faculties of Creative Arts and Arts, we are helping to raise the profile of the Illawarra region as a competitive and cost-effective site for film and television production.

We are working in close collaboration with the Canadian-based telecommunications giant, Nortel. Nortel's operation located on-campus is now the company's largest research facility in the Southern Hemisphere employing about 200 people.

• The University and the Illawarra Area Health Service have formed a strategic alliance to ensure the delivery of leading-edge services.
• The BHP linked Institute of Steel Processing and Products conducts world-class strategic basic and applied research that will ensure BHP's future competitive advantage.
• We have established a satellite campus at Nowra and Education Access Centres in Batemans Bay, Bega and Moss Vale and a campus at Loftus in southern Sydney from 2003.
• The University runs a major Science Centre at Fairy Meadow which includes a planetarium that has proven to be one of the region's major tourist drawcards.