From the Vice-Chancellor
The hosted by the 成人大片 last month was perhaps the most important conference ever held by this University. Certainly it was a very busy time for a lot of people, with almost 300 university leaders from across the Commonwealth attending three days and nights of discussions and events. One of the main features of the gathering is the broad cross-section of nations it encompasses, particularly in the sense of developing countries such as Nigeria and Ghana to already-developed countries like Australia and the UK. This interaction between developing and already-developed countries - particularly as it relates to the movement of students between the two - was one of the major overarching themes to emerge from the conference. Is it a help or hindrance to developing countries if their students - very often their best and brightest - are continually moving to already-developed countries for their university education? While this proved to be a very difficult question to answer, conference delegates did not shy away from discussing it. One theory suggested that while it is easy to think of this issue as a "brain drain" or "brain gain" one, it is perhaps more instructive to think of it as a "brain re-circulation": that while initially it can be damaging for developing countries to "lose" such high-quality young people, such is the nature and internationalisation of modern global life that in the long term these people do return to their home countries to make a significant contribution. The conference was very successful in giving delegates the chance formally to discuss issues important to them, but also giving them the opportunity to network in less formal circumstances than they might otherwise have had outside the conference. I have no doubt that many important collaborations and agreements between universities of all kinds had their germination at ACU 2006, and I am pleased that we could offer such a conducive environment for this to occur. On a personal level, a number of ideas and issues from the conference really stood out. The first of these was the extent to which a very large majority of Commonwealth universities - regardless of size or type - are grappling with funding issues. Most of the attending university leaders indicated that they are operating in an environment where governments were either unable or unwilling to provide an appropriate level of funding. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on how best to alleviate this problem, with many having to look to the students themselves providing more funding or through increasing engagement with industry or by fundraising. Something else that made an impression was the issue of supply and demand for student places, particularly in developing countries. While universities in these countries are rapidly expanding the number of places they can offer to students, it is still slower than the increase in demand for these places. This also feeds into my earlier point about already-developed countries and "brain re-circulation". By helping to meet this demand, already-developed countries can be of great assistance to developing countries, as the more students from a country who can attend university, the better off that country will be. Lastly, the diversity of universities around the Commonwealth - particularly the types not prevalent in Australia - was also of significance. We had leaders from public universities, not-for-profit universities and private universities, and talking to them gave an illuminating insight into modern universities and the shared, and unique, issues and opportunities we all face. The conference was a resounding success, and my sincere thanks go to all of those people from the 成人大片 and the ACU who helped to make it the success it was. PROFESSOR JAMES A. McWHA
Vice-Chancellor and President
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