Learning to listen, not just lecture

Community has a real stake in University of Tasmania, says Peter Rathjen

I’VE been on the road a lot lately, doing community engagement for the University of Tasmania.

Recently I was in Queenstown. The weather wasn’t too good and I got snowed in for several days.

I was there for a dinner with 20 community leaders. All 20 made it on roads that in many cases were closed. Something was important enough to them to make the effort to come and talk about what education on the West Coast looks like, and how the university might help.

Community engagement is a bit different in Tasmania than anywhere else I’ve worked; the community has a real stake in their university. It matters what our university does, and here are my thoughts on why and how.

For example, why does it matter that our university has grown 147 per cent in 10 years — the fastest or second fastest rate in the country? It’s because it means we are seeing more Tasmanians benefit from what higher education offers. We know, because the data is clear, that our graduates will earn more. They will live richer lives in almost every measurable way.

And why does it matter that our university has fought so hard and so successfully to strengthen our regional presence? It’s because it can be prohibitively expensive to leave home to study. Our regional communities need more, not less, local education. We also know that if you train people locally, they will live and work locally.

Having university-branded buildings matters too, particularly in regional areas. They matter in part because they make us visible to students who otherwise might not think about the university. They create aspiration, and raise confidence among our young people.

And then there is research. Why does it matter that University of Tasmania researchers had seemingly done the impossible? They had found out how you can breed lobsters on land. Such research matters because it’s the step needed to stop the world exhausting natural lobster fisheries. But we were also celebrating the commercialisation of that science and the university’s partnership with Tasmanian companies.

In this way, our researchers are working with different industries to address the real needs of the community and create opportunities for our kids. This comes back to why the Tasmanian community feels it has an important stake in the life of the university.

Research success contributes to university rankings. Why does it matter that our university has this year risen again in all three of the major international rankings? We ranked about 300 out of about 26,000 universities in the world. Is that important because it makes us feel better? Well, yes, it is. We’re proud to belong in the top 1-2 per cent of the world’s universities. However, that’s not the point.

What’s important is that our university is well known because it helps us to attract the best scholars to Tasmania. Even more importantly, a university that is well known and well regarded in Beijing, New York and London creates opportunity for its graduates.

And lastly, why does it matter that so many international students are choosing our island? Is it because it’s a major business? The value of our international students has topped the cherry and abalone industries. This creates jobs and wealth.

But no, that’s not the reason this matters so much.

It is more because of what it says about our place in the world, about the enrichment of our lives international students bring, on and off campus. It is about raising cultural awareness in our youth, increasing respect for diversity and for others.

It’s also about connecting our students worldwide through friendships they will make at university, knowing they will join our 110,000 graduates across 120 countries.

There’s no doubt in my mind that what the University of Tasmania does matters very much. In deciding what we should focus on in coming years, I’d like to think it is a university that has learnt how to listen rather than lecture. This is an edited transcript of a speech given by University of Tasmania vice-chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen.