CollegeDownUnder is now CampusDownUnder

October 2007

Newsworthy & Interesting

 

It has just been a great experience traveling around the US and talking to students who are very interested in coming to Australia to study. They can quickly see the many advantages.

BOND RECEIVES AUSTRALIA'S HIGHEST RATINGS IN 2008 GOOD UNIVERSITIES GUIDE

Bond University is the highest rating university in Australia after earning the most five-star ratings in the 2008 Good Universities Guide.

The independent consumer guide released on August 15 provides ratings, rankings, comment and information about all Australian higher education institutions and helps thousands of students to make one of the most important decisions of their lives.

The stellar performance by the private, not-for-profit Bond University in Queensland saw it receive the maximum five-star rating in an unrivalled ten key performance indicators, including a clean sweep of the educational experience and graduate outcomes categories.

University of New South Wales was the next highest performer, achieving five-star ratings in a total of nine categories.

Bond University Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable said, "The fact we have been recognised as a top performer across so many key indicators of a university's standing demonstrates our consistent focus on quality."

"Our five-star assessment in areas such as graduate satisfaction, staff-to-student ratio, graduate starting salaries and positive graduate outcomes is testament to the outstanding success of our graduates and our unique personalised approach to education that distinguishes us from other Australian Universities.

"The recognition of our Academic staff, with our first class ratings in staff qualifications and teaching quality, also points to our commitment to recruiting world-class Academics with practical experience, who lead the way in helping us deliver a superior quality of education to our students," Professor Stable said.

Bond University Chancellor Mr Trevor C Rowe, AM said, "Bond, over the past years, has been focussed on providing a quality educational experience for our students, producing graduates who are 'work ready', and quality research outcomes."

"We have performed consistently well in these, and other, independent rankings for several years now, proving there is definitely a place in Australia for Bond - a growing place of innovation and difference which brings a new dimension to tertiary education in this country."

In summary, in the 2008 Good Universities Guide, Bond ranks FIVE STARS for :

Graduate Satisfaction
Graduate Starting Salary
Teaching Quality
Staff Qualifications
Staff - Student Ratio
Getting a Job
Positive Graduate Outcomes
Generic Skills
Entry Flexibility
Non-Government Earnings

 

AN EVENING WITH SCOTT POWELL EDITOR OF AWARD-WINNING TV SERIES '24'

Bond University 's Centre for Film, Television and Screen-based Media is honoured to present an evening with Scott Powell, editor of the international hit television series '24' in September.

Scott Powell, current Editor for the acclaimed Fox series 24 , has been working in television and film post-production since 1984. He started as an Apprentice Film Editor on the CBS/FOX lot where he worked on drama series including Hill Street Blues and Saint Elsewhere , sitcoms including Newhart , and feature films including Better off Dead starring John Cusack. In 1985 he went to work on Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories .

For the next few years he worked as a freelance Assistant Editor and contributed as a non-credited Co-Editor on critically acclaimed TV movies including Unconquered starring Peter Coyote and Dermot Mulroney, Goodnight Sweet Wife: a Murder in Boston starring Ken Olin, and Emmy winner Miracle Landing , starring Wayne Rogers.

His first editing credit was in 1988 on a CBS drama series called Blue Skies and since then he has enjoyed a diverse career editing everything from long-form network TV to award-winning documentaries, commercials, and music videos.

His long-form credits include the mini-series Atomic Train starring Rob Lowe, a series of three Gunsmoke television movies starring James Arness, Dying to Belong starring Hilary Swank, and Sleeping with the Devil starring Shannon Doherty. His documentary credits include Rescue 911 , Behind the Music , World of Wonder , Movie Magic and The Last Mission . His TV series credits include the pilot episode of Touched by an Angel , The Lazarus Man , Wolf , D.C. , and The Lot . He is now working on his seventh season of the Fox series 24 where he's been nominated twice for an Emmy award and has won an Eddy award for best edited drama series.

Scott Powell is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, American Cinema Editors, and the Academy for Television Arts and Sciences. He is also the owner of North Pond Images, a production and post-production company in Los Angeles. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Laurie.


Bond MBA update :

  • Work experience requirement is now TWO years not three years.
  • NO GMAT score required.
  • Start date is still September 2008, BUT there is a compulsory Orientation, which counts as a subject and it starts 2 weeks prior to Week 1. So the actual start date for the MBA is 25th August 2008.
  • 50% Scholarships are still on offer for students. Students with excellent profiles are encouraged to apply (good UG GPA, and/or good work experience and/or good GMAT).
  • Credit exemption - this is possible on a case-by-case basis.

Contact me for an application form and student catalogue

 

Bond Week Activities

Attendees were inspired and learnt that a great idea is not always enough. An opportunity (to create a sustainable profitable venture) is more than just a good idea. The interactive lecture involved a creativity exercise that participants thoroughly enjoyed. One participant commented that listening to Professor McKaskill was moving. "Tom is a great story teller and is very engaging. It is wonderful to learn from someone who has done this himself and is speaking from personal experience".

 

GENEROUS ART DONATION FROM BOND GRADUATE

Bond University has hosted a cocktail party with Dr Patrick Corrigan in celebration of his donation of more than 80 pieces of indigenous art.

An art investor and local businessman, Dr Corrigan, presented the gift to Bond University, where he holds an honorary doctorate.

"I had a few too many pieces in my collection and there is nothing worse than collecting art to put them in storage."

"So I selected a group of work and gave it to the university."

Bond University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Stable, was delighted to be able to display the art at the university. Guests of the evening included Mayor Ron Clarke, Moncrieff MP Steve Ciobo, Robina MP Ray Stevens and Cr Jan Grew.


STUDENTS TO VISIT DEVELOPERS DREAM IN DUBAI

Twenty fortunate graduate students from the Bond University Mirvac School of Sustainable Development took part in an educational trip of a life time.The student-initiated expedition saw students meet with Dubai’s foremost developers specialising in areas from town planning to infrastructure management.

Head of School Professor George Earl explains the opportunity as invaluable."It provided students with the opportunity to see Dubai’s major construction boom first hand and learn how leaders in development are achieving so much in such a short time." "It was a great opportunity for students to form links with major international companies such as The Sunland Group," he said.

"The calibre of students that took part in the trip has meant that international developers are eager to collaborate with Bond University and meet with the prospective employees," postgraduate student John Ratcliffe explained. "The students taking part are the future leaders in sustainable development," he said.

"We will be able to gain knowledge from this experience that will ensure we are up-to-date with the latest trends in design and development." Professor Earl expects the employment outcomes of the trip to be "very high" and is encouraged by interest from local development companies.

"Developers have already expressed an interest in joining us on similar learning expeditions in the future," he said. It is hoped that the trip will become an annual event for School of Sustainable Development postgraduate students. Professor Earl is also excited by the potential for strengthening relations with Dubai developers and hints that similar learning opportunities are already in the works.

"The Gold Coast and Dubai already share a strong link, being twin cities, and the School of Sustainable Development wants to continue to make the most of this special relationship," he said. "We look forward to working with and learning from people such as Executive Director of The Sunland Group, Soheil Abedian far into the future."

On their return students will present their findings, based on their area of study, to local development company, The Sunland Group. Highlights of the trip included a visit to the world renowned D1 Tower and a boat trip to the man made Palm Islands.

CHANCELLOR TREVOR ROWE TAKES INDEPENDENT APPROACH AT ROTHSCHILD

Peter-John Lewis of the Australian Banking & Finance Magazine recently spoke with chancellor and Rothschild chairman of investment banking, Trevor Rowe, about his organisation’s distinctive business model.

Trevor Rowe left Citigroup in November 2005, having been approached by Rothschild Australia Limited to take on the position of chairman in a purely non-executive capacity. However, within the first four days, investment banking head Tony Ferguson left the organisation and Rowe was asked by Rothschild in London to review the Australian business.

As a result of that review, he emerged as part-time executive chairman and, over the last eighteen months, Rothschild has refocused on the core franchise strengths of the organisation globally, particularly in the spaces of natural resources, utilities and infrastructure, industrial and commercial companies, and financial institutions. It also has a joint venture Equity Capital Markets (ECM) operation with ABN AMRO.

"Within those disciplines, we determined a core group of clients with whom we had some access to CEOs, chairmen, boards and the like. And over the last eighteen months we have focused on M&A advisory services to that core client group in the context of the understanding that Rothschild is not a product shop," Rowe said in a recent interview with Australian Banking & Finance magazine.

"We don’t sell structured product, equity product, fixed income product or the like. We provide purely independent advice.

"As a result of the review, we also sold off our wholesale banking operations, thereby focusing our entire resources on our M&A advisory work. And we are very pleased with what we have accomplished to date."

Rothschild is exploiting the strong market that exists in mergers and acquisitions at the moment, which has seen world record volumes this year.

"We have done some very important transactions. We obtained the sell-side mandate from the Queensland Government to sell its electricity and gas retail assets, for which we achieved record prices of $3.1 billion. We were successful in the APA take-over last year. And we have been very active in working with private equity," Rowe said.

"If you look at where M&A fees are at the moment, they are about 50 per cent from traditional M&A activities and about 50 per cent now from private equity. That reflects the flurry of private equity activity that we have seen over the last six months."

Trevor Rowe has acquired a deserved reputation for driving innovation at the various organisations with which he has been associated, and Rothschild is no exception. It now prides itself on its responsiveness and agility in a crowded marketplace.

"Rothschild is an international firm with a great historical reputation, which is very focused on delivering to the needs of the client. It is very client-focused," Rowe said.

"Through that focus, it is constantly thinking about ways that it can differentiate itself in terms of giving advice that adds value to other considerations a corporation may have in a strategic context.

"We can also give independent advice on the sort of capitalisation or funding structure a client may require, because we are agnostic in terms of the alternatives they may pursue. We tend to look at what brings value to the client.

"With the emerging global models of product houses as service providers, boutique firms such as Rothschild have an unusual opportunity to provide a CEO or a board with a purely independent view of what their options are, without the complications of other influences."

As well as being Rothschild chairman, Trevor Rowe is chancellor of Bond University, chairman of the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), chairman of the Queensland BioCapital Fund, chairman of the United Group Limited, a director of the Australian Stock Exchange Ltd, a member of the Board of Guardians of the Future Fund and a member of the Foreign Affairs Council.

These roles tend to complement rather than compete with one another, so the different organisations tend to benefit from the experience Rowe gains from the others.

"The ASX is the fulcrum of Australian financial markets, so it gives me a different perspective to that of Rothschild," Rowe said.

"United Group is in rolling stock, water, power, energy and property management services in Australia, the region and globally. This gives me a perspective across the area of infrastructure, contracting and the like.

"My roles at the Future Fund and QIC gives me an insight into innovation in funds management and investment, which in turn provides an interesting perspective across the economy and different parts of the world that, hopefully, adds value to the various roles in which I am involved."

Rowe is particularly proud of Bond University’s contribution in serving the needs of both students and employers.

"Bond University is Australia’s only not-for-profit private university and is able to be much more responsive to the changing needs of students and, therefore, potential employers. We are all about producing work-ready graduates, and this is evident in our rankings, which show we have been the number one university for three years in a row in terms of student satisfaction and – perhaps even more importantly – in terms of job uptake," he said.

"We at Bond are very focused on delivering a quality educational experience, on differentiating ourselves from the other universities, and on being able to respond quickly to needs. This is evident in, for example, the School of Sustainable Development, which we have developed jointly with Mirvac.

"We have just opened the Bond University / Macquarie Bank trading floor, which is the first of its kind, certainly in the southern hemisphere. It has a live feed from the ASX and enables our students to complement their academic pursuits with practical, simulated trading scenarios at the university.

"We have also recently built a new legal skills centre, which provides a replica High Court environment, along with mediation rooms. Students here, again, will be able to apply their academic learning in a practical environment, to ensure they are work-ready when they graduate."

ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACCOLADES

Japanese Studies is pleased to announce that Sam McDonald came 1st at the Queensland Japanese Speech Competition held on 18 August. Following the GC Annual Japanese Speech Competition last Saturday, Sam competed in one of the Open categories for tertiary students in the state competition.

He will now compete in the 37th Australian National Final Japanese Contest, scheduled to take place at the Japan Foundation Sydney on Saturday, 20 October 2007.

University Games

The Bond teams are well and truly into their competition rounds at the uni games and we have had some great wins in Touch football, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Rugby, Womens Soccer and Ten Pin Bowling.

Today our teams have the following games if anyone wishes to support them;

Basketball 3pm @ Cararra Stadium

Beach Volleyball 12pm, 2pm, 4pm @ Surfers Paradise Beach

Lawn Bowls 2.30pm @ Surfers Paradise Bowls Club

Rugby 3.30pm @ Cararra Sports Fields

Ten Pin Bowling 12pm @ Paradise Bowling Lanes

Touch Football 1pm, 2pm, 4pm @ Owen Park, Southport

 

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