Last week UTS released the winning design for the 250-bed college that aims to be a city home for Indigenous students, giving many an opportunity for higher education that wouldn’t otherwise be there.

The winning design – by the firms Greenaway Architects, Warren and Mahoney, and OCULUS – merges an accommodation tower with an existing 1950s modernist building that will house the college’s cultural centre, exhibition space and areas for gathering and conviviality.

Jefa Greenaway, one of the architects, says the project is a national first.

“There hasn’t been a bespoke from-scratch First Nations college,” says Mr Greenaway, the cultural design lead of the winning team who is a descendant of the Wailwan and Kamilaroi people of northwest NSW.

He sees the college as a place to “support and enable Indigenous people to flourish through education”.

“[Designing the building] also comes with an acute responsibility. We really saw it as an opportunity to reimagine and create a benchmark for Indigenous design leadership.”

Mr Greenaway says the design connects with Indigenous culture on several levels. The on-campus site is not far from Redfern, a long time centre of Sydney’s urban Indigenous community and an incubator for activism and civil rights.

Then there are the deeper links to the Gadigal people, the traditional owners of the area.

“You can concrete over country but country still exists, the stories are encased in place,” Mr Greenaway says.

The architects have sought to bring that out in the design, using colours of country, the provenance of the materials, and paying particular attention to outdoor spaces. The shape and texture of the building also is intended to evoke a landscape shaped by age that is not rectilinear. “Water erodes,” Mr Greenaway says.

Within the building, instead of what Mr Greenaway calls “gun barrel” corridors, rooms are structured to build communities with meeting places and communal kitchens on each floor that connect to the outside.

There’s a range of room sizes including double rooms and four-bedders. The college is intended to cater to mature-age students as well as school-leavers. It also could house families.

“Mature-age students have kids,” Greenaway says.

The college will be adjacent to another notable UTS building, the Frank Gehry-designed business school. “We needed to develop a language and a dialogue with that building. We needed to provide a counterpoint,” Greenaway says.

UTS vice-chancellor Andrew Parfitt says the college will “raise the bar on efforts to increase Indigenous participation, retention and success in higher education, and help to remove a major barrier by providing access to cost-covered, culturally informed and enriched accommodation”.

Accommodation and living costs for most Indigenous students will be met through the federal government’s Abstudy scheme and by the university.

UTS pro vice-chancellor (Indigenous leadership and engagement) Robynne Quiggin says the college was the vision of now emeritus professor Michael McDaniel, a former holder of her position, who “identified a strong need to provide a place that feels like home to Indigenous students”.

The college – which is planned to have an elder in residence and offer pastoral care to students – will not be exclusively for Indigenous students.

“We want a majority of First Nations students. We want a culturally informed, culturally safe space,” Ms Quiggan says.

“Non-Indigenous students will have the experience of a place run on Indigenous cultural values.”

She says there has been a deep consultation process with the Indigenous community to inform the design. They wanted light-filled spaces to come together, and other facilities such as communal kitchens and a cultural centre.

Founding donors to the project include Woolworths, which gave $10m, the NSW government ($10m) and the City of Sydney ($1m).

The historically American award was trialled in Australia in 2019, which led to the development of an official Australia-specific award under the auspices of Engagement Australia, and accepted applicants in June 2023 to be evaluated by an international review committee.

President of the Carnegie Foundation Timothy FC Knowles said UTS and the ACU represent the very reason the awards came to Australia.

"The institutions that we are recognising today are doing tremendous work in addressing their societal responsibilities through community engagement and service," he said.

"In doing so, they have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to, investment in, and accomplishment at community engagement to address real challenges in our communal lives."

UTS told Campus Review they included two examples of programs they run at their university to tend to community needs in their application for the award.

The 27-year-old UTS Shopfront allows community organisations to apply for help with resourcing projects, that students then deliver as part of their coursework.

The students must create useful material for the organisation depending on the subject they are enrolled in, which could be business, design, law, engineering or IT services.

Social media action plans, literature reviews, publication designs and branding projects have come from the Shopfront, which has engaged 183 projects and 1900 students just this year.

For example, students from two UTS subjects assisted youth organisation Yung Prodigy this year, when management consulting students developed a three-year business plan, corporate partnerships, marketing and funding opportunities and stakeholder engagement plans.

Simultaneously, professional pathways students researched the educational gaps that youth with incarcerated parents are faced with, in line with the services Yung Prodigy provides.

Their Jumbunna Research Institute, which investigates systemic issues with child protection laws for Indigenous Australians, was also considered in the application as a body that works directly with First Nations people to improve research strategies and outcomes.

UTS vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Parfitt said he is delighted the university's efforts have been accredited with a "gold-standard" of community engagement.

"As a public institution, working with and for community across our research, education and practice is fundamental to our purpose," he said.

"We can only realise our mission for public good through robust, collaborative two-way partnerships.

"This recognition of the diverse and long-running efforts across the university to embed co-creation and partnerships as part of our curriculum, scholarship, and practice is a testament to our extended community’s dedication to positive social impact."

Executive director of the Carnegie Elective Classifications Dr Marisol Morales said self-reflection was a key driver in choosing the successful applicants.

"The process of applying for [the classification] requires disparate parts of the university to come together to learn, reflect, and assess," Dr Morales said.

"This important component of institutional self-reflection allows institutions to put up a mirror and think about how their community engagement efforts are achieving the standards that meet higher education's public purpose to society.

"Institutions who achieve this do so not just as a part of their outreach efforts, but as a part of their core academic work in ways that are asset based, reciprocal and mutually beneficial with communities. This first round sets that standard for Australian higher education."

Verity Firth, the chair of the National Advisory Committee for the classification, said the award is part of a response to the actions called for by the Universities Accord Interim Report to improve the educational lives of students.

The Report suggested there be a process to better recognise and formalise the role universities play in their communities, particularly in the context of mission-based compacts.

"[The Report] declares community engagement to be a central part of university missions, calling for a way for the sector and government to recognise and formalise the crucial role institutions play in their communities," she said.

"The Carnegie Community Engagement Accreditation is a rigorous and independent way for Australian universities do to this, and we look forward to many more Australian universities attaining this accreditation in the future."

The classification will choose its winners annually, whilst a successful pilot in Canada will likely result in the implementation of its first classification cycle in 2024. Active interest from South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam suggests that others are to follow in the not-too-distant future.

The university, which self-reported the underpayment in May 2021, has entered an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work ­Ombudsman and will repay the entitlements and $1.3m in superannuation by 31 July 2023.

UTS became aware of its non-compliance while designing a new payroll system and found staff across seven faculties had been underpaid since 2014.

Underpaid staff worked in counselling, computer programming, libraries, and school and faculty administration.

The review found the average individual underpayment for staff was $1,590.

In in one instance, a casual was owed more than $209,000.

UTS has started a back-payment process with more than $3.5 million and $1 million in superannuation already paid.

The Fair Work ­Ombudsman said it wouldn't seek a financial ­penalty given the university self-reported non-compliance and "fully cooperated" with the investigation.

"Under the EU, UTS has committed to implement stringent measures across multiple years to rectify its non-compliance issues and ensure workers are paid correctly," Fair Work ombudsman Sandra Parker said.

"Underpayments by the UTS are the latest warning to all universities, and employers generally.

"If you don't prioritise workplace compliance and apply all entitlements, you risk underpaying staff on a large scale and facing enforcement action."

Last year, 11 universities were flagged to the watchdog for wage theft, which has now initiated two separate legal actions against the University of Melbourne.

The FWO said addressing the "systemic non-compliance" in the tertiary sector was a "top priority".

Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) said the technology, still in its early stages, has “vast potential” to improve multiple industries including healthcare, aerospace and advanced manufacturing.

“The hands-free, voice-free technology works outside laboratory settings, anytime, anywhere,” said UTS Professor Francesca Iacopi. 

“It makes interfaces such as consoles, keyboards, touchscreens and hand-gesture recognition redundant.”

The peer-reviewed study, which is in collaboration with the Australian Army and the Defence Innovation Hub, was recently published in ACS Applied Nano Materials. 

The report detailed how the brain-machine interface uses graphene sensors attached to the back of a user's scalp, which detects instructions from the occipital lobe - the part of the brain responsible for processing colour, shape and movement.

The user then wears a head-mounted virtual reality type lens which displays white flickering squares. 

By focusing on a particular square, the user's brain waves are detected and translated into commands.

“Our technology can issue at least nine commands in two seconds," said UTS Professor Chin-Teng Lin.

"This means we have nine different kinds of commands and the operator can select one from those nine within that time period.

“We have also explored how to minimise noise from the body and environment to get a clearer signal from an operator’s brain.”

In February, the Australian army released a video showing soldiers directing a robot dog using the brain-machine interface technology on a simulated patrol.

Earlier ADF testing said the technology was 94 per cent accurate in controlling the robot.

In 2020, UTS was awarded $1.2 million in research funding through the Defence Innovation Hub to investigate how brainwaves can be used to command and control autonomous vehicles.

Researchers said further research and testing are needed to continue making advances.

They are big questions. And two major review processes that just kicked off will be expected to provide answers before the new year is over. Mary O’Kane’s leadership of the Universities Accord process, and Margaret Sheil leading the review of the ARC, have these big questions to answer as we all collectively reimagine higher education.

The research funding landscape is particularly challenging with both public budgets, and cross-subsidisation from fee revenue, poorly placed to provide answers.  Increasingly the vision of the sector for its research eco-system is one with impact, engagement and commercialisation rising in importance. But there is widespread concern that it must be off off the back of secure and independent pipelines of basic research, re-aligned with new national research priorities.

It is a vision illustrated in the recent launch at UTS of the Australian Quantum Software Network of multiple universities and business partners. Part of the research funding future agenda undoubtedly involves finding new income streams with external partners increasingly seen as part of the eco-system not consumers of it.

Many universities are facing reduced numbers of domestic applicants as we get ready for 2023 admissions. This adds to commencing international student numbers that lag recoveries in the US and UK. We would all like to think these reduced domestic numbers are fully accounted for by cyclical effects. These arise with those finding the ease of employment distracting them from study intensity or signing up for degree education at all.

We might be masking effects within those cycles of the sort of longer-term moves away from full degree enrolment that are playing out in the US system at present, and in recent forecasts. Those trends and forecasts appear to be foreshadowing a reduction in the numbers of full degree applicants and a shift in its nature more towards online study reflecting changes in experiences and expectations in recent years.

What does appear self-evident, is the acceleration towards lifelong learning and a more fundamental rethinking of what job-readiness really means.  All universities are juggling significant faster-paced dynamics here. These are of changes in employer and learner expectations, accelerated changes in future of work needs, and a global reaction against the sector’s inability to deliver to under-represented groups.

A book published last week describes many of these dynamics as indicating the emergence of a new learning economy. This assumes a significantly growing demand for the lifelong educational well-being of global learners, but with growth focused outside of 3-year degrees. What new product and business model innovation will universities make in response?

Such a dynamic situation poses significant challenges for university leaders. These are times that call for compassion in university communities and cultural sensitivity to staff, tired from change. But these times need us all to undertake more change now than ever. It is a time when it is wise to seek to offer clarity more than certainty. It needs us to be deeply focussed on purpose and aligning staff and culture behind it.

We have seen some of the fastest rates of turnover in the senior leadership of Australian universities in the last 3 years.  It remains the most common route that new VC’s are appointed from outside of the institution. It is quite common for new leaders to completely revamp leadership teams, to reset 5-year strategies, and to focus at least as much on the culture they want to create, as the culture they inherit. The extent to which such an approach creates an environment and a climate fit for innovation and change is variable.

UTS is quite possibly unique in having had every new VC in its history appointed from within. The expression of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind and the rise of UTS in various measures of the national system most recently in this year’s ARC Discovery results is self-evident. It is also trying to embrace growth in lifelong learning in its thinking.

The advantages of continuity in leadership from internal appointments are often most evident in the approach of building future strategy and culture from a well-understood standpoint of what it currently is.  It would be unusual for a Senior DVC who had been instrumental in developing a current strategy and setting the current culture to suddenly spring a very different new plan out of their back pocket. They would be unlikely to change their values and beliefs when making a move described as being from the home office to the foreign office.

Continuity can be highly advantageous for culture, during times of rapid change. People welcome knowing where they are heading and it being what they had signed up for. It brings its own challenge to then ensure new ideas are explored and that innovation becomes energised rather than stalled by it.

New blood appointments into the senior team are obviously key. Renewing the gene pool in the key support roles can bring about the same regeneration and innovative thinking as a more turbulent knocking down and starting again approach.

It is often argued that the sign of a great leader is the team of leaders they leave behind. Investing in the diversity, innovation and richness of teams is well served by a strong focus on culture and purpose. But it also requires the head of the foreign office to have a razor-sharp focus on the horizon, the external world, and be more sensitive than others to what is changing and how.

The insights from other global leaders from all parts of our learning economy and research eco-systems, and insights of what these others see next are of critical value in navigating change. They are sometimes difficult to see if you are buried in the bowels of your home institution or context.  It often requires outside help and can benefit from collaborative approaches between universities, their leaders and increasingly commonly, by external partnerships.

As the University Accord process and ARC Review play out in 2023, this ability to hold the home culture and strategy together while being innovative around the big questions that are being explored globally in the extremal environment, will be critical. It is a subject UTS VC Andrew Parfitt and I discussed together on a recent episode of the HEDx podcast that you can access here.

Emeritus Professor Martin Betts is co-founder of HEDx.

Data tabled in the state parliament shows over one-third of academics employed in Victorian universities are casual, with one in three identifying as women.

Younger people aged between 25-34 were shown to be overrepresented in casual work compared to other sections of the tertiary workforce.

NTEU Victorian division assistant secretary Sarah Roberts said the root of systemic casualisation comes down to a “broken” business model.

“More than half of all Victorian university workers have no job security, no sick leave or parental leave and no ability to buy a home or plan for their future,” Roberts said. 

“Staff are continually employed on casual or short-term contracts, forced to constantly re-apply for their jobs and are often the victims of wage theft.  

“University Councils should step up and heed the warnings being issued from all sides on insecure work.”

Despite instability brought on by the pandemic, Australian universities have pulled in record earnings over the past two years.

Over 2021, Melbourne’s Monash University raked in nearly $3 billion dollars.

An analysis of Australian universities between 2019 and 2021 showed casuals accounted for 65.6% of staff losses while representing just 14% of total employed staff. 

The study, which compared universities' financial status to staffing levels, found overall job cuts exceeded total financial losses.

“It is evident that many universities assessed the financial risks associated with the pandemic to be greater than the actual outcomes,” the paper read. 

The latest federal government data shows in NSW there was 3237 fewer permanent and fixed-term contract staff in universities in 2021 compared to 2020.

Staff and students from the University of Sydney recently went on strike for 48 hours to protest “job-insecurity and exploitative casual work”.

On Friday, NTEU union members from the University of Western Sydney voted unanimously to take industrial action.

Union members at UTS also applied for a protected action ballot order with the Fair Work Commission on Saturday.

More information is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Topping the list of more than 1,406 institutions across 106 countries, WSU secured its place as a world leader in the latest edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. 

The ranking, now in its fourth year, measures universities' contributions toward reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).

This includes efforts to address issues such as gender inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.

“It is an immensely proud moment in the university’s history to see our sector-leading efforts to drive important social transformation recognised,” said WSU vice-chancellor and president Professor Barney Glover.

“Social justice, inclusive education, addressing inequality, environmental stewardship and resilience – these are all core to our mission.

"We are committed to delivering action in all these areas and fostering the next generation of thought leaders and civic-minded citizens who can solve these complex challenges.”

Adopted by all 193 United Nations member states in 2015, the 17 UNSDG goals seek to drive a “better and more sustainable future” by 2030. 

Over the past year, universities have submitted data on their commitment to achieving these goals as a whole, and have also been ranked on their progress towards meeting individual UNSDGs.

The University of Technology Sydney emerged as the second-highest-ranking Australian institution, securing 15th place globally.

La Trobe University in Melbourne followed in 19th place.

The University of Sydney lost its two-year runner up streak, falling to 52nd overall.

The university was recognised for its commitment to the goal of “making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, ranking 13th out of 783 globally. 

“It is encouraging to see more institutions taking part in the rankings which demonstrates how the university sector is committed to achieving a sustainable future,” said USyd's interim deputy vice-chancellor of research, Professor Kathy Belov. 

“While rankings can’t capture every possible factor they are an important tool in helping us understand how our efforts are perceived globally.”

For the second year, the University of Canberra placed first in the world for its commitment to reducing inequalities, keeping an overall global ranking of 57^th.

In 2020, the university reached its two per cent employment goal for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Vice-chancellor and president Professor Paddy Nixon said the win was a testament to the university's anti-discrimination policies and research on social inequalities.

“When people think of Canberra, they think of a privileged and fairly homogenous city," he said.

"They are surprised to find out our diverse student population is made up of 28 per cent first in family to go to university, six per cent are international students from low-income countries, and 6.8 per cent of our students have said they live with disability.

"This ranking recognises the role the University of Canberra plays in driving equality and increasing access to education for our region, as well as the impact our research has globally."

The University of Tasmania was also ranked first in the world for action toward climate change.

This section considered a university’s research on climate change, use of energy, environmental education measures and commitment to carbon neutrality.

Since 2016, UTAS has been one of only two Australian universities to be certified carbon neutral.

The Imagined Futures project, developed by the NSW Equity Consortium, delivers literacy-focused programs to students living in Greater Western Sydney.

This initiative encourages disadvantaged students from Years 7 to 9 to envision their own educational trajectories beyond school.

Researchers from UNSW, UTS and Macquarie University will follow students over five years to document what works and what doesn’t. 

Study lead, UNSW’s Dr Sally Baker, says rethinking how we approach literacy is key to addressing the equity divide in education.

“Literacy is an endemic and prevalent concern for everybody across the sector,” she said. 

“If we’re not equipping our students with the capacity to make meaning and to articulate themselves, and it’s difficult to do this in a way that meets everyone's needs, then we do limit the potential for success. 

“We also know that access to powerful forms of education, which could be a Cert 4 in TAFE or a university degree, is dependent on meeting particular literacy and numeracy benchmarks.”

Some 43 per cent of adults living in Australia currently read at or below a functional literacy level.

According to Grattan analysis of 2021 NAPLAN results, literacy rates among students whose parents haven’t completed high school fall significantly behind their peers whose parents have a university degree.

Changing the “one-size-fits-all” approach in standardised tests may help to better meet the needs of young people from non-traditional backgrounds, says Baker. 

“What we essentially do is use a set of tools that are not in any way fit for purpose when it comes to issues of cultural and linguistic diversity,” she said. 

“What we end up doing is collapsing everyone into the bracket of CALD.

“Also to get the higher ATAR, we see that privileged kids, kids who have much better access to resources, are still overpopulated in the elite professional degrees like medicine.”

Baker says that a “deeply uneven” resourcing model in Australia’s education system is behind the issue. 

“Literacy is often used as a proxy for quality of education but most of it comes down to resourcing,” she said. 

“We could apply this project to any school, but it’s particularly important in areas that are low resourced or have highly complex needs.

“It’s a shift in how business is usually done, and I think anything that pushes against the status quo has the opportunity to open a window to a conversation."

Former University of Technology dean of science Dianne Jolley is standing trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court, where she is facing allegations that she was responsible for a series of concocted mail directed at her in 2019.

She has admitted to penning one of the letters to herself, explaining that she had been targeted at her home where her underwear was stolen and her clothes were slashed on her washing line.

Jolley was on Monday found not guilty of a slew of counts after Judge Ian Bourke directed the jury to acquit her of nine charges.

But she is still facing a further 11 charges relating to allegations she sent a series of threatening notes, letters and cards to herself between July and November 2019.

She had pleaded not guilty to the remaining 11 charges – one count of causing financial disadvantage by deception and 10 counts of conveying information likely to make a person fear for their safety.

During her evidence on Monday, Ms Jolley admitted that she had authored and printed out one of the letters on November 13, 2019.

The court has previously been told that at the time, the university was considering cutting its traditional Chinese medicine course and experiencing resistance from some sections of the community.

Ms Jolley maintains that she was targeted in a series of letters because of the planned closure of the course.

“Dianne. We have removed a dean before and can do it again. You don’t belong here. You are not wanted here. Either you leave or we will do it,” the letter that she authored read.

She maintains that she was motivated to write the one letter because the harassment and pressure became too great.

She said the tipping point was an incident when someone broke into her backyard and slashed and stole clothing items and left a note on the back of her car.

She has said that after reviewing her contract, she resolved the only way to get out of her $320,000 role was to incur a misconduct charge.

The court was told on Tuesday that she sent an SMS to a colleague on November 18, several days after her arrest, in which she divulged that she had “cracked under pressure” and “did a couple of things” that “I’m not proud of”.

Under questioning from crown prosecutor Roger Kimball, Ms Jolley denied that the message was an admission that she had authored the other 10 letters for which she has been charged.

“I did not send 10 letters to myself,” Ms Jolley said.

Ms Jolley made repeated denials that she had authored the letters in an attempt to force UTS to place security measures around her.

She said she was “horrified” after someone destroyed and stole clothing items in her backyard, just metres from where her son was sleeping inside a granny flat.

The court was told that as a result of Ms Jolley receiving the letters, the university paid for CCTV to be installed inside and around her office at UTS’s Ultimo campus and she was given a personal security detail.

She also denied sending one of the letters prior to her departure to China on a business trip on August 31, 2019.

The note refers to Ms Jolley as a “f***ed racist bitch” and a “China hating lesbian”.

The court was told that the letter was postmarked September 2, with the crown arguing that Ms Jolley had sent it before she left the country on a business class flight with colleagues.

“In relation to that letter, you’re the author aren’t you,” Mr Kimball said.

“I didn’t write this letter,” Ms Jolley replied.

“You planned to send the envelope before you went to China as some sort of alibi,” Mr Kimball said.

“No,” Ms Jolley said.

Ms Jolley admitted on Tuesday that when she received one of the letters at her southern Sydney home in November 2019, that she had thrown it to her dog several times.

CCTV previously played to the court captures the moment she walks down her driveway and returns with a newspaper and a bundle of papers.

The letter, which Ms Jolley claimed she found on her lawn, read: “I know where you work, I know where you live, I know what you wear.”

She admitted to the jury that the footage further shows her scrunching up the letters and throwing it to her dog on several occasions before placing it in an evidence bag which had been given to her by police.

The letter came in an envelope with the university’s crest on the front and she said she assumed it was a hard copy of a confirmation that her probation period had ended a few weeks prior.

“I just assumed they were sending an official notice,” she said.

She defended her actions in allowing her dog to play with it instead of placing it inside one of the evidence bags given to her police.

“It wasn’t an exhibit at that stage, it was a letter from work,” Ms Jolley said.

The trial will continue with closing submissions on Wednesday before the jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict early next week.

Brungs is the current vice-chancellor and president of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). In his new role at UNSW, Brungs will succeed Professor Ian Jacobs, who earlier this year announced his intention to step down after completing seven years in the role and wishing to return home to the UK for family reasons.

Brungs’ academic career is distinguished, receiving the University Medal in Industrial Chemistry at UNSW when he was an undergraduate, to becoming a hallowed Rhodes Scholar. After completing his doctorate in Inorganic chemistry, Brungs researched “...into heterogeneous catalysis and sectoral leadership saw him elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering”.

As Brungs brings more than 20 years’ experience of operating across industry, government and academia, his experience will be invaluable as UNSW continues to advance its 2025 strategy.

“This is an outstanding appointment for UNSW,” Gonski said.

“The position was highly contested which is a great tribute to Professor Jacobs’ distinguished leadership of the University’s 10-year plan, which has seen UNSW grow from strength to strength. The University has focused not only on academic excellence, but on innovation and engagement and social impact; a strategy which Professor Brungs is committed to continuing,” said Gonski.

The academic is also known for his inclusive leadership skills and commitment to students. Brungs’ belief in industry partnerships and innovation also suits UNSW’s strategic plan. 

“Professor Brungs’ inclusive leadership style as well as his commitment to students, to innovation and to partnerships with community and industry, will also perfectly align with our strategy,” Gonksi said.

“In many respects, Professor Brungs is returning ‘home’ to UNSW where he studied Science as an undergraduate, with distinction. His father, Professor Mike Brungs, was an esteemed member of the materials science and engineering community and a long-serving head of school. His mother and three of his siblings also studied at UNSW.

“We are not only welcoming our 10th President and Vice-Chancellor; we are welcoming back an eminent alumnus and member of the UNSW family.”

Brungs sees his upcoming role as “one of the most exciting in education”.

“UNSW is an outstanding university that not only cares deeply about students but equally about the broader impact its teaching, research and engagement has on the whole community,” he said.

“UNSW is one of the best placed universities to partner with government and industry to drive the research commercialisation and translation agenda to help forge a bright future as we navigate the post-pandemic world, as well as meeting the skilling revolution Australian society needs.

“This promises to be one of the most challenging periods for higher education in Australia. For 12 years I have been privileged to serve UTS and am now similarly both honoured and excited about harnessing the skills, ideas and experience of the UNSW community – students, staff, alumni, industry and community partners, supporters and friends – to continue to make a significant and positive impact for Australia and the world.”