International study tour finds Deakin research on the right track

By Doug Aiton

Most Geelong people have become aware that Deakin University is deep in the throes of establishing a reputation, perhaps internationally, of being a top research university.

The Director of Research Services Divison is Alison Hadfield, who has her own definition of what research means.

“In a university sense, certainly at Deakin, it is about meeting the needs of the community, meeting the needs of industry, trying to solve real world problems, also adding to the international body of knowledge. It’s quite a broad ranging issue.

“I think what’s very different about Deakin University is that we are competing on an international stage. But dealing with real world community and industry-based problems.”

The landscape has changed of course. There are now eight universities in Victoria compared with only one, Melbourne University, in 1960. Monash opened in 1961.

Deakin was established in the late 1970s. Quite a few tertiary institutions have become universities since then, such as Swinburne and the Australian Catholic University.

Alison Hadfield says that Deakin’s council and present Vice Chancellor, Professor Sally Walker, have been determined to develop Deakin’s reputation as a university of research.

“Oh absolutely, particularly under Sally Walker’s stewardship. We’ve really tried to focus our research into areas of concentration that tackle the real world problems. And that means building cross-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary research teams and in particular at our Geelong Technology Precinct, the GTP.

“We have brought together, quite recently, a broad range of researchers, across disciplines of advance materials, intelligence systems, fibres, and also into the bio-nano space, to really put ourselves on the international stage.

“And I must mention in particular the leadership of Professor Peter Hodgson, who is our one and only Australian Research Council Federation Fellow, the most prestigious award in the land in research terms. He has been a major driver in bringing that team together.”

She also mentioned the huge contribution from recently-retired Professor Pip Hamilton.

“He was the first Pro Vice-Chancellor in research full-time at Deakin University and he was brought here by Professor Geoff Wilson, our former Vice-Chancellor. He really was the original driver of getting Deakin University a research-led university. And he brought Pip here in 1997, to really set that agenda.

“What’s been going on since then is that Pip set the framework, he set the whole basis for where we’re going and we’re now set to make a real step change in research into the future.”

So is Deakin recognised internationally?

“We are in certain areas. It would be quite wrong of me to suggest that we are in the top 100 universities, based on the traditional measures that have been used around the world to rank universities.

“But again, I’ll go back to where we’re different. Where we are leading the world is particularly in the areas of advanced manufacturing, and we have this absolutely unassailably world class group in that area.

“But that’s not the only area that we’re very strong in. We’ve got people like Boyd Swinburne in the area of public health who is doing ground-breaking work in interventions in health.”

Alison Hadfield has recently returned from a tour of British universities, most notable Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, and Warwick.

“What I was interested in at Nottingham and Warwick was to see how they were dealing with this cross-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary framework which is so critical in actually addressing the big research questions for now and the future.

“And I was most interested to see that the sorts of structures that we are putting into place at Deakin University are very much matching best practice around the world. It was really pleasing to see that Deakin seems to be on the right track.”

However, such institutions as Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick and Nottingham are much more generously funded than Deakin.

“I would say across Europe particularly there is a great deal more research funding available from a whole raft of different sources, and I think what Deakin has been unique in doing is actually growing its research profile basically on the smell of an oily rag over the last ten years.

“But what that has now resulted in is certainly the Victorian Government and the Federal Government sitting up and taking notice in certain areas.

“But we are not a university that goes out with a begging bowl. We believe in going with value propositions to our partners which will include State and Federal Government, to actually deliver research solutions that matter for Australia.”

Alison Hadfield was born in England and came to Australia with her parents in 1970, and attended a regional high school in Richmond, NSW, having come from what could be called a prestigious girls’ school in England, King Edward V1 High School For Girls, Birmingham.

“I missed England at first but then I found Australia so refreshing, that ‘can do’ attitude, there were no restrictions, just whoever you are, whatever you are, you can make a go of it in Australia. And, indeed, I think that is a lot do with the lack of a class system here.”

She then went to Macquarie University, NSW, where she graduated in science with honors in marine biology.

“I thought that being a marine biologist was the way that things were going to pan out, and I was fortunate enough to get a position as a research biologist at CSIRO, and then a lectureship at the University of Sydney and embarked on a higher degree by research there. As tended to happen to young women at that time, we ended up having a family and I took a bit of a career break.

“And I think it was that that made me stop and think about what I really wanted to do. And I actually decided that for me the best career was actually helping others do research rather than necessarily being immersed in research myself.

“I would very much like to stay where I am at Deakin. I am just so excited about where Deakin is going. There is so much energy, so much enthusiasm, all of which is fuelled by Professor Sally Walker, and very much by Professor David Stokes who is the new Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) whose enthusiasm is infectious. He is just so engaged and so determined to assist the university to succeed.”

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