Go to a Graduation!

Graduations are great! I think all of us need to get to a graduation once in a while (at least once a year). They really are fantastic events and provide a great opportunity to see the importance of our work. In our Division we get to see our students before they start at the university during the

 marketing process. Our international student support section gets to see students when they have problems (or when they are the problem!) and our alumni

 section when they have been out in the world. But graduation is the only point where we get t

o see the climax of the student’s and our hard work.

 

There is nothing better than seeing the pride on the faces of the student’s family and

 friends. Many of our students are the first member of their family to attend university. Universities are mysterious places for the

 family. The mystic of universities is enhanced at graduation when we put on our show of tradition and pageantry. Just

 think what all of this must look like from the outside from the viewpoint of someone who ha

s never stepped inside a university.

 

I think that all of us attending graduations get a real sense of pride – to see what our students have achieved.

 

I the past couple of weeks I have had the privilege to take

 part in two graduations one in Singapore and the other at Guangzhou. I enjoyed both of them immensely. For me the two best parts of graduation are seeing students cross the stage to pick up their degree and the other is at the end of the ceremony meeting families. In China this is particularly good. The whole family wants pictures with you (as you can see from this one!).

 

So when you feel down about the daily grind – go to a graduation you will see that your work is important and that you are making a difference.

 

Staff from the Division are more than welcome to attend any graduation at JCU. We will start publishing the dates of the ceremonies – so come along!

Shanghai

Today is my third and final day in Shanghai. This afternoon I catch a flight to Singapore. An overnight flight from KL got me here on Monday at about 7am. I had a full day of meetings on Monday. I never sleep well on planes so getting through the day was a little difficult! However I have always found that the best way to get over jet lag is to immediately fit into the time zone you are in. So if you arrive at 7am it is best to struggle through until 9 or 10 pm. If you sleep during the day you take days to get over jet lag.

I met up with Ben Kelly who is the Manager of our Shanghai Office. Ben works with Eva the office administrator to look after JCU's interests in China. He spends a lot of time servicing agents and recruiting students. Ben gave me a briefing of what we have been doing in China. We also reviewed targets for China.

Later that day I visited Mr Bei Qiang the Director of Tongji Study abroad. This group wants to work with JCU to establish a pre-masters program for our Business School. I will be talking to that school about this when I get back.

I then visited one of our agents Edu Shanghai agency. I met with the Managing Director Li Weiping and Senior Consultant Vera Feng. This was a good meeting and we discussed many of our programs. Mr Li had visited our Townsville campus earlier this year.

After having dinner with Ben I got to bed at about 9.30 - not bad - no jet lag for me.

The following day (Tuesday) I went to Shanghai Ocean University. This is university very like our own (research intensive and very well respected in the field of marine biology). Professor Cocklin had visited the university earlier this year. We are looking at setting up an on going relationship with SOU in the near future. Professor Jun Ye told me about the university and what he would like to see happen between our two universities. I also met with Professor Zhong Junsheng, and Professor Cheng Yongxu. Yvonne Wang from the Foreign Affairs Office also attended the meeting. The university hosted a lunch where we ate most of the marine life we had been talking about during our meeting! This will be a university that we will work with very closely in the future.

After lunch I visited Fudan University. This is one of China's leading universities. Ben Kelly and I met up with the Dean of nursing Jia Hongli and Vice Dean Xia Haiou. At this meeting we discussed nursing in both China and Australia. There are possible links between this school and our own school of nursing. On my return I will be talking to our new head of nursing David to discuss a possible relationship.

In the evening I had dinner with Dr David Mcquire. David used to be CEO of Advance Cairns. He is now General Manger of the Shanghai Daily - the largest English language paper in China. It was good to get David's take on what is happening in China post Olympics.

Today I have a meeting at the Queensland Education Office in Shanghai and then I am off to the airport once again.