Thanks to Lee Duffield for his report below. LD was one of three Senate members elected by graduates at the end of 2021 for a four-year term on the Senate, the governing body of the university.
In his report he quotes UQ’s response to his question about the activities of Boeing:
“UQ started a partnership with Boeing in 2003, mainly with its aviation focused research division, Boeing Research and Technology Australia (BRT-A), and in 2017 the company moved its 47 Brisbane-based research staff to a facility on the St Lucia campus.“
According to Bloomberg, Boeing has been delivering GPS-Guidance Bomb Kits to Israel since the genocide on Gaza commenced on October 8, 2023.
What is UQ Senate doing to make sure it is not complicit in the genocide in Gaza?
1. Has UQ divested from Boeing and other military projects at UQ providing support for the Israel and US war machines committing atrocities in Palestine?
2. Has it boycotted Israeli universities deep involvement with the genocide in Gaza?
3. What efforts are being made to ensure that UQ remains independent and critical of US and Israeli imperialism when its Chancellor is an unashamed apologist for both Israel and the United States?
Ian Curr, ed., 6 Jan 2024
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Summary: The newsletter catches up on developments with a charter on academic freedom and free speech; a recent controversy over cheating in English language tests; Artificial Intelligence; staff pay and a new academic classification called Teaching Associates, and the question of where the university stands on research and war — amongst other issues. – LD
Monitoring and participating in activities of the university is a constant learning process across many current issues, a selection of those issues reported on here. This Senate and the university management act reasonably providing information and responding to requests; the university is far from dysfunctional as many organisations are, which is helpful for compiling an account on what is happening, and hopefully to readers also.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
The Senate on 5 December gave formal approval to the charter on academic freedom proposed by the national Chancellors’ Council for all universities to adopt: the “2023 UQ Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom Attestation Statement”. It came out of a controversy on different campuses over whether fascists should be allowed to make speeches, and so on. The charter appears to guarantee open discourse on campus, certainly for staff and students, and probably will protect visitors also, obnoxious or not. Naturally campus regulations and laws of the country will still apply, e.g. under Anti-Discrimination legislation. Universities have adopted a practice of charging the convenors of meetings that have controversial guest speakers, a fee for security services – which can be a general disincentive.
The charter also will back academics or other university researchers speaking off-campus in their own discipline areas. It would not otherwise offer automatic help to university personnel who are involved in social issues, demonstrations and the like, off-campus. If you are, for instance, an engineer or geo-physicist opposing censorship of burlesque novels, and get arrested, it would be hard to argue that you were in discipline. The university management might decide to assist you on a discretionary basis and declare you are blameless at work, they might at least refrain from disciplining you for supposedly “bringing the university into disrepute”, but they can leave you out on your own if they like.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, TEACHING AND LEARNING
With AI running across several platforms it has applications in learning design, assessment, and its running mate, cheating. I inquired about objections posted on social media about AI being installed in assessment, finding out that such work has commenced, and is seen as amongst other things a potential relief from heavy routine burdens. For example the administration and academic staff have to accommodate over 50 000 applications for extensions to complete essays each time. Organising “authentic assessment” by human markers, as proofing against semi-automated production of work – contract assessment writing and the like — has to cope with such a volume of demand. Application of AI is not a zero sum game; it will have plusses and minuses. It would make sense that universities need to be the prime developers and users of it where they can – a correct engagement for generators of new knowledge.
In information provided to the Senate: With AI used in assessment, there has been experience of students attesting that feedback was better than received from staff. Some students know more about AI than staff. More training is coming on stream. Building the new world has demanded rigour and can get to an industrial scale. There are 87 learning designers employing new tools and technology; a small team of learning analysts is deployed by the University Academic Board; as reported previously 58 Integrity Officers with academic backgrounds are engaged to investigate cases of misconduct and cheating.
BOEING CENTRE, RESEARCH AND NATIONAL DEFENCE
Small group protests at the September and October Senate meetings made objections to the Boeing company research and development centre being on campus. The objectors from pacifist and left-wing groups saw a connection with the supply of munitions and weaponry to Israel by Boeing in the United States. I requested an up-date for Senate on the current activities of the centre, and a document giving facts and figures was provided in December by the Vice Chancellor.
UQ started a partnership with Boeing in 2003, mainly with its aviation focused
research division, Boeing Research and Technology Australia (BRT-A), and in 2017 the company moved its 47 Brisbane-based research staff to a facility on the St Lucia campus.
UQ has received $5.1-million of research funding and in-kind contributions from Boeing for three current projects: designing work roles for crew operation of multiple unmanned aircraft; sensory prerequisites for simulator-based pilot training, and cabin disease research services.
Joint work with the university includes Artificial Intelligence for advanced manufacturing, autonomous technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles, automation, aircraft systems, modelling and simulation and aircraft cabin environments – some of which can be seen as overlapping indirectly with military production.
The joint work with UQ extends into space technology: development of an antimicrobial surface coating, under testing for resistance to microbes on the International Space Station; development of autonomous vehicles, and environmental control and life support systems for the NASA Artemis program, for future crewed expeditions to the Moon and Mars. Boeing has provided extensive industry experience for UQ students over ten years and in 2023 donated $55 000 for student scholarships. It has not been claimed that the Brisbane centre directly provides ammunition or weapons for current warfare in the Middle East.
The Boeing incident highlights a wider issue of inevitable links between research and war, which is redolent of debates during the early Cold War and the Vietnam War. In present-day context, the Australian government, and Opposition are committed to large-scale investment in strategic resources, especially for purchase and operation of the nuclear-powered submarines.
The university has a policy for engaging with government and industry in the defence sector, described as a contribution to national security, which was presented to the Senate last August. My own contribution there has been to suggest that UQ could add-in a centre of excellence in strategic policy, a research field that can get to why go to war, able to inform any decisions related to building weapons systems. Creation and funding of an additional 300 student places has been foreshadowed for UQ, linked to the expected demand for skills and expertise for the submarines project.
ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT – INTRODUCTION OF “TEACHING ASSOCIATES”
A new Enterprise Agreement (EA) on wages and conditions was settled late in 2023 after a long negotiating period, and includes a new kind of academic job classification, Teaching Associate, to provide a career pathway for long-term casual staff. The use of casual tutors in insecure work had reached scandalous proportions, Australia-wide, when put on the list for the negotiations. It was a double-edged problem: all the harmful aspects of cheap-skate employment practices, brought home when work cut out during the Pandemic, and weakening of discipline knowledge by having fewer full-time academics with research allocations. UQ has undertaken to engage 50 Teaching Associates each year, persons in a good position to develop specialist abilities in teaching and learning, and presumably better positioned to get academic appointments where motivated to do that.
The EA provides a 15% salary increase cumulative through to March 2026, comparing well with other institutions in Queensland – one of the highest paying. At one point when conflict was starting to develop, the NTEU and other unions resorting to industrial action, I asked for the negotiations to be put on the Senate agenda. A report was made and as the process went on, the Senate received detailed information on several aspects, including new provisions around academic workloads, professional staff hours or conditions for casual employees. The EA agreement was approved by staff members by a huge majority in a vote last November and after approval by the Fair Work Commission was expected to take effect from late January.
PEARSON ENGLISH TEST AND GOVERNMENT BLITZ ON LANGUAGE STANDARDS
One of the four main testing services for International Students to demonstrate command of English, the online system of the Pearson Test of English (PTE) collapsed amid evidence of cheating. The company itself identified excessive scores being recorded, and the impact in Australia included 148 students withdrawing from programs or having their enrolment cancelled at UQ, with 52 remaining enrolled at the end of November 2023. In the past, the alternative International English Testing System (IELTS) saw universities ending contracts after complaints about use of non-native speakers in the assessment. Cheating on language performance has been identified as an aspect of using false study to get an ongoing visa or Permanent Residence.
In November the federal government announced a package of measures to tighten up on migration, including stricter measures for student and temporary graduate visas. A government statement said that from this year it would target “permanent temporary” status, where people live in Australia on temporary visas, changing from one type of visa to another, or from course to course. It would “incentivise applications from genuine students and discourage non-genuine students whose primary intention is to work rather than study”, and would investigate agents, to “remove unscrupulous providers”. The extent of malpractice does not stop “genuine” students doing excellent work, but when considering reputation and dealing with officialdom, it must make their lives more difficult.
“QUEENSLAND COMMITMENT” AND UQ IN THE REGIONS
Recently while in Townsville, as a member of the Senate Advancement and Community Relations Committee I attended a networking event organised as part of the Queensland Commitment. That is UQs outreach to the regions for recruitment of students and extension of operations across the state – emphasising contact with its graduates. Those at the event had insider knowledge of industry and community life: two agricultural scientists, the lawyer for a major hospital, a former senior executive of the power grid in North Queensland (and avid backer of renewables for the future). The state-wide project has a mixed pattern of engagements at this time but the example given here shows the potential for mobilising the resourcefulness and rich professional expertise of the UQ alumni community.
Another duty was to attend four of the 21 graduation ceremonies at the end of 2023, events that put a face to the graduates and demonstrate their striving and avidness. Once again a big percentage of the cohort were International Students enjoying the moment. The Medical graduates followed the tradition of reciting the Declaration of Geneva, the “modern Hippocratic Oath”, which is demanding, putting a sobering element into the celebrations. For them to grasp that undertaking fully requires a certain depth of knowledge and mature understanding beyond the immediate field of study; in that respect it can provide a model for all courses to build on.
The Physician’s Pledge:
AS A MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION:
I SOLEMNLY PLEDGE to dedicate my life to the service of humanity;
THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF MY PATIENT will be my first consideration;
I WILL RESPECT the autonomy and dignity of my patient;
I WILL MAINTAIN the utmost respect for human life;
I WILL NOT PERMIT considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient;
I WILL RESPECT the secrets that are confided in me, even after the patient has died;
I WILL PRACTISE my profession with conscience and dignity and in accordance with good medical practice;
I WILL FOSTER the honour and noble traditions of the medical profession;
I WILL GIVE to my teachers, colleagues, and students the respect and gratitude that is their due;
I WILL SHARE my medical knowledge for the benefit of the patient and the advancement of healthcare;
I WILL ATTEND TO my own health, well-being, and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard;
I WILL NOT USE my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat;
I MAKE THESE PROMISES solemnly, freely, and upon my honour.