15 August 2013
UniSA’s five year strategic action plan released
Just seven months after his appointment as University of South Australia Vice Chancellor, Professor David Lloyd has released an action plan for the next five years that will position UniSA’s Magill campus at the centre of a revolution in teacher education.
Launching the strategic action plan, Crossing the Horizon, Prof Lloyd says teacher education is one of the most important qualifications the University can offer.
“Just one great teacher can make an immeasurable difference to thousands of children; an enduring difference to their careers and their health and well-being. At UniSA we believe that providing the best possible teacher education to nurture and support the development of the best possible teachers is vital,” he says.
“Crossing the Horizon outlines a plan to partner with state and local government and local public and specialist school and educators to deliver birth to year 12 education on the campus.
“In locating schools on campus, our education students and researchers will have access to the living laboratory that is the school classroom. We can more closely couple the discipline of education to those of psychology, neuroscience and social work – we can transform the way in which we educate educators.”
The plan for Magill campus will see a consolidation of UniSA’s education offerings into a coherent education precinct – providing a differentiator for South Australia and driving creativity in the education curriculum nationally.
Initial discussions with State Government and local schools have been productive and positive and a dedicated taskforce for the precinct planning will be established shortly.
Prof Lloyd says Crossing the Horizon is a blueprint for the future of the University, positioning UniSA as Australia’s university of enterprise.
The plan includes seven separate action sets and a range of priorities for immediate and progressive delivery from 2013-2018.
They focus on the student experience of university; research and curriculum; improved efficiencies and investment in staff; infrastructure; engagement with society both locally and internationally; and administrative and cultural changes that will support the plan.
“Our planning process started with one of the widest open consultations ever held by a university in Australia when we ran the online forum unijam – the world’s first crowd sourced strategic planning process in a university context. We had 18000 inputs from nearly 8000 participants and those ideas have informed and shaped our plan,” Prof Lloyd says.
“We have a shared blueprint for what we can achieve together in the next five years.
“My goal through this plan is to build our reputation as an institution that is innovative, engaged and enterprising.
“This exciting vision for teacher education at Magill is just one part of that strategy.”
You can read the full strategic action plan, Crossing the Horizon, online.
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli office: 08 8302 0966 mobile: 0418 823 673 email: Michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
