Neil Kendall of one of Brisbane’s top financial planning firms Tupicoffs has named Griffith University as his go-to when it comes to hiring graduates. He says he estimates 40 per cent of his staff studied at Griffith Business School.
“Griffith is in my opinion the best university in Australia for getting financial planning graduates,” he says. “For us, it’s where we start in terms of looking for someone in the organisation, someone with a Griffith degree comes in with a bit of a head start.”
With the nature of the financial industry constantly changing, Neil says students from GBS are at the top of his list because of the University’s propensity to ensure their course content is relevant, up-to-date, and focused on employable skills.
“Griffith, for us, produces the best graduates in the discipline,” he says. “What we’ve seen with Griffith is a very high engagement with business, so they’re actually interested in making
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Griffith’s opera production hits a high note
This is opera as you’ve never seen it before – a blockbuster double bill featuring fantastical sets and costumes, UV projections, puppets and kites.
The Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University is confounding expectations with a fresh take on two operas by superstar French composers Debussy and Ravel.
Queensland Conservatorium Director Professor Scott Harrison said the production would enthrall audiences.
“We have assembled an amazing team,” he said.
“It looks and sounds fantastic – this production really demonstrates the calibre of teaching and learning happening at the Queensland Conservatorium.”
Working with industry professionals
The production will be helmed by Australian-born, UK-based director Stephen Barlow.
Stephen Barlow
Stephen has directed opera and theatre for companies including the Royal Opera House; Metropolitan Opera; Glyndebourne and the San Francisco Opera.
Mr Barlow said he had enjoyed working with opera students at the Conservatorium.
“You’re getting a chance to work with the professionals of tomorrow,” he said.
“I love their energy and excitement – it reminds you of why you got into this business.”
“We’re throwing everything at this
Tweets could help scientists monitor major ecosystems
New research from Griffith University suggests a love of sharing selfies and holiday snaps could be a boon for the environment.
Experts from the Griffith Institute for Tourism (GIFT), the Big Data and Smart Analytics Lab and the Australian Rivers Institute have investigated whether social media platforms could be used by scientists monitoring the health of major ecosystems.
Professor Susanne Becken
In a research paper published in the Journal of Environmental Management, the researchers used a sample of almost 300,000 tweets from the Great Barrier Reef region to test whether tapping into social media could enhance existing approaches to citizen science.
The tweets were collected between July 2016 and March 2017 and, using keywords, drilled down to more than 30 thousand useful posts.
Researchers were then able to determine where the tweet was posted, whether it contained useful details about the Great Barrier Reef and whether it had a positive or negative sentiment.
Professor Susanne Becken, Director of GIFT, said tweets can
Eureka! Griffith University team prize for Great Barrier Reef research
A Griffith University research team have taken out a prestigious 2017 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for their work trying to save the Great Barrier Reef.
The team, led by Associate Professor Andrew Brooks of the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management, have discovered what may be Australia’s best chance of doing something timely to help the reef, transforming how sediment sources are identified and targeted.
As winners of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Eureka Prize for Environmental Research, the team were recognised at the Award Dinner at Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday night.
Griffith University’s 2017 Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners
Sediment run-off is one of the most significant threats to the natural wonder next to climate change.
About 900,000 dump trucks of dirt flows out to the Reef on average each year.
In the first study of its kind, scientists traced the path of fine sediment from its origin in the Normanby catchment in Cape York – the fourth largest
Drug breakthrough for mozzie virus outbreaks
Scientists have discovered a way that could help treat severe inflammation from an infectious mosquito-borne disease during outbreaks.
A team of researchers led by Professor Suresh Mahalingam at Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics on the Gold Coast are developing ways to treat debilitating diseases caused by alphaviruses such as Chikungunya and Ross River virus. Their study is published this week in the journal Nature Microbiology.
Some mosquito-borne viruses cause severe joint and muscle inflammation, and there are no vaccines or specific drugs to treat the disease caused by these viruses.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a re-emerging alphavirus responsible for several outbreaks worldwide in the past decade, causes debilitating joint inflammation and severe pain.
During acute infection with Chikungunya virus, scientists found that a molecular complex, known as the inflammasome, became activated in patients suffering acute signs of the disease.
“When we infected mice with Chikungunya, we found that a type of inflammasome known as NLRP3 was
New partnership supports Indigenous voices
A new $200,000 partnership between Griffith University and the Queensland Government will open up academic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Announcing the scholarship in parliament, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Mark Furner said two jointly-funded PhD scholarships, worth $100,000 each, would be offered to encourage Indigenous Queenslanders to have more input in national policy, research and academic conversations.
Boni Robertson, Professor Indigenous Policy and Director of Indigenous Community Engagement Policy and Partnerships, said Griffith University was delighted to develop the scholarships with the Queensland Government.
“Both of these research projects will inform how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Queensland understand the impacts of the Protection Acts across a 90-year period,” Professor Robertson (left) said.
“Such a robust and thorough study of our past will help to bring new important perspectives to historical accounts and commentaries, and enrich the future of all Queenslanders in the process.”
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Engagement with industry through the co-production of knowledge
The perceived gap between rigour and relevance in research and debate over whether the divide is insurmountable dates back many decades, to at least the 1950s in business schools.
The much lamented ‘relevance gap’ is as much a product of practitioners wedded to gurus and fads as it is of academics wedded to abstractions and fundamentals.
Yet rigour and relevance need not be in opposition – as though one community exists in a ‘real world’ and the other does not. Much can be gained when academic and practice oriented ‘ways of knowing and being’ are mutually respected and seen as complements.
That is, a world where valuable knowledge is co-produced through mutual learning and mutual engagement.
A case in point is Professor Sara McGaughey’s recent book with Dr Joe Amberg – Fostering Local Entrepreneurship in a Multinational Enterprise.
The research was undertaken while Joe was an integration manager for M&As within Siemens, and explores three
North Korea fires missile over Japan
By Andrew O’Neil, Professor of Political Science at Griffith University
North Korea’s launch of what appears to be an intermediate range ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido once again highlights Pyongyang’s manic fixation on destabilising security in Asia.
Professor Andrew O’Neil
For ordinary Japanese waking to the sounds of the nationwide J-alert system, the test brutally underscores how vulnerable Japan remains to a North Korean nuclear strike, which is precisely the intended message from Pyongyang.
From North Korea’s perspective, the launch is intended to emphasise that it retains the initiative in terms of escalation control and that it will not bow to external pressure, whether this comes from Beijing or from Washington.
Away from the rhetorical white noise, however, the latest North Korean missile test is serious cause for concern.
It confirms that Kim Jong-un has no intention of exercising restraint; to the contrary, we can anticipate an acceleration in North Korean missile
Griffith’s great rating in good uni guide
Griffith University continues to scale the heights in student support and educational experience.
The Good Universities Guide 2017/2018 Institution Ratings report released today (Monday) shows Griffith accorded the maximum five star results in the measures of Overall Experience, Skills Development, Student Support, Learning Resources and Staff Qualification.
The ratings report also highlighted how much Griffith offers a consistently excellent student experience, achieving at least five stars for 18 different fields of study.
From creative arts to nursing, from business to engineering, Griffith rated extremely highly and also led the country for Learner Engagement, Overall Experience and Teaching Quality in the academic field of architecture and building.
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) Professor Debra Henly said the results are testament to the first class systems in place which offer the best student experience and outcomes.
“It was a particularly pleasing to see five stars for overall student satisfaction and for teaching quality which on a national scale,
Sarah Schoeller talks entrepreneurship ahead of Cosmopolitan awards
When Griffith graduates Sarah Schoeller and Marissa Bowden were made redundant back in 2008, they had no idea their business journey would lead them to be nominated for Cosmopolitan magazine’s Women of the Year awards.
But now that they’re here, the co-founders of The Village Markets are thrilled to be in such esteemed company. “We’re so honoured!” former Bachelor of Business student Sarah says. “We’re finalists alongside some amazing women and it’s such an honour to even be nominated.”
In a boost for Griffith University, fellow nominees also include Griffith Business School graduates Thessy and Yiota Kouzsoukas of Sabo Skirt, and Arts Education and Law School’s Alana Nastin-Byrne of Femeconomy. They’re nominated for Fashion Designers of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year respectively.
Sarah and Marissa’s big business brainwave came to them during the GFC. After a strong start to her career with positions within the BreakFree, Mantra, Peppers