Macquarie: on the way to world-class
Written by Steven Schwartz on May 14th, 2008
In recent years Macquarie has carved out a reputation for itself as a strong local university. Now we are well on the way to becoming a leading world-class university by the time of our 50th birthday in 2014.
Many of you will have seen the wrap-around advertisement in today’s The Australian Higher Education section.
It’s a major part of our effort to recruit an additional 43 top researchers to join our Concentrations of Research Excellence (CORES). We will also be advertising the positions in the US and UK media, and online.
This new recruitment drive follows the appointment of 40 outstanding researchers during the first stage of the campaign, begun in 2006, to nine COREs.
You can find out more information about the new positions here.
And to apply go here.
As I’ve said before, education and research are inextricably linked in world-class universities. We believe that academics who are doing scholarly work at the cutting edge of their disciplines make the best teachers. Instead of teaching from books written by others, research-active academics are the ones who actually write the books.
In a research university, both teachers and students are actively involved in the pursuit of knowledge. Macquarie’s aim is not just to teach facts and skills but to open students’ minds to life-long inquiry.
Once the 43 new positions are filled – hopefully by the middle of next year – we will consider another generation of CORE appointments.
To find out more about the university visit our website and also take a look here where I discuss on video our various aims and objectives.
Dear Prof. Steven Schwartz,
It is good to hear MQ’s progression. Here is some of my experience as a PhD student here.
1. We do not have many opportunities to communicate with other universities on student level, either local or international.
2. We are not in any good universities network that could really benifit student generally (e.g. World Universities Network).
As I am studying China, I want to go to a university there as a visiting or co-tutelle student. Even though I know that Macquarie University has agreements with Fudan, Renmin and so on, I could hardly find them usuful to us. HDRO says student should set up the contact themselves but I sent out a bunch emails without getting replies. Obviously this is not something that could be done by students themselves, but I could not find any way to do that so just give up. The exsiting agreement seems like single-sided policy. When we want to go out, it is hard. When promoting MQ’s research, please do not forget HDR students.
Moderator’s Note: Ernest Jordan, Director, Higher Degrees Research Marketing & Development, Macquarie International, responds -
I am very happy to help you find a suitable university but some background is important.
We certainly welcome outbound cotutelles but going to China is very difficult due to differences in their programs. In all our cotutelles the students fully meet the requirements of both universities - for admission, continuation and completion. Going as a visitor is usually much easier.
In China the PhD degree is awarded by the central government, not the university, so it sets the rules. All students must pass the entrance requirements (usually a research masters, a high level of written Chinese language ability and highly competitive selection) and then must undertake coursework as part of the PhD. Usually a student does one or two years of coursework before starting on their research. Students coming from China to MQ will have completed their coursework before enrolling here.
Just because MQ is very flexible and is able to accommodate incoming students from many universities with very different research backgrounds, this does not mean that the other universities have such flexibility. You should be very sure that you do meet the specific requirements of Chinese universities before you propose a cotutelle.
In practical terms, cotutelles flourish when there is a strong relationship between the two supervisors (at MQ and the other university). I would also urge you to discuss this with your MQ supervisor who should have contacts in China. In many universities in China only full professors can be PhD supervisors, so asking others could be embarrassing. A formal query from your head of department to a similar person in a Chinese university is likely to be culturally appropriate if there are no existing contacts.
Another suggestion is that the Chinese University of Hong Kong might be much more accessible but they too have coursework requirements in many doctoral programs that might delay your completion. In practical terms, studying China from HK is much more likely to be successful. Again a research masters would be their minimum requirement for entrance.
As an aside, going to the USA can be as challenging as going to China due to the big differences in entrance requirements, program structures, course durations and fees.