As Southern Cross University blows out 30 candles, Vice-Chancellor Professor Carlin reflects on the stellar achievements of this milestone year. From significant ranking results to research with impact, Professor Carlin sat down with esteemed broadcaster Angela Catterns to commemorate the University's history and look to the future.
This year saw Southern Cross named in the world's top 100 young universities by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, a 70-place leap from the previous year. Professor Carlin said the upwards ranking trajectory reflects the institution's purpose of changing lives through revolutionary learning and research with real impact.
"If we reflect on the things that sit underneath these rankings, they're actually things that we care about. We care about the impact and quality of the research that we do. We deeply care about the futures that our students build once they've travelled through their programs of study and their success while they're with us," Professor Carlin said.
Research impact is a core focus and saw the launch of the University's Research Impact Clusters, key areas of research with local and global significance. The Clusters include leading projects in reef restoration, circular economies, sustainable food production, water quality and more.
"There is a diversity of research happening here, whether its dating cave art that goes back tens of thousands of years, world leading work in oceanography and marine ecology, research on the Richmond River catchment or work relevant to the 2022 flood. So many of the next generation of researchers are also trained here," Professor Carlin said.
The University's research quality was highlighted through a new ranking achievement in the QS World University Rankings 2024, with Southern Cross listed in the global top 300 universities for research (citations per faculty).
"That is a remarkable thing to reflect on," Professor Carlin said. "Particularly when you understand how costly and complex research is, how long it takes to build your foundation's capacity and capability.
"Here we are, aged 30, in that quite elite company of the top 300 institutions in terms of their research effort."
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Video transcript
Angela Catterns: It's Southern Cross University's 30th anniversary in 2024 and they've seen some really pleasing rankings and student outcomes so far this year including one of their best ever International rankings. What's behind this success and where to from here? Let's hear from Vice-Chancellor Professor Tyrone Carlin. Hello, Tyrone.
Tyrone Carlin: Hello Angela, how are you?
Angela Catterns: Very, very well. So, you were recognised by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings as one of the world's top 100 young universities. What qualifies as a young university?
Tyrone Carlin: It's a great question and there's a simple answer to it which is that young universities are those which were established 50 or fewer years ago. And we are such a university.
Angela Catterns: That's exciting, isn't it?
Tyrone Carlin: It really is. Not because we get up in the morning and think what's our ranking outcome going to be? How do we reverse engineer the algorithm? What's the mark? But because I think over time if we reflect on the things that sit underneath these rankings, they're actually things we care about, you know, we care about the impact and the quality of the research that we do. We deeply care uh about the futures that our students build once they've uh travelled through their programs of study uh and their success while they're with us uh is just deeply at the heart of what we do. So, you know, when we think about those things and we and we add to that that piece around the reputation of the institution that I think is something that every member of the university community has an investment in, uh, these things do matter.
Angela Catterns: Southern Cross is a regional university. Can you talk to us about the unique role that regional universities play?
Tyrone Carlin: I think this is often overlooked and I think there is often a mystery associated with that. I guess one way of answering that question is to reflect on what our part of Australia would be like if a university such as this was not here. You know, imagine what would not be here. Imagine the jobs that would not be here in this community, you know, this year we'll invest about 180 million dollars in salaries um directly into our region. Imagine the students who don't have the opportunity, either by dint of personal or financial circumstances to leave the region or frankly who don't want to leave the region in order to pursue further study. What would their opportunities be?
Angela Catterns: Do you think students today are different to previous generations of students?
Tyrone Carlin: I think there's difference and there's same.
Angela Catterns: Really?
Tyrone Carlin: I do. I think what is indelibly true is that this generation of students, if I can generalise, because as we know we, you know, we're dealing with people here, we're dealing with individuals, so, um every one of them will have a different story but if we had to abstract and we had to generalise, um, I would say on average most of them have a lot more going on over and above what is happening at University than they would have a generation ago. We see that just in anecdotal conversations with students about the number of jobs that they're working, for example, to sustain themselves as they go through their studies. You know, we used to, in our own minds, make quite bright line distinctions between what an on-campus student meant and what an online or off-campus student meant but today, post-COVID, you will see students congregating on campus, participating in learning but not necessarily in one of the classrooms on campus and they may never go into one of those classrooms or if they do they may do that sparingly. So, I think those behaviours in terms of the pattern of attendance and what students are doing when they come to campus, where they come to campus, that has also changed. But I think the sameness presents in the same fundamental aspirations and motivations that attracted my generation of people to want to come to university, those in my parent's generation who had the privilege and the opportunity to go to university at that time. I think there is something through time that has a consistency of appeal and motivation and we hear often students saying the same thing that I would have expected to hear 30, 40, 50 years ago. We're looking for that opportunity for the things that we could never dream of doing unless we went on this journey. We're looking for the challenge, we're looking to see what we're capable of. We're looking to scare ourselves a little. We're looking to open new doors to things that perhaps we didn't know were there. We're looking for new friendships, new relationships, new opportunities. Those things, I think, are quite consistent through time but the context in which that is happening uh is more cluttered and has more nuance to it today.
Angela Catterns: And so what do you think is most important to students today?
Tyrone Carlin: Well, I think that will vary as they go through their life cycle as a student. I think in the beginning phase what is super important is imbuing students with a sense of confidence that this is something that they can do um and we want to work with them to make sure that they can then get on the next part of their journey. And then beyond that time, what we're looking to do is to try and ensure that the experience that they accumulate through their studies has, to the best of our ability, an evergreen quantity to it because I think there is a very, very substantial difference between being trained and being educated. Training is really important and there is a component of what we do because we have many professional degrees where there are skills and there is technical knowledge that has to be imparted um and that will change in its currency over time and that's something that they will have to continue to keep up with over time. But to be educated is to have your eyes opened to a different frame of reference, a different way of understanding the world around you, a different way of interacting with those around you and frankly a different way of understanding your responsibilities in the context of the society that you were a part of.
Angela Catterns: Tyrone, how do you measure the success of Southern Cross University?
Tyrone Carlin: By reference to our purpose. You know, it's funny - when you look at organisations, you'll often see, you know, mission statements and vision statements and we frame things a little bit differently. For us, we talk a lot about purpose and without wishing to recite verbatim the statement of purpose, it's pretty simple. It only has two components to it. We talk about chang lives, which is the unifying construct, through revolutionary learning and research with impact. So, they're the two things, right? The revolutionary learning and the research with impact. So, when you ask me a question, well how do you measure success? It's really simple to answer that question because we always go back to those two basic constructs. Are we doing research that has impact? In other words, it's changing something or someone for the better. And in terms of that revolutionary learning, are we configuring our learning opportunities in such a way that they are creating that catalytic effect that we're seeking to have on people's lives?
Angela Catterns: Why do you call it revolutionary learning?
Tyrone Carlin: Because we do things at Southern Cross University a bit differently to any other university in the country. We have, over the past several years, implemented what we call the Southern Cross Model. And the Southern Cross Model moves beyond that very traditional rhythm and pattern of learning that a lot of people would be familiar with um on university campuses here and overseas. We've gone beyond the semester model and we've configured all of our learning around six-week terms. So, we have six six-week terms every year. But what we've also done is reconfigured our entire approach to learning, teaching and assessment as part of that journey. And it was a break from the past that had a very, very defined ambition and that ambition was all about our students and that remains so.
Revolutionary learning has been a key driver, propelled by the rollout of a new innovative teaching model - the Southern Cross Model - which saw a move away from traditional semesters to six-week terms and a focus on learning with real-world applications.
"We regard this as quite a revolution in learning approach," Professor Carlin said. "We have reconfigured our entire approach to learning, teaching and assessment."
Under the Southern Cross Model, student success rates, overall grades and teacher satisfaction have all increased.
As Southern Cross now turns to the future, new ambitions lay on the horizon: a transformation of the Lismore campus into the future Southern Cross Learning Precinct, new courses in Veterinary and Physiotherapy and a continued commitment to serving the regions the University calls home.
"Imagine what our part of Australia would be like if a university such as this was not here. Imagine what would not be here. Imagine the jobs. Imagine the students who don't have the opportunity to leave the region to study. Imagine the research that is important to local communities," Professor Carlin said.
"It's that very direct focus on doing things that matter that really give us a special set of responsibilities and a very special place in these regions."
